Technology at Portcroft

Built in house, used every day

Technology is part of how we work at Portcroft. Rather than wait for a tool that fitted, we built our own. It reads the market every morning, checks what we publish before it goes out, measures what works, and takes the routine off our desks.

This morning

Day to day

Sourcestrade press, regulators and the ONS, swept through the day

Checkedterms read and recorded before a source is ever used

1person reads every insight before it goes out

Minutesof the day to run it

Shown in simplified form for illustration. The production system includes further engines, controls and safeguards which remain proprietary to Portcroft.

A set of engines, each answering to the next

They work together rather than in isolation. One collects, one screens and scores, one goes looking for the same story elsewhere and records what it finds, one drafts, and one holds everything at an editorial gate. Others publish, measure what came back, and watch the rest for faults. Each hands on to the next, and each can refuse.

It also learns from what happens. Where its own judgement and the outcome have drifted apart, it raises the change itself rather than waiting to be asked, and puts the evidence beside it. It proposes rather than adjusts. We approve or refuse each one, and it keeps a running account of its own suggestions, including those that were later reversed.

Nothing publishes itself. Every insight waits in review until it has been read and released by hand. There is no path to the site that does not go through a person.
Language is never a reason to set a story aside. French and German trade titles are read in the original rather than skipped, and are never scored lower for it. The publication that carried the story is credited by name.
Every figure is counted again against the original. Dates are checked against the events they belong to, and a hedge in the original survives into the headline rather than being tidied away.

Where the idea came from

When we started Portcroft, we wanted to get three things right. Whatever we tell a client has to be accurate. It has to be timely, because a supplier in trouble or a duty change is worth knowing about this week, not next month. And we wanted our time to go to clients, sitting across a table, rather than to reading, writing and reporting.

You cannot do all of that by hand in a small firm. So in August 2026 we built something to carry the routine part, and kept a person at every point where judgement is needed.

It took three weeks to build and a few minutes a day to run. The time it gives back, we spend with clients.

What we see each day

One screen, and it tells us what we need to know. The story worth writing and the evidence for it, every draft and where it has got to, the day's numbers and where they came from, and a plain record of what ran and whether it worked.

Candidate score 7.8

Packaging supplier consolidation moves UK food manufacturers towards two-source policies

Trade press · published this morning · relevant to food and personal care

7.8Why it scores: a cost and supply-risk story with a decision in it, inside the categories Portcroft's clients buy.

Trade press, original report
Industry body statement, same figure
Single blog post, not counted

A screened story: its score, the reasoning behind it, and the sources that confirm it, before a word is written.

Pipeline 14 insights

PublishedLinkedIn · Instagram

ScheduledTue 09:00

Passed gateready

Returnedgeneric phrasing

Draft2 sources

Heldcontradicted elsewhere

Every insight, its status, and the reason if it has been held or sent back. Nothing moves to Published without a person.

Today Tuesday

94visits

3conversations

1enquiry · LinkedIn

Needs you: one enquiry to answer, one draft waiting at the gate, one source silent for three days.

The day on one screen: what happened, what it came from, and the short list of things only a person can decide.

Engines every process reported

Collect · source list swept, 40 new stories06:00

Screen and score · 40 read, 9 kept06:05

Corroborate · 6 confirmed, 3 single source06:06

Editorial gate · 1 passed, 1 returned07:41

Site check · checked from outside, every page answering08:00

Measure · 4 channels, all answered18:00

Every process records what it did and whether it worked, and says what it cannot prove rather than implying all is well.

How the day runs

The system runs on its own in the background. What we see of it is two short emails and one screen, and the rest of the day looks much like any other consultancy's, except that the reading and the reporting have already been done.

MorningAn email arrives with the morning's top stories, and the one worth writing about set out in full with its score and its sources. A few minutes over coffee to say yes or no.
During the dayWe are with clients. Drafts get checked in the background, and anything that needs a decision waits for us rather than interrupting.
EveningA short note of what went out, what it brought in, and anything that needs a look tomorrow.

Portcroft Assistant

Anyone can use it, and it is free. Portcroft Assistant answers questions about procurement, about what we do and about how we work. It will also take anything in Insights and go further into it, so if a story matters to your category you can ask what it means for you and what to do about it, rather than reading it and moving on.

It answers from our own material, so what you get is grounded in work we have published and stand behind. Where it does not have the answer it says so, and anything that needs a person comes straight to us. Ask what a supplier review involves, or whether we are the right fit for a piece of work, and you get a straight answer without sending an enquiry first.

The same rule applies to everything else here. The technology does the reading, the sorting and the first draft. The judgement is ours, and so is the decision to say anything at all.

Portcroft Assistant on this site

What does a supplier review actually involve?

It starts with your spend data and your contracts, and usually runs in three parts.

Drawn from Portcroft’s own material

How do you charge?Is this right for us?

Ask a procurement question…Ask

Free to use, no enquiry needed. Anything it cannot answer comes to a person.

What this means if you work with us

Most of the work comes in three shapes. Benchmarking what you pay now, costing a new development, and auditing what is already agreed. Whichever one you are in, the reading and the checking behind it are done before we sit down.

We turn up informed

Before we meet, we will usually have read what your suppliers, your category and your regulators have said that week. We can start the conversation from there.

We show what a claim rests on

Every story goes looking for independent coverage before it runs, and we name the publication it was written from. Where the coverage contradicts it, the insight is held. We apply the same rule to the numbers in your savings case, so it is one a finance director can sign off without hedging.

You get our time

The reading, publishing and reporting that come with running a consultancy are handled for us. That leaves the day for the people we work with.

It shows what is possible

Most procurement teams spend a large part of the week gathering, checking and reporting. A good deal of that can be built away, and we are happy to talk about how.

Your information is handled with care

Procurement work involves commercially sensitive information, so we treat what clients share with us carefully, and we keep it well away from anything described on this page. The system reads public sources only.

What you share with us is seen only by the person doing the work, is never used in anything we publish without your written permission, and is held only for as long as the engagement needs it. We are happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement before anything commercial is exchanged, and will work under yours if you prefer.

Where we use AI in client work, it is on business terms rather than consumer accounts, your material is not used to train models, and nothing goes into free or consumer tools. We resell no software and take no supplier commissions, so nobody else has an interest in your data.

For the full picture, including where data is processed and our ICO registration, see our Security page.

How much of your week goes on gathering and checking?

Get in touch