NAEP and Procurated Partner to Transform Supplier Performance in Higher Education Across America

Oklahoma City, OK, February 15, 2025 — The National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP), the leading professional organization for educational procurement, today announced a new partnership with Procurated to bring the Canary contract performance intelligence platform to NAEP member institutions. Canary offers a suite of powerful features designed to help procurement teams:

· Collect and analyze supplier performance feedback from end-users.
· Receive real-time alerts when suppliers pose risks to contract performance, allowing for early intervention and resolution.
· Compare supplier performance to identify areas for improvement and encourage healthy competition
· Make informed renewal decisions based on data-driven performance insights

Canary’s AI-powered analysis allows institutions to leverage qualitative feedback data to proactively identify trends and issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.

NAEP members will streamline their procurement processes, reduce risk, and drive better value from their supplier relationships with Canary. The platform will assist higher education procurement professionals to move away from reactive contract management, toward proactive supplier performance management. And in the process, they’ll establish even closer ties with purchasers from one end of campus to the other, helping them solve supplier challenges they face or recognizing outstanding performance by key suppliers.

NAEP CEO Brad Pryba said, “At NAEP, we strive to empower our members to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value on their campuses. Our partnership with Procurated provides our members with preferred pricing for Canary, a groundbreaking platform that transforms contract management with unparalleled insights, supplier performance optimization, and real-time feedback from end users. With new benefits like this, NAEP members are better equipped to drive meaningful change and elevate the impact of their work.”

“In my twenty years in public procurement, I’ve always viewed NAEP as the gold standard in higher education procurement. NAEP provides unparalleled value to its members as they seek to bring innovation to their campuses. In that vein, we are thrilled to partner with NAEP so that every university across the country can benefit from Canary,” said David Yarkin, Procurated’s Founder and CEO. “No college should have a supplier’s poor performance stand in the way of helping today’s students become tomorrow’s leaders. And thanks to NAEP, higher education institutions can all receive the consistently high supplier performance they deserve.”

Jeremy Meadows, Executive Director of Strategic Sourcing for the University of California Office of the President added, “Like many large university systems, UCOP has a strong desire to ensure that all of our systemwide contracts are working well for our vast network of campuses that stretch 500 miles. This task was extremely challenging and virtually impossible for us to accomplish on our own. This led us to explore joining Canary’s platform, and we are excited to see how it can help us identify which suppliers are performing at the high standards our campuses deserve and which ones may require additional support and engagement from our team to meet expectations. Having spent more than a decade in higher education procurement, I know how hard it is to get this regular feedback, and I’m excited that through NAEP’s partnership with Procurated, so many of my peers will have access to this vital tool.”

Under the terms of the agreement, NAEP will help to drive awareness of the importance of vendor performance management and the Canary platform through regular communications with its members in webinars, emails and at live events. In return, Procurated will offer all NAEP members a special discounted rate.