TechSpend Allies — Business Spend Management, indirect spend management, and vendor optimization Discovery conversation

Advisory and Platforms · Business Spend Management · Indirect Spend Management

Indirect spend, managed as a discipline.

TechSpend Allies is a Business Spend Management advisory and marketplace firm. We advise on and source the full indirect spend stack — technology, SaaS, cloud, telecom and network services, professional services, business AI, and the long tail of indirect categories — and we measure the work in hard-dollar savings.

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$900K
Hard-dollar savings generated for a Top 100 accounting and consulting firm by optimizing its vendor spend stack
Seven figures
Cash rebates delivered to a $2B-revenue company through an automated AP payment program
20
Leading providers in the marketplace — no single vendor owns the shelf
~$1B
In client spend previously under management by the founder across spend-management programs

The problem we solve

Spend grew faster than the ability to govern it.

The explosive growth of indirect spend has outpaced most companies’ ability to manage it. The result is predictable: suboptimal contracts, silent renewals, and margin that leaks a month at a time — across every indirect category, not only technology.

$500B

Annual spend in the SaaS, network services, and cloud categories alone — before professional services and the rest of the indirect stack are counted.

30,000+

Providers selling into those categories. Volume, complexity, and fragmentation make disciplined management a staffing problem no lean team can absorb alone.

20–35%

Overspend across these categories, per Gartner and Forrester benchmarking research. It is the measured cost of the status quo, not an estimate of ours.

Root cause — 01

No unified source of truth

There is no single system of record for spend intelligence. Contracts, invoices, usage, and renewal dates sit in different systems and different inboxes, so spend analytics never assemble into a negotiating position.

Root cause — 02

No governance framework

There is no well-designed governance framework synchronizing optimization efforts. Categories are bought in isolation, renewals run on vendor timelines, and savings identified in one quarter erode in the next.

Market conditions are not improving. Each month under the status quo, profit leaks that cannot be recovered later. The question is not whether the overspend exists. It is where, and how much.

Spend at risk

Quantify the exposure.

Apply the published benchmark range to your own indirect spend base. The output is a range, because honest spend optimization starts with benchmark data — not a promise.

$
$1M$100M

Benchmark basis: analyst benchmarking by Gartner and Forrester, as cited in TechSpend Allies’ category research, finds enterprises overspend by 20–35% across SaaS, network, and cloud categories. A discovery assessment replaces this range with your contract-level numbers.

$2.0M – $3.5M

Of annual spend sits outside active management at benchmark rates — the pool from which hard-dollar savings, avoided renewals, and AP revenue are recovered.

Recovery is not assumed. It is established category by category, contract by contract, in the assessment.

What we do

Four outcomes. Delivered with velocity and professionalism.

TechSpend Allies delivers services and solutions focused on optimizing key indirect spend categories. Every engagement is organized around four business outcomes.

i.

You make more money

Hard-dollar savings fall to margin. So does new revenue from accounts payable — rebates and virtual card payments economics that turn a cost center into a contributor.

ii.

You save valuable staff time

Category research, vendor benchmarking, sourcing events, and renewal management are absorbed by our team. Your staff keep their day jobs.

iii.

You minimize risk

Contract terms, auto-renewal exposure, vendor concentration, and unmanaged AI and SaaS adoption are surfaced before they become liabilities.

iv.

You gain visibility

One view of vendors, contracts, spend, and renewal dates across the indirect stack — the source of truth the status quo never built.

Coverage

The full indirect stack. One framework.

TechSpend Allies began in technology spend, where the discipline is most mature. The same advisory and marketplace model now applies across all indirect spend categories — because the failure pattern is identical in each: fragmented buying, invisible renewals, and no benchmark at the table. Three disciplines cut across every category below: procure-to-pay and source-to-pay (P2P / S2P) process, procurement orchestration that coordinates the work, and procurement intelligence that tells you where to act.

Technology & IT services

Hardware-adjacent services, IT support contracts, and managed services are bought once and renewed forever. We put them under the same discipline as every other category: benchmarked, contested, and governed.

  • Contract benchmarking against comparable companies before any renewal is signed
  • Vendor rationalization across overlapping IT service providers
  • Contract negotiation led by operators who have run these categories
  • Renewal strategy that moves dates and leverage to your calendar, not the vendor’s

Primary levers: vendor benchmarking · contract negotiation · renewal strategy · vendor rationalization

AI cost optimization

AI ROI is a math equation.

That is the founder’s published doctrine, and it governs how we treat business AI spend. AI is now an indirect category in its own right — bought seat by seat, team by team, with no owner and no ledger. AI spend management begins by making the equation explicit.

Most AI business cases count only the first term. AI subscription and usage costs compound quietly — per-seat licenses, LLM and tooling subscriptions, API consumption, duplicated copilots across departments. If the second term is not measured, the ROI claim is not a claim. It is a hope. AI ROI analysis, done properly, is an audit of both terms of the equation.

Inventory the sprawl

AI tool sprawl is the new SaaS sprawl. We build the complete register of AI software costs: every seat, subscription, and usage-based charge, mapped to owner and purpose.

