SaaS and tech companies are well aware that agility can make or break a business. Reacting quickly and finding every efficiency is the key to scaling and growing revenue. When it comes to procurement, tech companies often default to manual solutions that can be slow and costly. The right procurement SaaS solution can transform how you manage vendors, control spend, and ultimately scale toward increasing revenue.
However, there is a challenge involved, as most procure to pay SaaS solutions are not always suitable for the needs of other SaaS and tech companies. This means you could be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and end up with more complexity than you started with.
To help you find the right sourcing and procurement software for your tech business, we’ll outline the key features to look for in a procurement solution.
SaaS and Tech Companies Have Different Needs
Traditional procure to pay SaaS solutions are built for traditional businesses that mostly deal in physical, commoditized goods. This can often mean workflows meant for predictable manufacturing cycles and vendor relationships that go back decades.
In SaaS and tech, your needs can fluctuate wildly. From cloud costs to compute or tokens, your procurement and budgets are always in flux, and you need a procurement SaaS solution that’s designed for that.
For a tech company, you want to focus on procurement software that addresses these unique attributes.
- Distributed teams spanning multiple locations (or fully remote)
- Subscription or token-based vendor relationships rather than one-time purchases
- Rapid scaling requirements that demand flexible procurement processes
- Tech-savvy teams who expect intuitive, modern interfaces
- Complex approval workflows that need to balance speed with governance requirements
Procurement Software for SaaS Companies: Feature List
In this section, we’ll cover the most important features you should look for when choosing procurement software for your SaaS company. These features will allow you to scale without adding complexity or requiring you to add additional procurement team members.
1. Cloud-Based Architecture That Actually Works
There are still several popular procurement software options that are on-premise. While this may be necessary for some companies with certain contractual obligations with customers, most tech companies will want a fully cloud-based solution.
If a vendor you’re looking into offers both options, make sure that all features from the on-premise version are also available in the cloud-based version.
2. Intelligent Procurement Automation That Saves Time
Nothing slows down a business like manual purchase orders, endless email chains, and missing approvals. These can cost you money, and intelligent automations are the solution.
Vendors like ProcureClix offer specific intelligent automation features designed for tech companies. These drastically reduce your cycle time and allow you to remain agile without adding overhead or new team members.
Below are examples of smart automation to look for:
- Automated approval workflows that route requests to the right people without manual intervention (along with automated delegation options if someone is unavailable)
- Smart vendor matching that suggests pre-approved suppliers based on your requirements
- AI-powered reverse auctions that set up in minutes, not hours, and attract pre-qualified suppliers
- Real-time budget automation that prevents overspending and offers deep business intelligence analytics
3. Comprehensive Spend Visibility
One problem many tech companies have is that they pay outdated prices to vendors because they haven’t renegotiated their contracts. These kinds of issues are the result of poor spend visibility, and the right procure to pay SaaS helps you avoid this, so you can start reducing overhead immediately.
Look for features such as:
- Data dashboards so you can negotiate with vendors more successfully
- Tools to identify consolidation opportunities
- Forecasting and budgeting tools based on your specific spending patterns
- Quick flagging of maverick spend before it becomes a problem
4. Supplier Management That Scales
Scaling supplier management requires automation, and this is where the right choice can help you avoid issues such as missed renewals or an overcluttered supplier list. You’ll also want to look for streamlined RFP/RFQ processes that don’t require procurement expertise. This lets you scale without putting extra burden on your procurement team.
Some solutions, such as ProcureClix, offer managed RFP/RFQ, which further helps in these areas and lets you fully focus on your business instead of tedious procurement workflows.
5. Integrations That Fit Your Tech Stack
Whatever procurement solution you choose, it needs to have built-in integrations with your existing tech stack. Take inventory of your systems and compare those with the compatibility matrix supplied by the procurement software vendor.
When confirming integration compatibility, create a list of software options you use, such as:
- Accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, etc.)
- ERP systems
- Communication tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams)
- Document signing platforms (DocuSign, SignNow)
- Payment systems
This is just a list of the most common integrations needed, and your business may have others depending on your operational workflow. Finding out that an integration is either missing or not working properly can seriously impact the benefits you could otherwise get from a procurement software solution.
Trying to find a workaround or fix for these issues will impact future scaling and should be avoided if at all possible. Thankfully, some solutions will work with almost any integration, so you just need to confirm with the vendor before making your decision.
Choosing a Procurement Solution Helps You Scale
The ability to scale while reducing complexity is what separates great procurement software from the rest. Some of this lies with the vendor, but a big part is also due diligence and choosing the right solution from the start.
If you have any questions about choosing the right procurement software for your SaaS or tech company, contact our experts at ProcureClix. There’s no obligation, and we can answer your questions about features, integrations, and more to help you find the perfect solution for your business.
