SaaS Discovery Drives Visibility and Insights into Your Portfolio

SaaS discovery is the starting point for every effective SaaS Management strategy. Without it, organizations are flying blind—unable to track spend, identify duplication, or eliminate risk. And as SaaS adoption accelerates across departments, having a clear, complete view of your software environment has never been more important.

Discovery Is Foundational to Effective and Holistic SaaS Management

Running your organization without a structured SaaS discovery process is like sailing without a navigation system. You might eventually reach your destination, but you’ll waste time, resources, and energy trying to get there.

As SaaS adoption scales, so does the need for visibility. IT no longer owns the entire tech stack—our 2025 SaaS Management Index reveals that IT manages only 16% of the average SaaS portfolio. The remaining 84% is purchased and owned by business units or individual employees. Without a system in place to track what’s being used and by whom, organizations lose visibility and control.

That lack of insight has real consequences. Tools go unused, contracts auto-renew without review, and duplicate applications pop up across teams. All of this adds up to wasted budget and operational and security risks.

To keep pace, some organizations are hiring dedicated SaaS Managers. Others rely on CIOs and IT leaders to take the helm. During the shift to remote work, these leaders stepped up, deploying SaaS solutions quickly to maintain productivity and business continuity.

SaaS remains a powerful enabler of innovation, agility, and collaboration. But to unlock its full value, you need to know what’s in use. That starts with discovery.

Manually tracking hundreds of apps, contracts, users, and spend data is nearly impossible. The average organization uses 275 SaaS applications, but IT teams often estimate that number to be half that. Spend is underestimated by three times or more. With the average annual SaaS investment now at $49M, these blind spots get expensive fast.

You can’t optimize what you can’t see. That’s why discovery is the foundation of modern SaaS Management.

What Is SaaS Discovery?

SaaS discovery is the process of identifying and cataloging every SaaS application in use across your organization—a component of SaaS inventory management. It’s the first step in building a complete and reliable SaaS inventory. Without discovery, businesses can’t fully understand what tools are in play, how much is being spent, or where risk might be hiding.

The discovery process helps centralize this knowledge, transforming fragmented data into a clear view of your SaaS environment. It enables IT, procurement, and finance teams to make decisions based on facts, not assumptions, while paving the way for cost optimization, improved compliance, and smarter renewals.

From Spreadsheets to a SaaS Management Tool

Today, many organizations try to track their software portfolios using spreadsheets, legacy software management platforms, or a combination of siloed tools. These methods quickly become outdated and inaccurate, especially in decentralized environments where anyone with a credit card can spin up a new app.

Modern SaaS Management platforms replace these outdated methods with automation. They integrate with finance, SSO, and direct SaaS sources to provide continuous visibility. This shift from static records to real-time discovery eliminates blind spots and gives stakeholders the data they need to act with confidence.

Why Visibility Is Important to Your Saas Management Strategy

Visibility is the backbone of effective SaaS Management. Without it, there’s no way to manage spend, usage, risk, or renewals with confidence. A strong discovery process reveals the full picture—what tools exist, who’s using them, how much is being spent, and where inefficiencies can be addressed.

Find All Your SaaS Wherever It Lurks

SaaS doesn’t live in one place. It’s purchased on corporate credit cards, submitted through procurement, or expensed by employees. A solid SaaS discovery approach captures everything—whether it’s behind a login, buried in an invoice, or hidden in an SSO report.

Without automated discovery, teams often rely on static spreadsheets or word-of-mouth to understand their SaaS environment. These methods fall short, leaving gaps that create risk and inefficiency. Discovery makes it possible to track the entire portfolio from a single, reliable source.

Eliminate Shadow IT and Shadow AI

Shadow IT happens when business units or individuals buy software outside official procurement channels. Likewise, shadow AI is the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence tools within an organization. Today, shadow IT makes up just 1% of total spend but 45% of applications. It’s not always malicious—often it’s the result of teams moving fast to solve problems. But without centralized oversight, it introduces risk and redundancy.

With full visibility, you can uncover shadow IT and shadow AI before they become a compliance or budget problem. Discovery helps you assess each application’s role and consolidate where needed, replacing fragmented tools with scalable, supported solutions.

Mitigate Security and Compliance Risks

Unmonitored software usage opens the door to risk. When apps aren’t properly vetted or secured, they may expose sensitive data or violate compliance standards. For industries with strict regulatory requirements, this can lead to costly consequences. 

