Managing SaaS and cloud expenses has become a major challenge for businesses. As companies scale, their software stacks expand, often without a clear strategy for tracking and optimising costs. What starts as a few essential subscriptions can quickly turn into hundreds of tools, each with its own pricing model, renewal terms, and licensing structure.
Without a centralised way to manage procurement, businesses often face uncontrolled spending, auto-renewals at higher rates, duplicate tools, and unused licences. These inefficiencies add up, costing companies millions in unnecessary expenses.
Procurement software is changing the way businesses handle their SaaS and cloud spending. By tracking, managing, and negotiating contracts more effectively, companies can reduce waste, improve financial visibility, and optimise their software investments.
Where Businesses Lose Money on SaaS and Cloud Spend
Many companies don’t realise just how much money is wasted on software and cloud services. Some of the biggest contributors to unnecessary spending include:
1. Lack of Visibility
Businesses often struggle to get a complete view of their SaaS and cloud expenses. With different teams purchasing their own tools and software costs spread across multiple departments, finance teams are left with fragmented data and no centralised tracking.
2. Auto-Renewals and Price Increases
Many SaaS contracts renew automatically, often at a higher price than the original agreement. Without a structured review process, businesses end up paying more than necessary for tools they may no longer need.
3. Duplicate and Overlapping Software
Different teams frequently subscribe to software that serves the same function. A marketing team might use one analytics tool while the product team uses another, when a single solution could serve both departments at a lower cost.
4. Unused Licences and Over-Provisioning
As employees leave or teams restructure, many software licences remain active even when they are no longer needed. Without regular audits, companies continue paying for software that isn’t being used.
5. Complex and Inefficient Procurement Processes
Many businesses lack a formal procurement process for SaaS and cloud services. Employees purchase tools as needed, without going through a structured approval process. This leads to inconsistent spending, missed cost-saving opportunities, and difficulty negotiating better contracts.
How Procurement Software Solves the Problem
Procurement software provides businesses with the visibility, control, and automation they need to manage SaaS and cloud costs effectively. By centralising procurement processes, businesses can track spending, eliminate inefficiencies, and negotiate better contracts.
1. Gaining Full Visibility Over SaaS and Cloud Expenses
The first step to cutting unnecessary costs is understanding exactly what is being spent. Procurement software consolidates all SaaS and cloud expenses into a single, centralised dashboard, giving businesses a clear view of:
Active subscriptions and contracts
Monthly and annual costs
Licence utilisation rates
Upcoming renewals and potential price increases
With real-time data, finance and procurement teams can quickly identify areas where spending can be reduced or optimised.
2. Eliminating Waste by Removing Unnecessary Licences and Subscriptions
Procurement software helps businesses identify unused licences, duplicate tools, and redundant software subscriptions. By regularly auditing software usage, companies can:
Reallocate licences to avoid purchasing new ones
Cancel underutilised subscriptions
Standardise on fewer, more cost-effective tools
This not only reduces unnecessary spending but also ensures that employees are using the best tools for their needs.
3. Preventing Expensive Auto-Renewals
By tracking renewal dates and contract terms, procurement software allows businesses to review contracts before they auto-renew. This gives procurement teams the opportunity to:
Assess whether the tool is still needed before committing to another contract
Negotiate better pricing instead of accepting automatic price increases
Downgrade to a more cost-effective plan if the full feature set isn’t necessary
This proactive approach prevents businesses from being locked into overpriced agreements and helps optimise ongoing SaaS and cloud spending.
4. Strengthening Negotiation Power
SaaS vendors often offer discounts and better pricing structures to businesses that negotiate their contracts. However, many companies lack the benchmarking data and negotiation expertise needed to secure the best deals.
Procurement software provides market price intelligence, contract benchmarking, and automated negotiation insights, allowing businesses to:
Identify opportunities for volume discounts
Push back on price increases with data-backed insights
Consolidate software purchases to secure enterprise-level pricing
Better contract negotiations can lead to significant cost savings, especially for large-scale SaaS and cloud contracts.
5. Automating Procurement and Cost Control
Manually managing SaaS and cloud spending is time-consuming and prone to human error. Procurement software automates key aspects of the process, including:
Tracking spending trends to prevent budget overruns
Sending alerts for upcoming renewals to avoid surprise charges
Generating custom reports for financial planning and forecasting
By automating procurement management, businesses can maintain tight control over costs while reducing administrative workload.
How Businesses Are Saving Millions with Smarter Procurement
For businesses that heavily rely on cloud-based software, optimising SaaS and cloud procurement can lead to millions in savings over time. By taking a proactive approach to cost management, companies are reducing waste, renegotiating contracts, and making smarter software investments.
With procurement software providing real-time visibility, automated tracking, and strategic negotiation support, businesses no longer have to rely on manual processes or guesswork when managing their software spend. Instead, they can ensure every pound spent on SaaS and cloud services delivers maximum value.
One solution that is helping companies achieve these results is Vertice, which streamlines procurement and spend management, helping businesses cut unnecessary software costs and take control of their budgets.
By leveraging procurement software, companies can take control of their SaaS and cloud costs, ensuring they are only paying for what they need, renegotiating better contracts, and eliminating wasteful spending. With a strategic, data-driven approach, businesses can save millions while maintaining the software and cloud infrastructure they rely on.
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