Announcing the 2022 SaaSMe Award Winners

Today’s businesses run on SaaS – from mission critical workflows to customer experiences to team collaboration. IT and Finance have become the dynamic duo, the driving force behind harnessing the power of those SaaS investments.

At Zylo, our customers leverage this dynamic partnership to power a successful ongoing SaaS Management program. These companies – big and small – are taking SaaS by the horns, driving down costs while increasing adoption and innovation.

The SaaSMe Awards were created to honor organizations and individuals taking this progressive approach to SaaS Management. At this year’s SaaSMe event, Cory Wheeler, Chief Customer Officer, and Danielle Bauer, VP of Customer Success, presented SaaSMes in five categories. For each category, two winners were awarded – one enterprise winner and one high-growth winner. And to top it off, they also crowned five new SaaS Superheroes.

SaaS Management Program of the Year

This award recognizes organizations that have embraced an innovative and comprehensive SaaS Management approach, driving rapid cross-functional adoption of SaaS Management practices, and making SaaS Management core to how they run their business.

Enterprise: Adobe

Adobe’s Software Asset Management team is focused on all aspects of SaaS Management and leverages Zylo to truly manage SaaS their way. From tapping into the power of Zylo’s API to create an application catalog for employees to using numerous custom fields to garner the specific data they need to run their program. Adobe’s enterprise SaaS Management program is impressive in action and has matured to be impactful to saving money, reigning in sprawl, and increasing operational efficiency.

Growth: Plenty

As we like to say, SaaS Management is a team sport. And the team at Plenty makes that a reality with strong engagement from both their IT and Procurement teams. Together, and with Zylo’s SaaS Negotiator service, they’ve found tremendous success. Just last year, they reduced their overall monthly spend – even with a steady app count. A feat in and of itself, Plenty is also crushing their renewal preparation by proactively monitoring and reviewing their provisioned licenses. 

SaaS Management Value Driver

This award recognizes companies that place adoption and optimization at the center of their SaaS Management programs. With a clear focus on driving overall utilization, they take a proactive approach to SaaS adoption, measurement, and monitoring while driving ROI by keeping their licensing right-sized and efficient.

Enterprise: Biogen, Keith Sarbaugh & Derek Krow

The results of Biogen’s SaaS Management program are above and beyond, and they continue to crush their goals. Even out of the gate, Biogen was able to quickly reel in a six-figure savings by leveraging Zylo’s usage data. But they didn’t stop there. With Keith Sarbaugh and Derek Krow’s leadership, Biogen has tenaciously built a mature program that relies upon accurate data management and proactive optimization that revealed more than $1 million in savings opportunities. Talk about driving value! 

Growth: Momentive, Jon Alves

Jon Alves, Category Manager of Technology, is an early champion of SaaS Management and Zylo, constantly looking for ways to get the most value out of Momentive’s SaaS investments. From gaining visibility and creating processes across the organization to tackling contracts, their program has turned into an optimization machine. Through and through, Jon is consistently on the ball and making a tremendous impact at Momentive.

IT Leader of the Year

This award recognizes the IT leaders that have taken ownership of SaaS Management and driven internal change to achieve results and progressively build an effective SaaS Management approach across their business. While we recognize that SaaS Management is a team sport, these individuals are shining examples of progressive thought leaders and action-oriented individuals championing change in their organizations.

Enterprise: Sonny Parmar, Atlassian

It’s been a pleasure for us at Zylo to work with Sonny over the years, and see Atlassian’s SaaS Management program blossom. And Sonny’s leadership has been instrumental to its success. What began as a quest for greater visibility of their IT spend turned into a practice designed uniquely for Atlassian’s needs. Sonny has found great success in leveraging custom fields and Benchmarks in Zylo, enabling the team to make data-driven decisions about best-fit tools and optimization opportunities. For a dispersed and growing global enterprise, they’ve decreased expense spending and the number of applications in their stack as a result. 

Growth: Ryan Johnson, Versapay

Ryan has taken ownership on all fronts when it comes to SaaS and is truly driving significant change within his organization. A few notable accomplishments include leading and building a software procurement process from the ground up, optimizing license counts on an app level, and consolidating apps with overlapping functionality. He is viewed as a thought leader, not only when it comes to IT, but for all things and processes when it comes to purchasing SaaS. 

