Introduction:

"Softacut's expertise allowed us to maintain all our critical tools while significantly reducing costs. The performance-based model aligned perfectly with our interests - we only paid from actual savings," says Sarah Jackson, CFO at PayFast Technologies.

This case study demonstrates how Softacut helped a rapidly growing fintech company optimize their SaaS spending without disrupting operations or compromising on essential tools.

The Challenge:

PayFast Technologies was experiencing rapid growth, having increased their team size by 85% in just 12 months. During this expansion, their SaaS expenses had ballooned from €230,000 to €420,000 annually. The company was preparing for a Series A funding round and needed to demonstrate financial efficiency to potential investors without compromising on tools or productivity.

The finance team quickly realized several critical issues.

Many SaaS contracts were negotiated hastily during growth periods, often at premium rates. Several tools had overlapping functionalities across departments, while enterprise plans were being used where standard plans would suffice. No centralized process existed for SaaS procurement, and contract renewals were scattered throughout the year, reducing negotiation leverage. Most importantly, volume discounts weren't being applied despite significant spending across multiple products.

The Softacut Solution:

Softacut implemented a focused two-phase approach to address PayFast's challenges. The discovery and analysis phase began with creating a comprehensive spreadsheet of all SaaS contracts and spending. The team documented renewal dates, contract terms, and current pricing while interviewing key stakeholders to understand essential versus optional features. This process identified quick-win negotiation opportunities and benchmarked current spending against industry standards for similar-sized fintech companies.

The strategic negotiation phase leveraged benchmark data on optimal pricing for each vendor and applied proven negotiation tactics specific to SaaS providers. Softacut secured better terms with major vendors including AWS, Salesforce, and Atlassian while consolidating licenses where appropriate. The team aligned renewal dates to maximize future negotiation leverage and implemented tier optimization based on actual usage patterns.

"What impressed me most was Softacut's negotiation expertise. They knew exactly which levers to pull with each vendor to secure dramatically better terms," explains Michael Reed, CTO at PayFast Technologies.

The Results:

Softacut delivered significant measurable results without disrupting PayFast's operations. The company achieved a 34% reduction in total SaaS spend, representing €142,800 in annual savings. The team successfully right-sized 17 critical SaaS subscriptions while maintaining all necessary functionality and consolidated 8 redundant tools without losing capabilities.

These optimizations extended PayFast's cash runway by approximately 2.5 months and strengthened their financial metrics for investor presentations. Additionally, the company reduced administrative overhead by centralizing SaaS management and created visibility into previously fragmented software spending.

The ROI calculation demonstrates the clear value delivered. Annual savings achieved totaled €142,800, with Softacut's fee representing 25% of savings at €35,700. This resulted in a net annual benefit to PayFast of €107,100,all implemented within just 6 weeks.

Conclusion:

PayFast Technologies' success story demonstrates how Softacut's performance-based SaaS negotiation service can deliver substantial savings without operational disruption. Softacut typically reduces software spending by 20-40% without changing tools or disrupting workflows. With the no-savings-no-fee model, companies face zero risk to get started and can achieve similar results through expert vendor negotiations and strategic SaaS portfolio optimization.