172 billion dollars: this is the amount that SaaS spending is expected to reach in 2022 worldwide. That's 0 billion more than in 2020! What are the concrete impacts of this SaaS explosion? Let's leave the macro and look at the micro level, that of your company. You too are probably buying more and more licenses for online tools to meet the needs of your teams. Not rocket science when you put it that way, is it? Yet, this topic of procurement - the global management of purchases within the company - is a time-consuming and complex process, especially without a dedicated team.
Let's take the example of Manon, who works in the marketing department of your company. She needs a tool to easily create landing pages and forms to capture leads. She asks her manager if she can opt for a paid solution. He validates her request directly, without her going through finance. The cost will be taken from the marketing budget. So Manon starts her research to identify the SaaS that could meet her needs, surfing on their website to explore their features in more detail, looking for customer reviews, trying to compare one tool to another, etc.
She spends a lot of time on the price pages of the sites, without necessarily understanding in which package the functionalities that interest her are. She solicits the sales teams of the three or four main solutions she has identified to confirm her first impressions. By trying to find a time slot that suits everyone, making a demo of each tool: several more weeks pass.
After all these efforts, she hardly negotiates and chooses the SaaS that seemed the most adapted to her needs. All that remains is to have the contract validated by her manager, and then to deploy the tool. Between the time Manon expressed her need and the actual access to the solution, several weeks, even months, passed, putting on hold the projects for which she needed this SaaS.
You didn't have to make a big effort of imagination? Probably because you live with this situation on a daily basis. We were talking about a marketing team, but it could just as easily be the product department, customer success or sales for example. In short, you have employees, in different teams of the company, who spend several hours a month to find a solution adapted to their needs, on the time dedicated to their main mission. In the finance department, you only get the information after the fact, when the decisions have already been made.
We understand that you do not have a dedicated purchasing team to deal with your SaaS suppliers. But that doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to this inefficient and costly process: you can outsource your SaaS purchasing process. Why? To save time, money and operational efficiency, while finding the right tools, at the right time. How can you do this? Thanks to companies specialized in SaaS procurement. We explain everything in this article to help you take the headaches out of buying SaaS.
1. Save time on negotiation with SaaS procurement
Let's go back to our example.
Let's imagine that Manon's company - yours - uses the services of a company specialized in SaaS procurement. She saves a lot of time! No more time-consuming research, it is the service provider, an expert in the field, who identifies the relevant players for her request, contacts them and organizes the demonstrations. All that's left to do is attend and choose the preferred SaaS from among the tools presented. Manon recovers several hours per month that she can fully devote to her job as inbound marketing manager, the one you really pay her for and that generates revenue for your company.
Thanks to outsourced SaaS procurement, the SaaS tool's commissioning stage also comes sooner. By leveraging the expertise of the company being solicited, Manon no longer has to wait months before she can address her lead capture topics. Her team reaches its goals faster, which is good for the whole company.
Taken individually, Manon's case may seem anecdotal. However, when considered at the enterprise level, it is far from being the case. The search for SaaS tools is an ongoing process: it has no set timeframe as it evolves according to needs. To optimize it without a dedicated team, there is nothing like outsourcing your SaaS purchases.
2. Reduce your SaaS spend by outsourcing your procurement process
As we mentioned in the introduction, outsourcing your SaaS purchasing process doesn't just save time. Your finance team will also be happy to save money. How? These gains can be broken down into two parts.
First, as the saying goes, "time is money." Nothing could be truer! When you pay Manon and your other employees for their expertise, it's a significant loss of money when they focus on something other than their core mission. With outsourced SaaS procurement, you pay your teams for their core business and optimize the time they spend on other subjects.
Secondly, you save money thanks to the expertise of your SaaS procurement provider. In the situation where you manage your SaaS procurement internally, you don't know if the price offered by the service provider is fair or not. You also don't know what companies similar to yours are paying, unless you ask your contacts. SaaS procurement companies constantly benchmark prices based on multiple criteria. They also have experience in negotiating with different SaaS providers and know to what extent negotiations are possible. You can make a data-driven choice for your tools and pay the right price for your licenses.
3. Finding the right SaaS solutions, at the right time
Outsourced SaaS procurement saves you time and money. There is another advantage to trusting a procurement company: you find the right tools, at the right time without purchase headaches. Let's explain.
Even if you spend hours researching the right solution, your teams don't have a complete understanding of the SaaS market. They may be missing out on the best tool for their needs. They may also realize after the fact that the functionality they were looking for is only usable under certain conditions or is not yet fully developed by certain vendors. The result: you pay for a SaaS that is partially used in the best case and quickly abandoned in the worst case.
By calling on a Procurement-as-a-Service company, you give yourself every chance of finding the optimal solution for your teams in the blink of an eye. In addition, your partner will be able to advise you on the flexibility and scalability of your SaaS tools, which are key success factors for your teams and your company. Just imagine the time that your budget owner and key stakeholders will win. Huge benefit.
SaaS procurement is complex, especially if you are not a procurement specialist. But it's critical to your business: if SaaS procurement is done right, your teams will quickly deploy tools to meet their needs, while focusing on their core business. Bonus: you save on the price of licenses. In short, outsourced SaaS procurement makes your life easier.
And you can go even further: why stop at purchasing when you could be managing your entire SaaS stack?
By adopting Najar, you can manage all of your SaaS tools in a single platform, from purchasing to renewals reminders, while eliminating unnecessary and redundant SaaS spend.
Want to improve your overall SaaS management? Talk to our team!
