Birdseye: Unlocking Supplier Value With Contract Management

For many teams, the signing of the contract marks the completion of a procurement cycle – but for Dominique Kindt, CEO and Founder, and Koen Vercauteren, Head of Product Management of WITH and its digital platform Birdseye, it is precisely where the real challenge of supply chain value realisation begins.

WITH was founded in Belgium in 2014 by a team with over 50 years of combined experience in strategic sourcing, vendor management and contract management consulting. By 2018, however, a pattern had emerged that would transform their understanding of supply chain operations.

"The key word is frustration," says Dominique.

"As consultants, we were typically involved in larger deal-making types of consulting. We were invited then four or five years later to renegotiate."

The scenario repeated itself: clients who had invested heavily in procurement were returning dissatisfied with supplier performance. But when the WITH team examined the underlying agreements, they discovered the real problem was not supplier capability – it was poor vendor management.

"You look into the contract and you say, well have you done this? No we have not," Dominique explains.

"So you see that contracts were not consumed, not executed, the value was not consumed."

This realisation exposed a critical gap in supply chain operations. Procurement teams were securing favourable terms and competitive pricing, yet the supply chain was not capturing the negotiated value.

This insight led them to develop Birdseye, a platform for post-signature contract management. The solution began as Sourcing Cockpit in 2018, evolving through an AI-enabled Contract Scanner in 2022 and formal European expansion in 2024.

The supply chain execution gap

The problem, according to Koen, is a fundamental misunderstanding about vendor relationship management after onboarding.

"Time and time again we see that somehow people expect that after the signature is done that everything goes automatically as planned," he says.

"And this ignores a basic truth: things change."

Supply chains face constant disruption – from market volatility and regulatory shifts to supplier capacity constraints and logistics challenges. The assumption that a signed agreement will automatically deliver procurement value for years without active vendor management is no longer realistic.

Effective post-signature management encompasses supplier risk monitoring, cost tracking against negotiated rates and rigorous tracking of supplier obligations. When supply chain organisations attempt to implement these processes at scale, they discover that experienced procurement professionals alone are not sufficient.

"Without the supporting technology it becomes very hard to scale," Koen explains. "That is where Birdseye comes into play to help you automate these processes."

Managing diverse supplier portfolios

Birdseye's approach starts with supplier segmentation based on contract classification. "Not every contract or deal requires the same attention," Dominique explains.

"That one size fits all is killing contract management because not all contracts are the same."

This mirrors established supply chain thinking around supplier categorisation – strategic vendors require different management intensity than transactional suppliers.

The platform automates vendor management workflows, reminding procurement and supply chain managers what actions they need to take and when. This could mean tracking compliance with agreed delivery schedules, monitoring quality metrics, verifying invoice accuracy or ensuring suppliers meet sustainability commitments.

For supply chain leaders managing dozens or hundreds of vendor relationships simultaneously, this automation transforms vendor management from reactive firefighting into proactive value capture.

Scaling vendor management capabilities

Birdseye's growth strategy centres on partnerships with firms like BDO and local consulting experts.

"We do not believe that the contract management platform Birdseye by itself is a silver bullet to solve all problems," Koen says.

The company wants to expand across mainland Europe through sustainable, partnership-driven growth.

"We want to be the European alternative because there is quite a bit of American power behind our competitors," Dominique says.

They are also strengthening end-to-end integration capabilities, connecting with procurement systems and supplier relationship management tools. This creates seamless data flow from initial sourcing through ongoing supplier performance management.

But perhaps the most pressing driver for supply chain organisations is the changing regulatory landscape around supplier due diligence and supply chain transparency requirements.

"More and more organisations need to comply, have audits and need to be able to show to regulators how they are doing business, that they are in control," says Koen.

As Dominique puts it: "You get a contract signed, it lives for five years, nobody looks at it, you can hardly say you are in control."

For supply chain leaders, demonstrating control means proving vendor compliance, tracking supplier performance and capturing negotiated value throughout multi-year supplier relationships. That is the operational gap Birdseye is built to address.