Since launching Sastrify in 2020, our team has secured millions of dollars in savings for hundreds of customers across the globe. While many high-growth companies initially come to us as their SaaS procurement solution to save money, they ultimately benefit from so much more—namely, price benchmarking, expert negotiations, and transparency of their SaaS stack. 

Bitvavo, a European cryptocurrency exchange that bridges the gap between traditional currencies and digital assets, is making big waves in the fintech world. With more than one million active users on the Bitvavo platform, and more than 175 digital assets users can buy, store, and trade, Bitvavo engaged Sastrify as their SaaS procurement solution in an effort to sustainably support their businesses during a high-growth phase. 

Bitvavo’s Procurement Lead on SaaS procurement management

We sat down with Bitvavo’s Procurement Lead, Sharen Overdijkink, to learn more about her experience as a female leader in the procurement space, what she loves most about her role, and where she sees procurement as a career headed in the near future. 

• Starting in SaaS procurement  
  I wound up in (SaaS) procurement by accident. After resigning from the company where I was supposed to have my final internship, my university asked if I’d be interested in a procurement internship. The rest is history.

• Favorite parts of her job as a SaaS Procurement Lead
  I really like it when a procurement process ends in a win-win, meaning that both internal and  external stakeholders find added value in a negotiation. It’s great when internal stakeholders see the benefits that procurement brings, so much so that they begin applying procurement tools and logic to their business practices.

• Biggest challenges of managing procurement at a growing company
  The biggest challenge I’ve seen in my career as a procurement professional is being able to enter negotiations at the right time. In the world of SaaS procurement, time is leverage, and if you aren’t set up ahead of time, you enter negotiations at a disadvantage.
  A lot of people think procurement delays the buying process. However, with enough time, you can start seeing real impact. It often requires some convincing when it comes to stakeholders and assuring them that the time spent on preparing a strategy and finding the best possible (and sustainable) tool is worth it. This is especially true in startup and scale-up environments.”

• The future of SaaS procurement 
  I think that SaaS procurement as a career will continue to grow in the coming years. As software becomes more sophisticated and specialized, internal stakeholders will learn the value that procurement plays in the long term. 

• Best part of working at Bitvavo
  There are many great things about Bitvavo's company culture. But to name one (or actually two), I really like the can-do mentality and the goal-oriented, fast but conscious decision-making. 

Why Bitvavo chose Sastrify as their SaaS procurement solution 

Bitvavo chose Sastrify as their SaaS procurement solution in an effort to extend their runway during a very high-growth stage at their company. 

As a scale-up, Sharen’s team knew that one obstacle in their way was the probability of paying more on SaaS subscriptions due to their size and stage. They were looking for negotiation support as well as price benchmarking. 

On top of that, they note four key reasons why Sastrify exceeded their SaaS procurement expectations. 

• Ease of Onboarding 
  Bitvavo found significant value in Sastrify’s customer onboarding process, particularly through the help of self-paced video tutorials offered at every step. It gave their team confidence in the product and also made it easier to convince other stakeholders that Sastrify was the way forward. 

• User Interface
  For the Bitvavo procurement team, Sastrify’s SaaS procurement platform was an asset in and of itself. It was important for them that their information could be easily captured, stored, and accessed. It made everything traceable, which ultimately led to learnings and increased transparency of their SaaS stack. 

• ‘Discovery’ Tool  
  As part of a growing procurement team at Bitvavo, tool requests often land on Sharen’s desk that haven’t been fully vetted or researched. Within her team’s first week with Sastrify, Sharen used the ‘Discovery’ feature to identify two tools that were better solutions than the ones requested internally. 

• Personalized Support
  As Sharen notes, the personal touch that Sastrify offers—particularly their team’s dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM)—went above and beyond her initial expectations. The curated, one-to-one support and expertise accelerated their tool discovery process and led to quicker savings.