Rationalize the vendors

AI vendor rationalization removes duplicated capability across platforms and teams, and consolidates AI procurement onto terms that reflect actual usage — not projected enthusiasm.

Govern the category

AI cost governance sets the intake, renewal, and measurement rules: every AI purchase carries an owner, a value hypothesis, and a date on which the math gets checked.

Insights

Authority through thinking, not selling.

The firm’s positions come from published practitioner analysis and an operator’s record — five spend-management SaaS platforms sold, and roughly $1B in client spend previously under management. The analysis below is the working doctrine behind our AI engagements.

Practitioner analysis · AI economics

“AI ROI is a math equation.”

Value converted minus all enablement cost. Hard-dollar ROI comes from labor avoided and growth absorbed without the legacy headcount ratio — and it requires a deliberate plan across individual, departmental, and cross-functional workflows. The buyer builds the business case. The vendor supports the analysis. Neither should guarantee the outcome in a contract.

That standard is applied to every category we manage — and to our own recommendations first.

How we do it

Advisory discipline. Marketplace reach.

Two offerings, one standard: every recommendation is benchmarked, and the economics are on the table. Advisory work covers the decisions. The marketplace covers the solutions — across source-to-pay and procure-to-pay, from sourcing event to payment, including the procurement orchestration and procurement intelligence layers that connect and inform the process.

Advisory services

Procurement consulting from operators, structured around your existing source-to-pay and procure-to-pay motion.

  • Platform procurement process managementSelection and procurement of BSM and technology expense management (TEM) platforms, run end to end.
  • Recurring spend program managementThe ongoing discipline: renewals, benchmarks, and governance, managed as a program rather than a series of emergencies.
  • Implementation project managementSolution implementations delivered on schedule, with adoption — not installation — as the completion standard.
  • Strategic sourcing and sourcing eventsCompetitive procurement events for core categories, including network services and professional services, priced against benchmark data.

Marketplace solutions

A best-of-breed marketplace of 20 leading providers. We recommend the fit, not the inventory.

  • Business Spend Management platformsS2P and P2P platforms that give indirect spend a single system of record.
  • Procurement orchestration & intelligenceIntake and orchestration layers that coordinate work across your existing stack, and procurement intelligence tooling — spend analytics, benchmarking, and supplier intelligence — that directs effort to the largest, most winnable opportunities.
  • SaaS and cloud spend managementSaaS spend management, cloud spend management, and cloud cost optimization tooling, matched to your stack and scale.
  • TEM solutions — fixed, mobile, cloudTechnology and telecom expense management with mobility management, from inventory to invoice audit.
  • AP automation and revenue generationAccounts payable revenue generation through AP automation and virtual card payments — the model that produced seven figures in rebates for a $2B-revenue client.

The disclosure standard

No single vendor owns our shelf. Where a marketplace placement earns a provider commission, that commission is disclosed before the recommendation is made — in writing. It is the term most advisors omit. We consider it the first proof that the advice is ours and the interest is yours. Engagements reduce internal staff burden without layering on traditional consulting fees.

Engagement model

A repeatable process, focused on efficiency of results.

We work closely with your team to identify and realize savings across every indirect spend category, and to build lasting value through a hands-on partnership. The assessment synchronizes your goals with the strategies best fit to achieve them.

00

Discovery discussion

Before any data is pulled, a structured discussion of your priorities, pain points, and objectives — and how your spend is composed, category by category. We establish the baseline discipline as it operates today: what is governed and what is not, how performance is measured, and how it is — or is not — continuously improved. Every later step is judged against that baseline.

01

Map the vendor portfolio

Every vendor, contract, and renewal date across the indirect stack, assembled into one portfolio view.

02

Assess the baseline

The current management framework is documented as it actually operates — processes, owners, and gaps between policy and practice.

03

Test internal resources

Category expertise on staff is inventoried honestly. The engagement fills gaps; it does not duplicate strengths.

04

Identify the gaps

Where spend runs without benchmark, owner, or governance, the gap is named and located — category by category.

05

Quantify risk and opportunity

Each gap is priced. Overspend, renewal exposure, and revenue opportunity are expressed in dollars before any solution is discussed.

06

Recommend the solution

A solution recommendation follows the numbers: advisory action, a marketplace placement, or both — with commissions disclosed.

Hands-on, by design.

This is not a report practice. The assessment ends in executed sourcing events, renegotiated contracts, and implemented platforms — and the recurring program keeps the results from eroding at the next renewal cycle.

Savings are stated the way finance states them: hard dollars, against a documented baseline, net of the cost of achieving them.

Procurement consulting in practice — a working session mapping indirect spend categories, vendor contracts, and spend analytics with client stakeholders
A working session, not a handoff. Engagements are run with your team in the room.

Why TechSpend Allies

Uniquely qualified. Structurally, not rhetorically.

Experience

An operator’s record behind the advice: five spend-management SaaS platforms sold, and roughly $1B in client spend previously under management.

Subject-matter expertise

Deep category knowledge across technology, SaaS, cloud, telecom, and the wider indirect stack — the bench a lean internal team cannot justify hiring.

