How Quartex used AI, workflows and human buying expertise to transform its procurement

The Challenge

Quartex was formed by the merger of two companies – INX and K2fly - helping companies in high-risk, asset-intensive industries operate safely and efficiently, from flight scheduling and accommodation to permitting and resource governance.

Quartex found itself with a sprawling stack of over 100 SaaS contracts, with numerous cases of duplication or over-licensing; no process rigor or clarity of ownership; and unclear terms and renewal dates. . 

Without a dedicated procurement team or centralized processes, employees across the business were required to own software procurement for their teams. Naturally, this created inconsistency and risk. 

It also meant that contracts were rarely agreed on the best terms for Quartex, or at the best price. Those running purchases or renewals lacked the context and experience to negotiate effectively. They were instead relying on anecdotal insights and internet forums to estimate fair price points.

"Before Vertice, our software procurement was fraught with risk, especially as regards renewals. We just kept getting caught out. It was no one’s fault - we have a lot of people who are wearing a lot of different hats trying to cover it, but what we needed was centralized oversight. Vertice has plugged that gap, without us needing a dedicated procurement team."
Matt Faries, Head of Engineering

Matt Faries was tasked by his CFO to urgently source a solution that could immediately bring control and confidence to procurement, and put them in a position to reduce spend.

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The Solution 

Quartex reached out to Vertice after quickly realizing it was the obvious choice to provide the platform and the guidance to quickly systemize its software procurement, while delivering hard cost savings thanks to an exemplary track record. 

“Right from the start of the sales process, we could tell Vertice was different. Their focus was not just on process efficiency and time saved, but also on how they could deliver - and even guarantee - hard cost savings and remove ongoing risk. It gave us confidence that Vertice would have a tangibly positive impact on our business.”   

The first step was to understand the current stack. Quartex uploaded 100+ SaaS contracts into Vertice’s Intelligent Procurement Platform. Immediately, any duplications, underuse, and upcoming renewal dates were illuminated.

Vertice AI also scanned every document, identifying and cataloging all the pertinent details and dates, and identifying the instances where - based on Vertice’s dataset of 250k negotiated contracts and $75bn of spend - the terms or pricing could be improved.

"Within days of starting with Vertice, we could stop living out of spreadsheets. We had immediate clarity of all our contracts and risk in one place."

1. Customized workflows 

To take procurement decisions out of department leads’ hands, and to improve consistency, compliance and speed, Quartex deployed Vertice’s Intake-to-Procure.

Customized intake forms now allow stakeholders to easily input their purchasing and renewal requests, while also providing key approvers from IT and legal with the information they need to make their decisions, and giving the finance team the spend visibility they need.

“Usability was crucial. Bringing processes and oversight into an organization where there has previously been none can be perceived as onerous if not done well. Vertice’s intake forms however were so customizable and responsive - and designed to be simple for every user - that adoption immediately surpassed even our highest expectations.” 

Importantly, these workflows automatically and intelligently route according to value, number of users, compliance sensitivity or strategic significance, bringing in the right approvers at the right time - and far earlier in the process than they have been previously.

“Our IT, finance and legal teams have gone from chaos to control in the space of weeks. Having previously sometimes not even known a software purchase was being made, they are now brought into the approval early, with full context - including detailed pricing benchmarks - and are then able to approve confidently or make an informed recommendation. And they have total ongoing oversight of the contract performance. The difference cannot be overstated.”

2. AI-enabled

Vertice AI was embedded at every step of Quartex’s new procurement processes.

Intake forms respond dynamically to users’ inputs to ask the next best question to gather all the information needed to approve easily - without being burdensome. 

Insights from the millions of call and email interactions that Vertice’s purchasing team has performed with 32,000+ vendors are delivered intelligently at crucial decision points in the workflow, and the same database can be queried at any time by Quartex users.

Senior finance leaders are also using Vertice AI’s deep analytical insights to understand future price increases for more accurate forecasting. And queries on contracts, renewals and even new vendor recommendations or stack consolidation can all be solved through Vertice’s conversational AI. 

3. Expert negotiation 

This same powerful dataset - the world’s largest procurement intelligence database - is also used by Vertice’s dedicated procurement experts, tasked with delivering savings on Quartex’s spend. 

Armed with pricing benchmarks and detailed playbooks on each SaaS vendor’s sales tactics and negotiation thresholds - and those of their competitors for extra leverage - the Vertice team introduced actual market intelligence into discussions that previously relied on guesswork. 

"Our Procurement Manager at Vertice was able to drop information on alternative vendors into negotiations at the right time and engage with the right resellers to create strategic competitive tension. That's intel and power we wouldn't have had without Vertice."

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The Results

The impact was immediate and substantial - so much so that the Vertice platform paid for itself in just 90 days.

Vertice equipped Quartex to regain control of its previously sprawling tech stack, implement a single-source-of-truth for total stack visibility, and use deep market intelligence and pricing benchmarks alongside experts to confidently achieve better deals.

The customized workflows gave Quartex the ability to easily create frictionless procurement processes that met its specific needs and solved its blockers - accelerating request cycles and systematically ensuring buy-in from every stakeholder in the process.

By combining total spend visibility, custom automated workflows, and expert negotiation, Vertice fundamentally transformed how Quartex buys and manages software.

Quartex realized over $1 million in total savings in the first year of the partnership, achieving an 8.9x ROI and exceeding their initial Vertice savings guarantee by 510%.

Quartex now sees the partnership with Vertice as vital, proven and long-term - so much so that Quartex, and its PE backer AKKR, are frequently recommending Vertice to others.