According to Zylo data, 51% of applications in the average portfolio have a “Poor” or “Low” risk score (CCI). This means they introduce significant security and compliance risks to the organization.

SaaS discovery reveals applications that fall outside approved systems, giving IT teams the power to assess and secure tools before issues arise. With the right governance policies in place, businesses can reduce exposure and maintain compliance.

Know Who Has Access—and Why It Matters

SaaS discovery isn’t just about identifying what tools you have. It’s about knowing who is using them. A centralized view of user access helps identify overprovisioned licenses, inactive accounts, and potential security gaps.

Understanding user-level access also supports audits and offboarding. When employees leave, organizations can confidently remove access without the risk of lingering credentials tied to critical systems.

Eliminate Unnecessary Costs and Reclaim Budget

Every unused license and duplicate tool drains your budget. Visibility helps pinpoint waste—whether it’s redundant apps serving the same function or licenses assigned to inactive users. Eliminating what’s not needed frees up funds for tools that actually move the business forward. When finance, procurement, and IT share a clear view of spend, it’s easier to align resources with business priorities.

Quickly Understand Your SaaS Usage and Spend

Licenses aren’t cheap—and many go unused. In fact, the average organization is only using 47% of its provisioned SaaS licenses. That means more than half (53%) are sitting idle, draining budget without delivering value.

SaaS discovery makes it easy to pinpoint which tools are adopted, which are neglected, and whether your spending aligns with actual usage. When paired with utilization data, this level of visibility guides smarter decisions around renewals, reallocation, and deprovisioning.

Overpayment is another issue. Gartner estimates that companies are overspending on SaaS licenses by roughly 25%. Without accurate data, it’s easy to underestimate how much is being spent—or overcommit during vendor negotiations.

And that spend isn’t small. The average annual SaaS investment varies by company size:

• $11.5M for small businesses (1–500 employees)
• $23.3M for small to midsize organizations (501–2,500)
• $62.9M for large companies (2,501–5,000)
• $55.8M for enterprises (5,001–10,000)
• $284M for large enterprises (10,001+)

With that much at stake, visibility into SaaS usage and spend isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.

Save Time Across Teams

SaaS discovery doesn’t just reduce costs—it saves time. When teams can instantly see what software is available, how it’s being used, and who owns it, they avoid duplicate research, back-and-forth emails, and delayed decisions. Centralized visibility eliminates manual work and enables faster response times when questions arise around renewals, audits, or usage.

Empower Employees with the Right Tools

With visibility into application usage, IT and procurement teams can better support employees by identifying the tools that drive productivity. Rather than limiting access, discovery enables smarter provisioning—getting the right tools to the right teams while eliminating those that don’t add value. This improves the employee experience and supports high-performance work.

Establish a Single Source of Truth

A reliable, continuously updated SaaS inventory ensures that everyone—from IT to procurement to finance—is working from the same data. No more reconciling multiple spreadsheets or chasing down outdated records. A single source of truth simplifies decision-making, improves collaboration, and makes it easier to enforce policy across departments.

Improve Vendor Negotiation

When you know exactly how many licenses are in use—and how many aren’t—you enter renewal conversations with leverage. SaaS discovery provides concrete data to support pricing discussions, eliminate unnecessary upsells, and secure terms that match your real usage. Visibility also helps identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, which can further increase negotiation power.

Stay Ahead of Renewals

Missed renewals can lead to surprise charges or rushed decisions. Visibility ensures you know what’s coming and when—so you can plan ahead, evaluate performance, and renegotiate from a position of strength. Discovery tools that flag upcoming renewals help you act proactively instead of reactively.

Benefits of SaaS Discovery throughout Your Organization

The value of SaaS discovery reaches far beyond IT. From finance to procurement to the C-suite, discovery equips teams with the insights they need to manage spend, reduce risk, and drive business results.

SaaS Discovery for Software Asset Managers

For software asset managers, an accurate software inventory is non-negotiable. But SaaS doesn’t sit in one central repository. It’s spread across business units, buried in expense reports, and often purchased outside of procurement. Tracking only your top 10 or 15 apps might cover major spend, but it misses the broader risk, cost, and complexity hiding in the long tail.

SaaS discovery eliminates these blind spots by automatically identifying every application in use—whether it’s sourced through procurement, expensed on a credit card, or provisioned directly by a user. That complete visibility reveals redundancy, surfaces shadow IT, and shows how usage compares to spend across the entire portfolio.

