Vertice

Last night we brought together some brilliant procurement leaders at Lore of the Land in Fitzrovia for our latest Vertice community meetup - hosted by the one and only Tom Mills. Great food, great drinks, great conversations. The perfect way to wrap up February. A huge thank you to everyone who came and made it so special. We're planning more meetups this year across the world and we'd love to see you at the next one. If you're a senior procurement professional and not yet in our WhatsApp community, now's the time. You'll be the first to hear about events like these near you. Register here: https://vrtc.io/3N7RqAO

Tech and AI spend is moving faster than most budgets can keep up with. In February’s Procurement & Finance Insights, we break down the trends and tools that will shape decisions in 2026: •AI in the Enterprise – Which AI-native and AI-enhanced SaaS tools are gaining traction and where to focus for maximum impact. •Intake-to-Procure Platforms – Compare the leading vendors, explore trends in AI and intelligent intake, and get actionable guidance for evaluation. •Budgeting for AI – The key takeaway: early planning, visibility and smart safeguards are essential to fund innovation while maintaining control.

Vertice has been named to The Hackett Group's 2025-2026 '50 To Watch' - recognizing fast-rising providers pushing procurement technology forward through innovation and differentiated solutions. The list is a nod to what our team has been building: an Intake-to-Procure platform that brings together agentic AI workflows, insights across 16,000+ vendors, and contractually guaranteed savings - helping hundreds of companies around the world manage $10 billion in spend and save an average of 20%+ on SaaS. Proud of this recognition, and excited about what comes next. Learn more about Vertice: https://vrtc.io/4tQBYtz

Decentralized buying is often disguised as business agility. In reality, it is a massive liability. An employee needs a new tool yesterday. They don't want to wait for a manual procurement cycle. So they bypass your system, put a new SaaS subscription on expenses, and start uploading company data. Procurement and InfoSec find out about it six months later. By then, your data is already living in an unvetted, unmonitored third-party system. When Legal is finally looped in, they are handed a signed contract with zero due diligence, missing compliance reports, and terrible liability clauses. The old way of managing risk relies on slowing people down. It creates administrative bottlenecks, so employees simply find workarounds. Join our upcoming webinar with experts Annie Spilsbury and Adam Helyer where they discuss their ways of removing risk from procurement and how to automate it.

We've made G2's lists of the best UK Software companies and the best IT Management Products globally - and we're proud to say we're the highest-ranked procurement tech on both. 🏆 G2 rankings are based entirely on real user reviews, so this is a direct reflection of the impact our platform is having for customers. We don't take that lightly. Thanks to everyone who left a review - you can check out the full rankings at the links in the first comment.

What does it actually take to build a high-impact procurement team when headcount is limited? Claire S. Phillips, Head of Indirect Procurement, sat down recently with Tom Mills to share some hard-won lessons - including how she thinks about balancing skills when every team member has to pull in multiple directions. This clip is just a taste. The full conversation covers everything from hiring for curiosity to recognizing burnout before it takes hold. You can check out the full conversation here: https://vrtc.io/4ay97RJ (Vertice community members get this first - you can join at the link in comments)

Vertice just got ranked as a leader in Intake-to-Procure. Lionfish Tech Advisors (ex-Gartner analysts) evaluated 9 vendors in the I2P space. They measured 10 capabilities: intake, workflows, data & insights, integrations, risk management, UX, analytics, AI, service quality, and ROI. Here's where Vertice stood out in their assessment: • AI-enhanced intake with conversational workflows • SaaS price benchmarking embedded directly into procurement decisions • Guaranteed savings - Contractually guaranteed • Dedicated negotiation team managing deals on your behalf • Global teams across US, EMEA, and APAC The market gap they identified: Most platforms focus on improving processes. Very few help procurement teams drive actual outcomes. What Lionfish called out: "Those procurement departments aiming to drive more than operational improvements are left needing to invest in additional tools and resources." We built Vertice to solve exactly that problem. Why this matters: The I2P market is growing at 15% annually through 2030. But growth doesn't equal value. If your platform can't surface real-time benchmarks, flag duplicate spend, or negotiate better terms, you're just digitizing the same inefficiencies. We're running a webinar tomorrow with Lionfish's CEO Rob Smith and Johan Mills from Thoughtworks to break down the findings. Full report here: https://vrtc.io/4bXJRH6 Webinar registration: https://vrtc.io/40eqCBQ

By March, most budgets are already broken. Not because of bad planning. Because software spending has become impossible to track. Software is now a utility - as essential as electricity or internet. But unlike those bills, software costs come from everywhere: renewals that auto-increase, tools added mid-quarter, licenses no one's using but everyone's paying for. Finance sees the numbers when it's too late. Procurement tries to enforce controls that teams work around. And business units operate in their own reality. The gap between approval and execution is where budgets go to die. In this clip from last week's webinar, Wassia Kamon, CPA, CMA, MBA (CFO at ACE) breaks down exactly what's happening in Q1 - and why visibility is the missing piece between setting a budget and actually controlling spend. If shadow spend is eroding your budget control, this conversation is worth your time. Watch the full playback to learn how finance and procurement can partner to close the gap before costs spiral: https://vrtc.io/4tF53rO

Meet Nasrin Mozlu - a Procurement Manager who genuinely loves all of it. Even the documentation! With 11 years across IT, media, and marketing procurement, Nasrin has worked everywhere from private sector to public sector, managing everything from SME relationships to multi-million-pound software projects. Currently at London & Partners, she's the kind of procurement professional who thrives on the details, the stakeholder conversations, and leading projects end to end. Her advice? Invest in clarity. Make the process easier for your stakeholders through confident communication and honest commercial conversations. Nasrin joined the Vertice community to stay connected to current thinking, learn from peers, and access the kind of insight and data that keeps her sharp. Swipe to see what she's most proud of and why she's here. If you'd like to join our WhatsApp community for procurement pros, you can register here: https://vrtc.io/4qDUfHO

Ever felt like procurement is equal parts strategy and survival? We're hosting an intimate virtual session with Keith McCabe (MCIPS) McCabe - the brilliant mind behind the Procurement Bert series - on 11th February at 4pm UK / 5pm CET. It's a small group of senior procurement professionals getting together to: • Hear the stories behind Keith's satirical cartoons and his new book, The 7 Gambits of Highly Defective Buyers • Share real challenges you're facing and get perspectives from peers • Ask Keith anything about his creative process, commercial career, and why humor is the best teacher • Just have a proper, honest conversation about modern procurement Everyone who attends gets a free copy of Keith's new book - a hilarious and painfully accurate guide to everything that's broken (and brilliant) about procurement today. Places are limited! If you're a senior procurement pro looking for genuine connection and conversation, we'd love to have you there. Register now: https://vrtc.io/4qg0kKi