"You can't control what you can't see."
It's a simple statement, but one that captures a challenge faced by many procurement teams today.
For one global technology company operating in the medical sector, subscriptions, memberships, data licences and information resources had become a significant blind spot. The organization had grown across multiple countries and entities, creating a complex purchasing environment where recurring spend was fragmented, poorly tracked and often hidden from view.
While the company initially attempted to centralize this category internally, it quickly became apparent that a large proportion of the spend was misclassified, making it difficult to identify, manage and control.
What began as a visibility challenge soon became a strategic procurement initiative.
The Challenge
Historically, subscriptions and memberships had not been viewed as a priority spend category within the organization.
As a result, there was no formal process for managing or sourcing information resources, data licences or professional memberships. Purchases were often made using expense claims and purchasing cards, bypassing traditional procurement processes and limiting oversight.
This created several challenges:
Poor visibility across global spend
Limited control over recurring purchases and renewals
Decentralized buying across multiple countries and entities
Low-value classifications that masked the true level of spend
Difficulty identifying supplier duplication and consolidation opportunities
The procurement team recognized that if they were to improve governance and maximise value, they first needed a complete picture of the organization's spend.
Setting Clear Objectives
With the support of Prenax the organization established five key goals:
Create a centralized and standardized procurement process
Improve visibility across all subscriptions, memberships and information resources
Strengthen compliance through a "No PO, No Pay" policy
Simplify the user experience with a single point of contact
Deliver a truly global service model under one contract
In essence, the organization wanted one process, one supplier and one view of spend.
Building the Foundation for Success
A critical factor in the success of the project was the support received from procurement leadership.
From the outset, senior stakeholders recognized the significance of the opportunity and moved quickly to sponsor and mandate the new process across the organization. This executive sponsorship helped accelerate adoption and ensure alignment across business units.
Implementation began with a structured communication and training programme. Key business managers were engaged first, followed by individual stakeholders across departments and regions. Early communications were delivered by the internal procurement team before dedicated customer success support was introduced to guide users through the transition.
The technical integration was equally important.
The Prenax team worked closely with the organization to integrate with its Coupa procure-to-pay platform, creating a fully streamlined PunchOut solution that made sourcing and ordering simple for end users while maintaining procurement control.
To support adoption, virtual training sessions were delivered via Microsoft Teams, including dedicated Q&A sessions to address stakeholder questions and ensure confidence in the new process.
At the same time, a "No PO, No Pay" mandate was introduced.
This immediately reduced rogue spending behaviour and ensured purchases followed approved procurement routes. More importantly, it helped uncover spend that had previously bypassed procurement controls altogether.
Delivering a Global Solution
Given the company's international footprint, flexibility was essential.
To support local requirements while maintaining global consistency, customized management groups were established, enabling invoicing in multiple currencies including EUR, GBP and USD, with additional support later introduced for AUD, SGD, JPY, CAD, NZD and HKD.
This approach reduced exposure to currency fluctuations, simplified financial management and eliminated unnecessary transaction costs.
Regular governance meetings with the customer, including weekly implementation reviews and quarterly business reviews, ensured progress remained on track and that any challenges were addressed quickly.
Following the success of the initial deployment, the organization expanded the programme globally.
The Results
The outcomes delivered significant value across the business.
76% Hidden Spend Identified
Perhaps the most striking result was the discovery that 76% of captured orders had previously been hidden from procurement visibility.
These purchases were either misclassified or absent from spend reports altogether, making them effectively invisible to the organization.
For the procurement team, uncovering this hidden spend represented a major strategic win and created an entirely new level of transparency.
23% Savings Achieved
By the end of the first renewal cycle with Prenax, the organization had achieved savings of 23%.
These savings were driven through improved visibility, supplier consolidation, stronger compliance and more effective management of recurring spend.
Supplier Base Reduced by More Than 500 Vendors
Hundreds of suppliers were consolidated into a single strategic relationship.
This significantly reduced administrative burden, simplified supplier management and improved process efficiency across the organization.
Improved Visibility and Control
For the first time, procurement leaders had a comprehensive view of spending across subscriptions, memberships and information resources.
This visibility enabled better decision-making, stronger governance and greater confidence in procurement reporting.
Enhanced User Experience
Stakeholders benefited from a streamlined purchasing process, customized invoicing, dedicated support and a single point of contact for managing recurring information resource spend.
The Bigger Lesson for Procurement Leaders
Many organizations continue to view subscriptions, memberships and information resources as low-value purchases that require minimal oversight.
Yet this case demonstrates the opposite.
When spend is decentralized, misclassified and spread across multiple purchasing channels, it can quickly become one of the least visible categories in the business. That lack of visibility creates inefficiencies, unnecessary costs and missed opportunities for procurement teams.
By centralizing processes, enforcing compliance and creating a global strategy for managing recurring resource spend, this organization transformed an overlooked category into a source of measurable savings, improved governance and enhanced user experience.
The biggest lesson?
The greatest opportunity wasn't found in negotiating prices. It was found in uncovering spend that no one knew existed.
Because you can't control what you can't see.
How Much of Your Resource Spend Is Truly Visible?
If resources are still being purchased through multiple channels across your organization, there may be significant opportunities hiding beneath the surface.
At Prenax, we help organizations centralize, manage and optimize recurring resource spend, delivering greater visibility, stronger control and measurable savings.
If you're looking to uncover hidden spend, reduce supplier complexity and gain greater control of subscriptions, memberships and data licences, we'd love to start a conversation.
📩 Get in touch with Prenax to discover how your organization can turn invisible spend into strategic value.