How Vertice revolutionized Software Procurement for The AA

The Challenge

The AA is one of the UK’s most recognizable brands, providing breakdown cover, insurance, and a wide range of motoring services to millions of drivers. With nearly $14 million in software spend under management and a lean procurement function, it needed a partner that could help it drive material savings, reduce manual workload, and bring greater transparency and scrutiny to its software buying.

With a small procurement team overseeing a significant and complex software estate, The AA was struggling to apply the same level of attention to every contract. While strategic vendors’ contracts were closely managed, others were often at risk of auto-renewing with limited review. 

“When I arrived at The AA, I discovered a number of mid- and lower-tier software purchases that we weren’t deriving full value from. We lacked the bandwidth and vendor intel to truly optimize them. We needed to make a quick, impactful change, and this is where Vertice came in.”

The Solution

Following an extensive search, The AA selected Vertice as its strategic SaaS procurement partner.

From the outset, the leadership team was impressed by Vertice’s guaranteed ROI model, data-driven insights, extensive vendor intel and price benchmarking, and the visibility the Vertice platform provided into the overall tech stack - including its true scale, each tool’s actual usage, and the stack’s renewal timelines.

In particular, The AA saw the advantage of the independence and consistent frequency of Vertice’s interactions with software suppliers. While internal teams may typically only engage with a vendor every year or more, Vertice’s team was continuously in dialogue with almost all of its software vendors.

This meant that Vertice’s vendor understanding was far richer, and because of Vertice’s independence, was not clouded by any pre-agreed reseller agreements or discounts - and would give The AA crucial leverage with which to optimize software contracts.  

“Within only six to eight weeks, I had a clear sense that we would comfortably see an ROI from working with Vertice. But Vertice’s other asset is the market understanding it provides, born from its independence and the frequency with which they are working with vendors.

They could apply this intel to the negotiations we handed to them, while we could also leverage it for those we chose to retain to cut process times and improve contract value.”

The Results  

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Over a few short months, the results were undeniable. The AA surpassed its ROI expectations and transformed the way it approached software sourcing and renewals.

With Vertice, The AA achieved $1m of benefit through new and renegotiated contracts alone, plus using Vertice intel to support multiple strategic vendor negotiations, making them not only more cost-effective but also more strategically-aligned.  

Vertice’s immediate benefit has been to deliver The AA an ROI of 5x in just the first year. But in the longer term - and arguably more importantly - The AA’s procurement team now has the confidence that it has control over the entire software stack spend.

And no matter how the software stack may evolve over time, the team can either enlist Vertice to manage new contracts directly and ensure they are cost-effective and strategically suitable; or access the data and vendor insights required to manage them directly, completing contracts faster and that deliver the business more value.  

“What I have been most impressed with from working with Vertice is the richness of their data and the capability of the people. They’re super collaborative and they communicate very well. It’s just a well-oiled machine.”