Ardent Partners is a leading research and advisory firm that specializes in supply management. Ardent’s in-depth coverage includes market research, best practices, thought leadership and technology strategies and specific solution providers. Each year, the firm publishes multiple reports that guide procurement, finance, and more recently, HR departments through the solution selection or RFP process.
Ardent’s new “Solution Showcase on CPO Rising” series features solution providers, old and new, and seeks to unravel the latest market innovations through different provider briefings. Readers will be able to quickly understand the ‘showcased’ provider and how that can support and impact procurement and supply management operations.
Solution Showcase on CPO Rising: Craft
The Ardent Partners team recently connected with Taylor Dolbin, director of product marketing for Craft, a supplier intelligence company helping organizations accelerate data-informed business decision-making, to discuss supply chain intelligence and risk mitigation.
Craft Closes a Data Gap
Founded nearly 10 years ago, Craft set out to close a gap where enterprises could obtain and utilize centralized company intelligence around financial and operational data. For several years, Craft meticulously scraped the web to make those information discoveries. A turning point occurred during the pandemic when the company pivoted to focus on both procurement and supply chain. Many procurement teams were (and continue to be) operating in the dark in their understanding of risk and supplier qualities such as compliance, cybersecurity metrics, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measurements, etc. In response to its shift, Craft experienced an influx of interest in procurement and supply chain use cases; this led to contracts with companies in multiple industries.
Today, the company brands itself as a supplier intelligence platform targeting chief procurement officers, procurement teams, and supply chain operations with an overlay of risk and compliance. Craft says its clients can expect an aggregation of 450-500 data points per supplier organization — all centralized on its platform. CPOs can then leverage this information to accelerate sourcing activities, supplier vetting, and risk detection and mitigation. Timely, accurate, and validated information is derived from Craft as well as 70 data partners whose information populates the platform.
Functionality Brings Supply Chain Transparency
In addition to direct sales efforts, Craft utilizes a network of channel partners to distribute its platform to customers. The company has two flavors in the marketplace (freemium model). Its Craft.co website provides public access (free) to a corporate database with information ranging from company overview, cybersecurity rating, and ESG rating. An advanced enterprise offering dives deeper with more robust features and insight-driven tools. While customers engage with the platform for supplier discovery, many users are looking for risk prevention and mitigation opportunities in their supply chain. Craft’s goal is to enable CPOs to transition from a reactive to a proactive strategic procurement organization.
With a full alert system built into the platform, customers can track alert feeds for hundreds to tens of thousands of suppliers. Filters allow specific tracking based on supplier, location, commodity, or metric. More customized alerts generated by Craft can alert customers of decreased cybersecurity scores or increased headcount reductions that may have financial or operational implications.
The next level for Craft beyond the centralized data and alert system is to provide supply chain mapping functionality, that provides an ability to extract insights from the intelligence and enable actionable decision-making. Clients provide details on first-tier suppliers for Craft to generate insights as well as mapping dependencies on second and third-tier suppliers. By combining intelligence data, alert feeds, and supply chain mapping, Craft delivers a level of supplier transparency that can help transform risk management and business continuity planning strategies.
Analyst Insight
The importance of supplier performance will only continue to increase throughout this decade. In an increasingly crowded space, Craft has the potential to deliver high quality supplier intelligence to procurement, supply chain, and risk teams, accessible via a nice web-based tool. The company has built a solid network of data partners and is making strides in the supplier intelligence and supply risk management market. Experienced in data management, but newer to supply management, they are, nonetheless, a provider to watch in the coming years.
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