Depending on how it’s implemented I could see this being a very good thing. My public sector clients esp. have a hard time buying any Saas as each one involves finding vendors, getting it approved, setting up payment, etc etc etc. obv they have a whole procurement department for that, but I could see their job being easier if all their aws, azure, and smaller saas came on one bill. The organization would still need to handle compliance and be sure POs were valid, fair pricing, no conflicts, etc. but do that against one vendor instead of 100. It would be difficult to get right though. Balancing buyer and seller interests while trying to get a cut. In fact the same org I’m thinking about was recently forced to do all purchasing through a 3rd party vendor and it slowed down and complicated purchasing even more...
> My public sector clients esp. have a hard time buying any Saas
I worked fulltime at my state college while I was also a fulltime student there. The amount of process to do anything was staggering. Buying something like a replacement hard drive required "quotes" from three different vendors (I printed pricing from 3 different websites). Forget about trying to buy 5 or 6 figure server equipment.
> Balancing buyer and seller interests while trying to get a cut.
You're essentially floating them a short term loan. You pay the provider immediately with your credit card and then sending the buyer a PO. Give procurement a portal to see the bills as they are from the sellers and your PO has an added line item charge (flat fee or preferably a percentage of original bill) for the service.
Depending on risk level of the institution, could probably require an upfront deposit to make sure you don't get burned.
> My public sector clients esp. have a hard time buying any Saas
Indeed. It's probably even harder for then than it was for us.
> Balancing buyer and seller interests while trying to get a cut.
This is what made me jump to the idea of a non-profit consortium set up by SaaS vendors with a mandate to grow the market by reducing friction in purchasing