With a centralized, always-current view, software asset managers can go beyond managing the biggest tools. They can enforce governance, reduce waste, and stay ahead of audits across the full scope of their environment.

SaaS Discovery for IT

Because most SaaS purchases are scattered across business units and individual users, IT has a limited view of the full software environment. This fragmented ownership doesn’t mean IT leaders are off the hook for managing it, though. IT remains 100% responsible for managing the costs and risk of all software. Without visibility into every app, this leaves IT exposed to security and compliance risks they can’t mitigate.

Discovery helps IT regain visibility without slowing innovation. By uncovering what’s being used and by whom, IT can better manage user access, enforce security standards, and plan for renewals or integrations. It also frees IT from time-consuming audits and manual data collection, allowing them to focus on more strategic work.

SaaS Discovery for Procurement

Procurement teams need clarity to negotiate with SaaS providers effectively. But without insight into current usage, license counts, or renewal timelines, it’s hard to secure favorable terms or avoid waste.

SaaS discovery gives procurement teams the data they need to drive cost efficiency. It shows which apps are redundant, which licenses are underused, and when contracts are set to renew—turning every negotiation into a data-backed conversation. This enables better vendor management and long-term savings.

SaaS Discovery for CIOs

For CIOs, SaaS is a powerful lever—but only if they can see it clearly. A lack of visibility limits their ability to guide strategy, optimize spend, or manage risk at scale.

With automated discovery, CIOs gain a full view of the SaaS portfolio. This helps inform digital transformation initiatives, align technology with business goals, and reduce operational complexity. It also allows for proactive governance without limiting teams’ ability to innovate.

SaaS Discovery for Finance Teams

Finance teams need to know where the money’s going—and with SaaS, that’s not always clear. Discovery helps surface the full financial impact of the organization’s SaaS investments, including unused licenses, shadow IT, and duplicated tools.

With a full accounting of SaaS spend, finance leaders can improve forecasting, control costs, and partner more effectively with procurement and IT. Given that organizations spend anywhere from $11.5M to $284M on SaaS annually (depending on company size), the financial stakes are too high for guesswork.

SaaS Discovery for FinOps Teams

For FinOps professionals, SaaS remains a blind spot. Unlike cloud infrastructure, where usage is centralized and predictable, SaaS purchases are fragmented across business units, departments, and even individual employees. Without clear visibility, FinOps teams can’t effectively understand the full scope of spend, forecast budgets, enforce accountability, or identify where inefficiencies exist. 

SaaS discovery gives FinOps the complete, always-on visibility required to incorporate SaaS into their practice with confidence. By surfacing every application in use, FinOps can get ahead of waste, optimize license utilization, and avoid surprise renewals or overages. This isn’t just an IT problem anymore—it’s a core FinOps capability.

SaaS Discovery for Marketing Teams

Marketing teams are often among the heaviest users of SaaS, relying on a mix of tools for automation, analytics, content, and CRM. But these tools are frequently acquired outside standard procurement workflows, leading to fragmented data and overlapping functionality.

Discovery helps marketing leaders understand which applications are in use, who owns them, and how much they’re costing. It also identifies opportunities to consolidate platforms and align toolsets across teams. This not only improves performance, it helps stretch already-tight marketing budgets further.

Common Challenges in SaaS Discovery

While SaaS discovery is foundational to effective SaaS Management, it’s not without its challenges. Many organizations struggle to get a clear, accurate view of their portfolio due to fragmented systems, outdated processes, or tools that create more friction than value. Here are some of the most pressing barriers companies face.

Security and Privacy Risks

Not all discovery methods are created equal. Some tools collect data in ways that introduce security and privacy concerns—especially if they operate without user awareness or clear governance. For organizations in regulated industries, this can raise red flags and increase compliance risk. A discovery approach that’s both secure and transparent is essential to maintaining control without compromising customer trust.

Shadow IT Creates Blind Spots

According to the 2025 SaaS Management Index, only 16% of an organization’s SaaS applications are managed by IT. That means 84% of the portfolio is owned by business units or employees, often purchased outside traditional channels. Worse, 51% of software expense charges are misclassified, making the blind spot even more gaping. 

This decentralized purchasing behavior fuels shadow IT—making it difficult to track spend, usage, or risk. Discovery closes the gap, surfacing applications that would otherwise remain hidden.

Lack of Centralized Visibility

The average organization uses 275 SaaS applications, but most IT leaders underestimate that number by nearly 2x. Without a centralized system to bring together finance, contract, and usage data, teams are forced to operate in silos—creating duplicate purchases and missed renewal opportunities. Discovery enables a single, authoritative view of the full SaaS estate.

