Bloomerang Banks $643K with SaaS Buying Partner – for a 4.3X ROI

SaaS to Fuel a Startup

In 2020, Bloomerang secured its first round of capital and began looking to build out its tech stack.

“We needed to embark on a SaaS buying spree,” said Steve Isom, CFO at the donor management software company. “But it wasn't possible for me to quarterback every single one of those purchases.”

When Isom considered assigning someone else to do the purchasing, he was mainly worried about getting good deals on software and making sure nobody bought software the company couldn't handle. 

Seth Steward, Bloomerang’s senior director of IT, brought a decade of experience buying software. However, he also knew if he spent all day buying software, he’d have less time available for strategic tasks. 

“I needed to be sure that we answered questions like, ‘Can it be single sign-on integrated? Are they looking at the right plan?’” Steward said. 

“These are little nuances that I can't expect anybody outside of IT to understand, let alone negotiate.”

Guaranteed savings = a no-brainer

After former colleagues recommended Vendr, Isom quickly saw the promise of the SaaS buying platform. Vendr brought an unmatched amount of SaaS buying data, one platform for managing contracts in place, and end-to-end purchasing support.

“From the beginning, Vendr was enticing,” Isom said. “And the guaranteed savings made it a no-brainer.”

To start, Vendr brought all of Bloomerang’s SaaS contracts into the Vendr platform to create a single source of truth. Now, when someone requests information about an existing contract, it’s all found in the platform.

“Literally, in the past hour, somebody messaged me and asked if I have a certain contract. And within a moment, I was able to send it to them. I knew exactly where to find it. That kind of ask becomes a five-minute response instead of taking days.”

Come renewal time, usage stats in Vendr also let Steward know who’s actually using the products in their SaaS stack - helping them purchase the right number of seats. 

Steward unlocked even more value by turning to Vendr for cost analysis. If there is a possibility of a SaaS purchase replacing multiple existing solutions, he can quickly locate the precise costs and determine the actual savings from consolidating.
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Vendr is a seamless extension of your own team, especially if you purchase a lot of SaaS software – ensuring you get a fair shake and have confidence in deals.

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Hitting every essential milestone

Bloomerang collaborated with Vendr to build a workflow to steer every purchase through the essential milestones – IT, security, legal, and finance. That workflow results in an average time to close of 35 days. Before, deals could take months.

“Out of the gate, there is a clearer understanding of which tasks are assigned to whom, and what the software requirements are. There are fewer surprises for any team,” Steward said. “I have a better sense when I go to bed at night that, when we're purchasing applications, it's following a path that everybody's agreed to.”

Instead of being involved in the whole purchase process, Steward is now alerted just for IT approvals, ensuring that any purchases match the tier level needed for single sign-on and that the company can implement.

Drawing on its database of billions of dollars in SaaS transactions, Vendr’s Explore consistently grounds every purchase decision in facts. Pricing insights, estimated market share, and predicted time-to-close help Bloomerang secure the best fit and deals possible.

On a recent renewal, Steward might have pushed more aggressively on pricing and terms. However, the Vendr SaaS Consultant provided a reality check that the deal at hand was the best they had seen across that supplier’s history of deals.

“It saves us a ton of time knowing we were getting the best deal possible,” Steward said. “I didn't have to do a song and dance.”

An indispensable growth partner

Bloomerang now tracks $3.3 million in managed SaaS spend in Vendr. And in two years, the company has closed 83 deals with Vendr at its side. Their savings add up to $643,000 – amounting to a 4.3 times return on its investment.

From the leadership perspective, the relationship with Vendr is just as valuable as the savings pocketed. Whenever Steward reaches out to his Vendr SaaS Consultant for data or a reality check on a deal, he gains insights quickly.

“Vendr is a seamless extension of your own team, especially if you purchase a lot of SaaS software – ensuring you get a fair shake and have confidence in deals,” Steward said.

Isom can’t imagine not having Vendr alongside as Bloomerang rapidly expands their team and tech stack. 

“Our savings numbers and ROI with Vendr speak for themselves, but that's just part of it,” Isom said. “Everybody we've encountered is good at their jobs and helps us get our work done. Vendr will always be a part of my playbook for any job that I have in the future - and there are few vendors that I can say that about.”