Insights / Case study
Scanmarket, a Verdane-owned eSourcing specialist, was positioned toward the most digitally mature buyers in procurement. The market data pointed somewhere else entirely, and following it reshaped the company's positioning ahead of its exit to Unit4.
Scanmarket built eSourcing software procurement teams actually used (eRFx, eAuctions, contract management) and competed as a best-of-breed specialist against end-to-end source-to-pay suites. The suites were winning the narrative: for a first-time buyer, it's easier to get management sign-off on one platform than on a specialised tool for a single function.
Under Verdane's ownership, the brief was to sharpen Scanmarket's position for growth. We started where positioning work should start: not with messaging, but with who the customer actually is. That meant interviews across the ecosystem of customers, external analysts, and the Verdane deal team.
The insight, by the numbers
of the market sat in maturity Level 3, outside Scanmarket's target ICP.
of the market sat in Levels 4–5, where all positioning effort was aimed.
Verdane exits Scanmarket to Unit4, fourteen months after the repositioning.
Gartner segments procurement organisations into five levels of digital maturity, from Level 1 running everything on Excel to Level 5 front-runners who compose their own best-of-breed stack. Scanmarket's implicit ICP was Levels 4–5: sophisticated buyers who already understood the value of a specialist tool. Natural fit, easy conversations, and only 19% of the market.
The data showed the real concentration was Level 3: 54% of the market. Companies that had digitised parts of procurement, typically by buying into a big platform, and were now disappointed. Adoption was low, agility was missing, and the seamless end-to-end journey they'd been sold hadn't materialised. They weren't looking for another platform. They were looking for something their teams would actually use.
Digital maturity distribution in procurement
Distribution of organisational maturity within supply chain technology. Source: Gartner Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Survey, 2019.
“Customers who are not happy with their investment in a platform… a lot of them will be investing in specific solutions where they are able to show business impact. That's the market for Scanmarket.”
External Analyst
Redefining the ICP changed more than the target list. It changed the company's role in the market. Scanmarket didn't need to fight the platforms for their customers. It needed to sit on top of them, adding the capability and adoption the platforms couldn't deliver, and helping Level 3 organisations climb into Levels 4 and 5, the segment Scanmarket already served best. The new ICP wasn't a replacement for the old one. It was the pipeline that feeds it.
The ICP they had
Digitally mature procurement teams (Levels 4–5)
Already convinced of best-of-breed; low education cost, but a narrow segment
Bought on functional depth and specialist credentials
Positioning: the specialist's specialist
The ICP we found
Platform-disappointed organisations climbing the maturity ladder (Level 3)
54% of the market, growing as digitalisation accelerates
Buys on adoption, usability, and time-to-impact, not feature depth
Positioning: the enabler of digital adoption
The new ICP became the foundation for a full repositioning. If the customer's core problem is software their teams won't use, then usability isn't a feature. It's the position. Every element of the brand platform was rebuilt around that idea: purpose, guiding principles, and brand pillars all anchored in enabling adoption rather than showcasing functionality.
Position statement
Built to be used
We enable digital adoption and support procurement functions throughout the journey of digital maturity. With our users at the centre of everything we do, we provide tools that originate from procurement professionals' needs and are built to be used.
The work gave Scanmarket a clear answer to the two questions that matter in a consolidating market: where to play, the underserved 54% climbing the maturity ladder, and how to play, as the adoption layer that complements platforms rather than competing with them.
That story, a specialist with a differentiated position and a large, growing segment to sell into, is also an acquisition story. In June 2022, fourteen months after the repositioning, Verdane exited Scanmarket to Unit4, the Dutch enterprise software group.
The arc, in four moments
Figures: Gartner Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Survey, 2019; Scanmarket and Verdane deal materials, 2021–2022.