Vertice and RSM collaborate to help middle market enterprises control AI consumption and SaaS costs

Strategic alliance helps clients combat runaway consumption-based pricing by pairing RSM's technology advisory services with the world's largest procurement intelligence dataset and negotiation services

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertice, the AI procurement platform built for the modern enterprise, today announced a strategic alliance with RSM US LLP ("RSM") - the leading provider of consulting, tax and assurance services for the middle market - to help clients identify avoidable spend, support negotiations and accelerate procurement cycles.

The alliance has been established to better serve the middle market, pairing Vertice's AI procurement platform, expert negotiation support and procurement intelligence dataset - the largest of its kind - with RSM's leading technology advisory, cloud transformation and cost optimization experience.

Vertice's dataset, which spans more than 250,000 negotiated contracts and more than $75 billion in global indirect spend, provides benchmark-driven insight into pricing, renewal risks and savings opportunities that many middle market organizations would not otherwise have at scale. RSM will help clients leverage this data to drive connection and impact across technology advisory, cloud transformation, finance and risk to ensure they are optimizing SaaS costs, strengthening supplier relationships and enhancing operational efficiency. 

Through the alliance, Vertice's capabilities become a component of RSM's integrated cloud consulting services. For clients of RSM, this means software and cloud cost optimization can move from a reactive exercise upon renewal, to a more pre-emptive and data-led operating model. Vertice and RSM allow organizations to mitigate the budget ramifications of the rapidly evolving software landscape, with particular focus on the shift from fixed, seat-based software contracts to the consumption- and usage-based pricing models that are increasingly prevalent across software vendors.

The impact of such pricing has become notorious following numerous enterprises hitting the headlines after exhausting annual AI budgets early, capping AI SaaS usage in response to excessive unpredicted costs, or even cancelling licences altogether.

According to Vertice's data report 'Investigating consumption-based pricing models', these new pricing mechanisms can create runaway spend, exceeding budget plans by an average of 38%. The threat is not limited to major AI-native tools however, as longstanding SaaS vendors are also changing their pricing models as they introduce more AI capabilities, making corporate software budgets doubly challenging to predict.

Diego Rosenfeld, RSM Technology Advisory Practice Leader and Principal, said:

"RSM has spent a lot of time over the past year with CIOs and their leadership teams helping them navigate the major opex volatility introduced by software vendors using new pricing models. While companies of all sizes are deeply impacted by this, the worst-affected appear to be middle market organizations who suffer from the compounding challenge of spending significantly on software, yet lacking the scale, benchmarking data and buying skills to control it. This collaboration brings together RSM's experience helping middle market organizations optimize technology investments and navigate increasingly complex software vendor environments and Vertice's AI procurement platform to help clients bring order back to the AI and SaaS pricing chaos."

In a recent article, Rosenfeld drew on Vertice benchmark data to detail how AI-driven consumption pricing is reshaping IT budgets for middle market organizations. The research points to:

• 25% reduction in vendors using seat-based pricing models in two years, as consumption-based and hybrid models take over.
• 38% average monthly variance from planned budgets for consumption-based software contracts, versus 4% for traditional seat-based contracts
• Less than 6 months before consumption-based contracts diverge 15%+ from budgets
• 23% increase in contract cost when vendors switch from seat-based to consumption-based pricing.

Roy Tuvey, Founder and CEO, Vertice, said:

"RSM has reinforced what we see across our own customer base every day: consumption-based pricing is fundamentally changing the game for mid-market IT leaders and their CFOs because vendor commercial models are evolving faster than buying processes can keep up. RSM knows these organizations inside and out; pairing the Vertice platform, data, and expert negotiators with RSM's leading advisory capabilities means more companies will get ahead of this pricing shift, rather than reacting to it when a shock vendor invoice arrives at the end of the quarter."

About Vertice

Vertice is the intelligent procurement platform built for the modern enterprise. By uniting agentic workflows, AI-powered insights, and expert buying talent, we enable finance and procurement teams in 100+ countries to operate with greater precision, speed, and impact.

Customers including ARM, Brex, Duolingo, Twilio and Santander use Vertice's platform to review, analyze and negotiate purchases with greater confidence. Vertice processes over $75 billion in spend, with a proven track record of delivering 20%+ savings and accelerating procurement cycles by 2x.

Headquartered in London and recognized by the Financial Times as the UK's fastest-growing scale-up, Vertice also operates in New York, Boston, Sydney, Brno, Linz and Johannesburg. Learn more at www.vertice.one.

PR Contact
Will Gardiner
Vertice
[email protected]

SOURCE Vertice