The results speak for themselves. In their first three months using Zylo, Versapay saved 4% on their total SaaS spend. Over the first year, that then became 16% in savings. Not to mention, Ryan helped reduce the company’s apps by 10% while experiencing rapid growth.

Procurement Leader of the Year

This award recognizes the Procurement leaders who have taken ownership of SaaS Management and driven internal change to achieve results and progressively build an effective SaaS Management approach across their business.While we recognize that SaaS Management is a team sport, these individuals are shining examples of progressive thought-leaders and action-oriented individuals championing change in their organizations.

Enterprise: Maggie Mingione, Nutanix

As Procurement Director, Maggie is spearheading progessive change in the way Nutanix manages and addresses SaaS. Not only is her team able to stay on top of renewals, they extend their capabilities partnering with Zylo’s SaaS Negotiator service. The result? Huge savings on renewals. Not to mention, Maggie has positioned herself as a true business partner across the organization, collaborating with other leaders to uncover optimization opportunities. She’s an incredible leader, and we’re proud of the positive impact she’s had on Nutanix.

Growth: Karen Hodson, CM Group

Karen’s experience working for growing SaaS companies set her up to be an early adopter and advocator of SaaS Management. But it’s not an easy task. Among seamlessly leading CM Group through acquisitions, such as Cheetah Digital, she continues to maintain a well-oiled procurement machine, hone the company’s application onboarding and offboarding process, and works consistently to ensure Zylo remains the company’s source of truth. Karen’s work is incredible – and the results speak.

SaaS Superhero of the Year

These are our Zylo power users who are using the platform day in and day out! They know everything there is to know about Zylo and always want to do more. They’re the first people we ask for product feedback and to join an early access program. They are Zylo’s biggest fans and champions at their company.

Ali Najeed, Intuit

To put it simply, Ali is a Zylo Export API wizard. And what he’s been able to do with it for Intuit’s SaaS Management is quite remarkable. From analyzing SaaS data and identifying savings opportunities to uncovering shadow IT. The data he and his team have been able to enrich through integrations has made Zylo their single source of truth for spend. We’re excited to see all of Ali’s successes thus far managing SaaS, and look forward to what’s next.

Leah Tubb, Atlassian

Leah exemplifies all things we think about when working with a best-in-class customer. She has embraced the Zylo product and is a key player in developing Atlassian’s “Operational Rhythm” that ensures their portfolio is in optimal performance. From leveraging workflows to being an early access customer for the Coupa P.O. integrations, and everything in between, Leah is making the most of Zylo to manage SaaS. All in all, Leah is a driving force behind Atlassian’s optimization efforts.

Brittney Linville, Highspot

Brittney is a Zylo superstar and incredibly passionate about SaaS Management. As the enterprise procurement manager at Highspot, she is laser focused on following best practices and finding opportunities to improve the business. We admire Brittney’s tenacity in driving efficiencies across Highspot’s stack and SaaS spend. Over our time working together, she’s helped the organization reduce their total application count by 30%. Impressively, she also drove a reduction in expensed applications by moving them to purchase orders – from 40% to 90% on P.O.

Chris Asing, Redis

Chris embodies the essence of a SaaS Superhero. He is a true steward of SaaS Management at Redis and an early adopter of Zylo’s platform and Managed Services. Understanding that SaaS Management is a team sport, Chris prioritizes communicating with and engaging key stakeholders across the business. And his efforts have paid off. Over the last three years, Redis has been able to decrease expense spend by 50%. Chris is passionate about his work and has even shared his experience on the SaaSMe Unfiltered podcast.

Cory Brester, Foundant

As the leader of IT at Foundant, Cory runs a tight SaaS program that is firing on all cylinders – and in just seven months as a Zylo customer. He’s an incredibly sharp, critical thinker who has seen many successes as a result of his efforts. Notably, he helped Foundant reduce expensed applications amidst company growth. It’s our pleasure to recognize Cory for his outstanding work – the sky’s the limit!

Congratulations again to all the SaaSMe Award winners. You are setting the standard for SaaS Management excellence and we’re honored to be part of your journey. The 2022 winners are in good company, too, joining the ranks of our 2021 winners.