Flexible suite of offerings

Advisory, marketplace, or both. The engagement is shaped to the gap identified in the assessment, not to a fixed package.

No consulting-fee layer

Internal staff burden is reduced without the traditional consulting fee structure. The economics are disclosed, including ours.

Best-of-breed marketplace

Twenty leading providers, independently held. Vendor rationalization and selection start from fit and benchmark data — never from shelf position.

Velocity of outcomes

Quantified opportunity in the assessment phase; executed savings on a defined schedule. Speed is a term of the engagement, not a hope.

The founder

Greg DeMayo

Founder, TechSpend Allies

An operator, not a career consultant. Greg DeMayo’s subject-matter expertise was built running the categories he now advises on — technology expense management and spend-management process automation, across SaaS, cloud, telecom, and the wider indirect stack.

That record is the firm’s credential. The five platforms and the spend programs behind them are why the advice carries benchmark judgment, not theory — and why his published doctrine on AI economics, that AI ROI is a math equation, is applied to every category TechSpend Allies manages, starting with its own recommendations.

At TechSpend Allies, the same operating record produced $900K in hard-dollar savings for a Top 100 accounting and consulting firm, and a marketplace of 20 leading providers held independently — no single vendor owns the shelf.

  • Five platforms soldFive spend-management SaaS platforms sold — technology expense management and spend process automation.
  • ~$1B under managementRoughly $1B in client spend previously under management across spend-management programs.
  • Payments, built and operatedBuilt and operated a direct-pay, virtual merchant card solution for paying clients’ technology bills — hands-on payment operations and rebate economics, the model behind seven figures in AP rebates for a $2B-revenue company.
  • Senior operating leadershipServed as chief revenue officer and chief operating officer following an exit — a senior operating role with 12 direct reports.

Who we serve

Built for the leaders who own the number.

The CFO

Cost reduction with an audit trail

Cost reduction for the CFO must survive scrutiny: baseline, benchmark, contract, realized. Our savings are documented to that standard, and AP revenue is reported as revenue — not netted into a savings claim.

The CIO

Technology spend under governance

Cost reduction for the CIO cannot come at the price of capability. TEM, SaaS, cloud, and AI categories are optimized against service requirements first and price second — rationalization without regret.

The CPO

Leverage for procurement leaders

Cost reduction for the CPO and procurement leaders is a capacity problem. We supply benchmark data, sourcing capacity, and category depth that extend the team you already have.

Questions

Answered directly.

What is Business Spend Management?

Business Spend Management (BSM) is the discipline of managing all indirect spend — technology, SaaS, cloud, telecom, professional services, business AI, and the indirect tail — under one framework of visibility, benchmarking, sourcing, and governance. It extends the source-to-pay cycle from a purchasing function into a managed portfolio.

How is BSM different from TEM?

Technology expense management (TEM) governs one part of the stack: fixed, mobile, and cloud communications spend, including telecom expense management and mobility management. BSM applies the same discipline — inventory, benchmark, sourcing, renewal control — to every indirect category. TEM is a category discipline. BSM is the portfolio discipline that contains it.

How are savings measured?

In hard dollars, against a documented baseline: the contract price before the engagement, the benchmark at the time of negotiation, and the realized price after. Soft savings and cost avoidance are reported separately and never blended into the hard-dollar figure.

How is TechSpend Allies compensated?

Advisory engagements are structured to reduce staff burden without traditional consulting fees. Marketplace placements may earn provider commissions; every commission is disclosed in writing before a recommendation is made. No single vendor owns our shelf, and no recommendation is compensated differently for being followed.

What happens in a discovery conversation?

A working discussion of your indirect spend base: categories, approximate scale, current management framework, and where renewals and risk concentrate. It ends with a clear statement of whether an assessment is warranted and what it would quantify. Prepare for it with the brief builder below.

What are P2P, S2P, procurement orchestration, and procurement intelligence?

Procure-to-pay (P2P) covers the transaction: requisition, approval, purchase order, invoice, and payment. Source-to-pay (S2P) covers the full arc, adding sourcing, contracting, and supplier management before it. Procurement orchestration is the coordination layer that routes intake and approvals across procurement, legal, security, and finance — and across the systems each team uses. Procurement intelligence is the evidence layer beneath all three: classified spend data, contract and renewal intelligence, and supplier and market benchmarking, assembled into a ranked pipeline of savings and risk. Platform alone delivers none of them; process, orchestration, and intelligence together are what make a P2P or S2P investment pay.

Can AI spend really be optimized like other categories?

Yes, because it behaves like other categories: fragmented purchasing, duplicated capability, and renewals without measurement. AI cost optimization applies inventory, vendor rationalization, contract benchmarking, and renewal strategy to AI software costs — with one addition. Every AI line is tested against the equation: value converted, minus all enablement cost.

Next step

Request a discovery conversation.

One conversation. No urgency, no obligation, and no presentation deck unless you ask for one. Prepare a brief below; it takes two minutes and makes the conversation specific from the first minute.

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