Integration Gaps Limit Discovery Accuracy

Even organizations that invest in SaaS Management tools can struggle with incomplete data if those tools don’t integrate fully with finance systems, SSO platforms, and app APIs. Without strong integrations, discovery remains partial—and inaccurate. Gaps in usage or contract data limit the ability to optimize spend and manage renewals effectively.

Employee Trust and Experience

Some discovery methods, such as browser extensions or device-level monitoring, can feel invasive—especially in enterprise settings. These methods may conflict with company culture or raise concerns about employee privacy. Larger organizations in particular report hesitation around these approaches, favoring solutions that respect boundaries while still delivering insight.

Manual Methods Aren’t Enough

Manual tracking methods like spreadsheets or legacy SAM tools only capture known applications—and require constant upkeep. Meanwhile, SaaS adoption continues to grow rapidly. With Gartner predicting SaaS spending is expected to increase by 19% in 2025, the cost of incomplete discovery adds up fast. Relying on static tools in a dynamic environment leaves organizations open to waste and risk.

Methods of SaaS Discovery

There’s no single way to discover SaaS across an organization. The most effective strategies combine multiple methods to ensure complete visibility. Each method has unique strengths—and limitations. Understanding these can help you choose a discovery approach that balances coverage, accuracy, and user experience.

AI-Powered Matching Model

This method uses machine learning to identify SaaS applications across large data sets, such as expense and contract records. AI models can recognize app names, vendors, and transaction patterns—even when they’re misspelled or formatted inconsistently. Zylo’s proprietary AI-powered model plays a key role in surfacing the full scope of SaaS across business units—especially those that bypass traditional IT channels.

Strengths

High accuracy and scalability; improves over time

Weaknesses

Requires high-quality input data to perform well

Rule-Based Matching

Rule-based matching uses defined logic—such as keywords or transaction codes—to identify SaaS purchases or user activity. While less adaptive than AI, this method is fast and effective when the patterns are predictable. Rule-based systems often serve as a useful complement to AI, filling in gaps or flagging exceptions.

Strengths

Easy to implement and interpret

Weaknesses

Struggles with inconsistencies and evolving data patterns

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

CASBs sit between users and cloud services, monitoring traffic to detect which applications are in use. They can flag unauthorized or unapproved tools in real time. CASBs are valuable in high-security environments but often require supplemental methods for complete discovery.

Strengths

Good for identifying shadow IT and monitoring access

Weaknesses

May miss usage in encrypted traffic or VPN environments; typically focused on security, not cost or usage optimization

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions track SaaS access by recording URLs and activity within a user’s browser. They provide granular visibility into app usage and frequency. Larger enterprises often avoid this method due to employee privacy concerns. In some cases, deploying browser extensions has triggered internal pushback or noncompliance with IT policies.

Strengths

Real-time, user-level insights

Weaknesses

Can be perceived as invasive; often not scalable across large organizations

Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO systems authenticate users across multiple platforms, creating a central log of app access. By tapping into SSO logs, teams can see what apps employees are logging into and how often. Given that IT only manages 16% of SaaS applications, relying solely on SSO leaves a significant portion of the portfolio invisible.

Strengths

Great for tracking access to sanctioned apps

Weaknesses

Doesn’t capture SaaS that bypasses SSO or is accessed via personal credentials

API Connectors

API connectors integrate directly with SaaS applications to pull detailed data—such as license usage, user activity, and feature adoption. This allows for deep insight into how apps are being used in practice. API-level integrations are particularly useful during renewal cycles or when assessing feature-level value across applications.

Strengths

Highly accurate, real-time data

Weaknesses

Requires app-specific setup and ongoing maintenance

Agents

Installed agents collect data at the device level—monitoring user activity across all applications, including locally installed and browser-based tools. Due to their intrusive nature, agents are rarely used at scale in large enterprises, though they may be viable in smaller, high-security environments.

Strengths

Deepest level of visibility across the user’s environment

Weaknesses

High privacy and security concerns; resource-intensive to manage

Financial or Payment Records

Expense reports, procurement systems, and credit card statements are rich sources of discovery. Many SaaS applications first appear in payment data—often before IT is aware of them. This method is especially powerful when paired with AI-based matching, which can interpret ambiguous vendor names or inconsistent descriptions.

