Sentry — Vendr Case Study

Introduction

Sentry is an application and performance monitoring solution that helps developers find and fix bugs in their code and monitor the performance of their applications. The platform has served over 85,000 users since it launched in 2011.

The Challenge

Like many early-stage companies, Sentry relied on stakeholders to identify the software they needed and drive the purchase process for those tools. While this approach helps stakeholders quickly acquire the tools they need, often, they aren’t experienced in procurement and negotiation. They may not have the knowledge or support to review terms and conditions. Users also lack the background data necessary to negotiate on price. As a result, they spend many hours performing tasks outside their actual role, reducing the company's potential growth.

Establishing a process takes time and attention. Having a partner to guide the process results in more savings and better results overall. This was why Gavin Zee, Head of Commercial Transactions for Sentry, first reached out to Vendr in 2020. The company was looking for a better procurement process that would allow stakeholders to participate in the discovery and selection of tools without the need to drive the entire process. Sentry’s General Counsel had prior experience with Vendr and recommended Gavin talk to the Vendr team about partnering on a better process and negotiation.

The Solution

Sentry onboarded Vendr in November 2020 to help the company establish a better procurement workflow, reduce the burden on stakeholders, and save on their SaaS software purchases.  Vendr began by taking on negotiation for smaller, routine deals and began centralizing contract and supplier information for better visibility. This allowed Gavin and the team to get out from under the flow of renewal and net new purchase research and get fair pricing faster using Vendr’s extensive deal data.

“Vendr maintains a constant touchpoint with us for renewals and new purchases,” said Gavin. “It helps keep us on track so we can close our deals quickly and at great cost savings. We’ve been able to leverage vendors' expertise throughout the procurement process.“

Vendr also provided guidance and support to help Sentry build a scalable procurement process with strong visibility and automation. The new workflow has significantly improved daily life for Gavin and his stakeholders.

“It's been extremely satisfying working with Vendr, knowing that we’re improving our process and making all our lives easier while saving tons on our SaaS spend,” said Gavin. “They've helped us implement our own process into their flow, so every purchase goes through legal and security checks.”

The Result

By partnering with Vendr, Sentry has realized over $4 million in savings, resulting in a return on investment of over 25X on SaaS products like HubSpot, Atlassian, VMware, and Autodesk. They also enjoy the wider benefits of partnering with a knowledgeable procurement organization, The new procurement process allows Sentry to keep up with increased deal flow as it grows, ushering deals through the pipeline faster and easier. It means stakeholders can put new tools to use faster and improve their personal and team productivity.

“Instead of focusing on negotiating price and contracts, our stakeholders are able to focus on their day-to-day roles, which is helping build and grow our company,” said Gavin.

Sentry considers Vendr an essential part of its procurement function and organizational growth. Gavin believes every company should consider expanding its purchasing capabilities with the help of a knowledgeable partner.“We would absolutely recommend Vendr to other companies with smaller teams who don't have an actual procurement team built out,” said Gavin. “They save us so much time and money -  there's no one I wouldn't recommend them to.”

Vendr is it excited to continue supporting Sentry and other innovative hunting me as they grow as an organization and evolve there.