The SaaS Trends Report

Are you trying to just control spend, or are you trying to empower your teams to spend responsibly? The Rule of X says it’s twice as important to enable growth as it is to control spend alone. The best CFOs will use financial tools and systems like Brex to control spend and keep it within guardrails, while giving CMOs (and other leaders) better visibility into their budgets.

Proactively tracking agreements and engaging procurement early are two of the best ways to control spend. If you wait until the contract end date is around the corner to start negotiations, the seller knows they have an advantage, because you don’t have time to explore other options. Engaging early allows you to review usage and right-size the agreement, examine your tech stack for consolidation, secure competitive pricing, and ultimately negotiate the best terms.

Simplify! Before you create another procurement rule to get a handle on spend, walk through the whole process as an employee. How many steps do they have to take to buy something compliantly at this point? How much time could each step take, and how might this slow the business down while teams wait for their needed purchase to be approved?

At Vendr, we treat every renewal like a new purchase. Our intake for every workflow asks a key list of questions including: ‘Why can't this need be solved more cheaply or with something we already have?’ and ‘What priority is this for your function over the next 12 months?’ You would be surprised how many times all parties agree there is no longer a business case.