Strengths

Useful for surfacing shadow IT and employee-purchased tools

Weaknesses

May lack context on usage or value

Email Scanning and Scraping

Email-based discovery looks for confirmation messages, invoices, or login activity related to SaaS tools. It can detect new application signups or subscription renewals. Most organizations avoid this method due to concerns over surveillance and legal compliance.

Strengths

Detects SaaS at the moment of signup

Weaknesses

Raises significant privacy concerns; typically blocked in enterprise environments

Web Proxy

Web proxies monitor outbound traffic and DNS requests, flagging connections to known SaaS providers. This method can reveal unsanctioned apps and traffic trends. Web proxies can help spot risky or noncompliant tools but are best used alongside systems that capture usage and spend data.

Strengths

Good for identifying shadow IT

Weaknesses

Limited visibility into actual usage or contract details

Which SaaS Discovery Method Is Right for You?

No single discovery method gives you the full picture. Each approach—whether AI-driven, rule-based, or integrated with security tools—has its strengths. But on its own, every method has blind spots.

That’s why the most effective SaaS Management strategies rely on multiple discovery mechanisms working together. Financial data is especially important for surfacing shadow IT, which remains one of the biggest barriers to visibility. When employees expense tools on personal or corporate cards, those applications often bypass IT systems entirely—making finance the first (and sometimes only) place they show up.

Pairing financial discovery with usage data, API connectors, and SSO logs allows you to spot apps early, track their adoption over time, and make informed decisions about renewal, consolidation, or deprovisioning. It also helps eliminate manual tracking and ensures your SaaS inventory reflects the reality of how your organization operates.

In short: you can’t manage or optimize what you can’t see. And to see clearly, you need more than one lens.

How a Discovery Process Drives SaaS Visibility

A strong SaaS discovery process does more than reveal what software you’re using—it builds a foundation for long-term optimization. By following a consistent and structured process, organizations can move from reactive management to proactive control.

Step One: Discover All Your SaaS

The first step is identifying every SaaS application in use—regardless of who purchased it or where it resides. This includes tools acquired through procurement, expensed on corporate credit cards, or signed up for by individual employees.

Most IT leaders underestimate the number of apps their company has by 2X. Without a robust discovery strategy, shadow IT and decentralized purchasing habits make it impossible to get an accurate picture. 

Automated, multi-source discovery is essential for surfacing both known and unknown tools. Zylo’s discovery, for example, is built on AI and machine learning to identify applications via financial records. It supplements that data from sources such as single sign on to create an inventory of applications.

Step Two: Catalog the Data

Once discovered, SaaS applications must be cataloged. For instance, Zylo automatically tags apps with functionality, category, and sub-category. Then, onboard applications into your system of record by centralizing key information such as owner, usage data, spend, license count, contract terms, and renewal dates. 

This is where raw discovery transforms into actionable insight. You can more effectively eliminate duplicate applications, align tools to business units, and prepare for renewals. For teams still using spreadsheets, this step often exposes gaps and inconsistencies that limit governance and create risk.

Step Three: Track Constantly

SaaS doesn’t stand still—tools are added, dropped, and modified constantly. That’s why discovery isn’t a one-time task. Tracking must be ongoing, using automated integrations with financial systems, SSO, and SaaS providers to ensure data stays current.

Without continuous tracking, organizations miss opportunities to rightsize licenses, reclaim unused spend, and catch risky behavior. Inconsistent tracking is a primary reason why 53% of SaaS licenses go unused, costing companies thousands—or even millions—each year.

Zylo’s discovery is always running in the background, regularly surfacing new apps entering your environment. Automated alerts ensure that IT and finance teams are aware of these new apps as soon as they happen.

Step Four: Benchmark Success

Visibility creates the foundation, but benchmarks provide the context. Comparing your SaaS portfolio against industry standards helps validate decisions, identify optimization opportunities, and align spend with business value.

Zylo’s benchmarking data allows organizations to assess average cost per app, portfolio size by company size, and adoption trends across departments. With benchmarks, you can measure progress, spot outliers, and justify changes across your software environment.

Benchmarking data is a powerful tool to drive your SaaS strategy. As a CIO, I’m always trying to balance how I equip my teams with the best tools while ensuring we’re making smart investments. Zylo Benchmarks is a powerful tool that will help technology leaders achieve that elusive balance.

– Cynthia Stoddard, Senior Vice President, and Chief Information Officer, Adobe

Using SaaS Discovery to Optimize Your Portfolio

Once you have visibility into your SaaS environment, the next step is optimization. Discovery enables you to assess what’s in use, what’s delivering value, and where there’s room to reduce cost or complexity. With the right insights, you can shape a leaner, more effective SaaS portfolio.

Number of Applications Being Used

How many different SaaS applications are in use at your company today?

Though the average organization has 275 SaaS applications, most teams don’t realize just how large their portfolio has become. On top of that, 7 new apps are added each month (that’s 91 annually!), adding up to 33% portfolio growth for the average company.

Without discovery, many tools remain untracked, leading to application sprawl and duplicated functionality. SaaS discovery helps quantify your actual footprint and identify overlaps across teams. This clarity allows you to consolidate redundant apps and ensure each tool serves a defined business need.

Renewals on the Horizon

With the average company experiencing 247 renewals annually, it’s easy for them to slip through the cracks. Unfortunately, missed renewals lead to surprise costs, auto-renewals without review, or lost leverage during negotiations. Discovery tracks contract details and ties them to app usage, giving you advance notice of what’s coming due and whether that app is worth keeping.

In addition, it ensures visibility into all of your renewal dates. That way, you can take action early—evaluating performance, engaging vendors, and avoiding last-minute decisions that cost you more.

Spend

Without discovery, SaaS spend often gets underestimated or misallocated. In fact, most organizations underestimate their SaaS spend by 3x or more, and Gartner reports that companies overpay by about 25% on average.

By tying application data to financial records, discovery surfaces the full cost of your SaaS environment. It also highlights opportunities to consolidate contracts, eliminate license waste, and allocate costs. Ultimately, this helps finance, procurement, and IT align on priorities, save money, and redirect budget to the tools and initiatives that matter most.

Utilization

Even the right tools can go underused. Zylo data indicates that only 47% of provisioned SaaS licenses are actually utilized, resulting in 53% of licenses being wasted. That’s a major optimization opportunity.

SaaS discovery paired with usage analytics shows where licenses are sitting idle. It helps you rightsize subscriptions, deprovision inactive users, and ensure spend matches value—without disrupting workflows or productivity.

Benchmarking Your SaaS

Discovery gives you visibility. Benchmarking gives you context. When you compare your SaaS environment against aggregated, anonymized data from similar organizations, it becomes easier to evaluate your portfolio’s performance, spot outliers, and drive smarter decisions.

Portfolio Benchmarks

How many applications should your company have? That depends on your size and industry. By benchmarking your portfolio against peers, you can assess whether you’re experiencing application sprawl—or if your current footprint is on track. Portfolio benchmarks help you gauge tool proliferation, understand where growth is occurring, and identify potential areas for consolidation.

Popular Applications Benchmarks

Knowing what other companies use can be a powerful reference point. Benchmarking helps you identify the most commonly used tools by category or function—marketing, finance, collaboration, and more. If your team is using a niche or redundant tool where others rely on a more established platform, it may be time to reevaluate. This context also supports vendor selection, internal adoption efforts, and platform standardization across teams.

Price Benchmarks

Understanding what others are paying for the same software gives you a significant advantage during renewal or negotiation cycles. Zylo’s benchmark data allows you to see average costs for top SaaS vendors, broken down by company size and usage level. When you know the market rate, you can spot overpayment, push back on pricing increases, and negotiate with confidence.

Gain Actionable Insights

Benchmarks are only valuable if they drive action. With the right comparisons, you can validate optimization decisions, justify budget shifts, and build stronger cases for change. Whether it’s identifying redundant apps, flagging overpriced licenses, or tracking adoption trends, benchmarking transforms data into decisions.

Combined with continuous SaaS discovery, benchmarking is a key part of managing SaaS at scale—making your portfolio more efficient, effective, and aligned with business goals.

Best Practices in SaaS Discovery

Getting started with SaaS discovery is one thing—making it sustainable and effective over time is another. Whether you’re building a program from scratch or refining your current approach, following best practices ensures lasting value and buy-in across the organization.

Setting Clear Evaluation Criteria

Before choosing a discovery solution or process, define what success looks like. What types of SaaS do you need to uncover? Are you focused on shadow IT, usage optimization, contract management, or all of the above?

Establishing clear goals helps you choose the right tools, set realistic expectations, and measure impact. It also ensures your team is aligned on what matters most—and what “complete discovery” actually means in your environment.

Involving Cross-Functional Teams

SaaS doesn’t live in just one department—so your discovery efforts shouldn’t either. Involving stakeholders from IT, procurement, finance, and individual business units brings broader insight and more accurate data.

Cross-functional collaboration also builds trust in the process and improves adoption. When teams see their input reflected in policies and platform decisions, they’re more likely to stay engaged and proactive.

Prioritizing Security and Compliance

Discovery tools must strike a balance between visibility and responsibility. Look for solutions that respect employee privacy and support compliance standards (like SOC 2 or GDPR). Also, avoid invasive practices like scraping emails or browser monitoring—especially in enterprise environments.

Security shouldn’t be compromised for the sake of discovery. Select tools and practices that both identify risks and mitigate them.

Ensuring Scalability and Integration

What works for a 500-person company won’t scale to 10,000. As SaaS portfolios grow, discovery systems must scale with them, supporting thousands of apps, multiple data sources, and evolving business needs.

Prioritize tools that integrate easily with your existing systems: SSO, financial platforms, and SaaS providers. Seamless integrations reduce manual work, improve data accuracy, and make continuous discovery part of your everyday operations—not a separate project.

SaaS Discovery in Action

SaaS discovery isn’t just a concept—it’s delivering real results for organizations of all sizes. Here’s how four leading companies have used Zylo’s platform to uncover blind spots, reclaim budget, and drive strategic outcomes.

Modernizing Medicine: Visibility Powers License Optimization

Healthcare software company Modernizing Medicine turned to Zylo to gain better visibility into its growing SaaS ecosystem. With multiple departments purchasing software independently, the organization lacked a centralized view of applications, ownership, and spend.

After adopting Zylo, the team discovered over 300 SaaS applications, many of which were unmanaged or duplicative. This visibility helped streamline license management, eliminate inefficiencies, and reduce manual effort.

“We were playing a game of Whack-A-Mole,” said Trenton Cycholl, VP of IT and Digital Business. “It was a very manual process, and the data wasn’t always accurate. With Zylo, we now have a single source of truth that gives us the visibility and confidence we need.”

BlackLine: SaaS Discovery Fuels Better Governance

Financial automation leader BlackLine partnered with Zylo to gain visibility into its expanding SaaS stack and enable more effective decision-making. Within weeks, Zylo helped uncover 90 applications that had never been formally inventoried.

“With Zylo, we quickly found tools that were unused or duplicative and were able to take immediate action,” said Julie Day, Staff IT Asset Manager at BlackLine. That visibility enabled BlackLine to save over $100,000 in annual SaaS costs, and ultimately consolidate ownership and usage data across departments.

Day added, “Zylo gave us the foundation to build a repeatable process. We’re not just putting out fires—we’re managing proactively.”

Adobe: SaaS Discovery Enables App Rationalization and Standardization

Adobe’s SaaS spend was growing faster than revenue, but limited visibility made it difficult to manage usage, reduce redundancy, or support employees effectively. With Zylo, the team discovered 2,600 SaaS applications—far more than the estimated 1,800—and consolidated down to 400 standard titles.

The company unlocked $60M in cost savings and avoidance and saved 10,000+ hours annually by automating license reharvesting and streamlining provisioning.

“Zylo allows us greater insights into our software usage,” said Ash Rai, Director of Software Asset Management and Vendor Relations. “We regularly harvest licenses, resulting in millions in cost avoidance and better strategies for renewals.”

Adobe also launched a centralized software catalog to eliminate card-based purchases and improve governance. “We created an online catalog where employees can discover and download software in a frictionless way,” said Vinod Vishwan, Sr. Director, Business Planning & Operations.

From Visibility to Value: Measuring SaaS Discovery Results

Implementing SaaS discovery is only the beginning. To drive real impact, organizations need to define what success looks like, monitor progress, and continually optimize their approach. Clear KPIs and ongoing evaluation ensure that discovery efforts stay aligned with business goals.

Defining Key Performance Indicators

To measure the effectiveness of SaaS discovery, you need KPIs that reflect both inventory completeness and insight quality. These metrics help track how far your visibility has come—and how well it’s supporting smarter decision-making across the business.

SaaS Application Count

Tracking the number of discovered applications is a direct indicator of visibility. That’s because there are often more apps in your environment than expected. A rising app count during onboarding is typically a positive sign—indicating previously hidden tools are being uncovered.

Once you’ve discovered all of your applications, another KPI to focus on is onboarding them into your system of record. This means centralizing spend, contract, and usage data for all of those applications. We often see companies take a prioritized approach, starting with their most critical business apps. Those “Tier One” applications may be apps with the highest cost, essential to business operations, or a renewal in the next 90 days.

Annual SaaS Spend

Quantifying total SaaS spend provides context for financial oversight. Visibility into your total annual SaaS investment—which ranges from $11.5M to $284M depending on company size—sets the baseline for identifying cost-saving opportunities, rationalizing your stack, and benchmarking against industry peers.

Spend Source Breakdown

Discovery isn’t just about what apps you have—it’s about understanding how they’re being purchased. Tracking spend across different channels, such as accounts payable, expense reports, resellers, and cloud marketplaces, offers critical insight into decentralized buying behavior and potential risk.

This granular view of spend sources helps IT and procurement teams identify shadow IT, evaluate risk exposure, and take steps to centralize future purchases.

Monitoring Post-Implementation Performance

After initial implementation, tracking ongoing performance is key. The most effective SaaS discovery platforms include dashboards that offer real-time insight into app usage, ownership, spend, and renewals. They also provide automated alerts that notify teams when new apps are discovered or when contract changes are detected.

These capabilities turn discovery from a one-time event into a dynamic, continuous process—keeping stakeholders informed and able to act quickly.

Continuous Evaluation and Optimization

SaaS portfolios are constantly evolving. New tools are introduced, departments grow, and business needs shift. That’s why discovery isn’t a “set it and forget it” function—it requires ongoing attention and adjustment.

Regular reviews of your SaaS inventory, utilization trends, and spend benchmarks ensure your portfolio stays lean and effective. Organizations that treat discovery as a continuous discipline—not a point-in-time project—are better equipped to control costs and drive value.

Aligning Discovery with Broader IT and Business Goals

To maximize impact, SaaS discovery should be aligned with your organization’s broader IT and business strategies. Whether you’re preparing for M&A activity, building a digital transformation roadmap, or simply seeking greater operational efficiency, discovery provides the data backbone to support those initiatives.

We commonly see organizations focus on these business outcomes:

• Inventory visibility and insights (powered by SaaS discovery)
• Avoidance of unnecessary and preventable costs
• Realized, hard cost savings
• Maintained record of compliance

When discovery insights flow into renewal planning, budgeting, risk management, and workforce enablement, it becomes more than just a visibility tool—it becomes a strategic advantage.

The Future of SaaS Discovery: AI’s Growing Role

SaaS discovery is becoming smarter. AI now plays a key role in identifying apps faster and more accurately—especially as purchasing grows more decentralized. Advanced matching models help uncover tools hidden in expense data or purchased outside procurement workflows.

Looking ahead, AI will do more than surface apps. It will drive predictions about usage trends, renewal risk, and optimization opportunities. With discovery data as the foundation, AI will power decisions that reduce costs, manage risk, and improve efficiency—making discovery not just reactive, but strategic.

SaaS Discovery FAQs

How can SaaS discovery benefit my organization in terms of efficiency and cost savings?

Discovery helps reduce waste by identifying unused licenses, duplicate tools, and hidden spend. With only 47% of licenses used on average, visibility can lead to significant savings and better resource allocation.

What are the key features to look for in a SaaS discovery tool?

Look for multi-source integration, AI-powered and rule-based matching, automated alerts, and dashboards. Scalability, privacy, and ease of integration are also critical.

How can I implement a SaaS discovery process in my existing IT infrastructure?

Start with clear goals. Use a tool that connects with your finance systems, SSO, and SaaS providers. Bring in IT, finance, and procurement early to ensure adoption and accuracy.

What challenges might my organization face during the SaaS discovery process, and how can they be overcome?

Challenges include shadow IT, limited data, and privacy concerns. Use a multi-method approach—finance, SSO, APIs—while avoiding intrusive methods like browser extensions. Cross-team alignment helps smooth the process.

Unlock the Power of SaaS Management with Discovery and Visibility

You can’t manage what you can’t see—and that’s where SaaS discovery delivers real value. It gives you the visibility to identify every application in use, understand how they’re being used, and control how much you’re spending.

Discovery is more than a one-time audit. It’s the engine behind effective SaaS management. With the right data in hand, you can reduce waste, improve compliance, and make smarter decisions at every stage—from procurement to renewal. And when paired with AI, benchmarking, and continuous tracking, discovery becomes a strategic advantage across your business.

Visibility isn’t just the first step. It’s the foundation for long-term SaaS success. Get started with a demo and see what Zylo can do for you!