At Zylo, we discover the SaaS applications in the enterprise and provide a SaaS management platform as one system of record to track SaaS application spend, utilization and employee feedback. The full view of this information, categorized in one system, is invaluable and means: no more spreadsheets, no more surprise auto-renewals, no more Shadow-IT, and the list goes on and on.
But how to you know you’re driving outcomes and making the most of your technology investments? It starts with measuring the value of your SaaS.
Going Beyond SaaS Application Visibility Drives Actionable Data
Visibility of SaaS spend in a SaaS Management platform is instantly valuable for IT Procurement teams. For Enterprise IT organizations, though, we’ve found they derive the most value from the deeper utilization information about their most strategic SaaS applications. Looking at active utilization by user and getting employee feedback about each SaaS application provides actionable data that IT and IT Procurement can both use to impact employee productivity, employee satisfaction, and ultimately, the bottom line.
Active Utilization is One of the Best Measurements for SaaS Application Value
Knowing how many licenses were purchased and how many licenses are provisioned is important information, but it doesn’t tell the full story about how valuable each application is to the users. Looking at active usage of each license paints a more valuable picture and gives you data to make decisions about your SaaS license optimization in real-time.
Best Practices to Measure the Value of Your SaaS Applications
Monitor your active SaaS application usage on a regular basis
Knowing what the typical usage frequency should be, for each SaaS application, is information known at the time of purchase. In the average organization, 40% of applications are left unused or underutilized. Being able to run routine reports to analyze utilization activity allows you to identify low-utilization and put a plan in place around it. Aim for a 90% utilization rate.
Survey your employees to gauge SaaS application satisfaction and value
After a SaaS application is purchased, it is often hard to figure out if the users find value in it. Surveying users on a periodic basis is a good practice to begin in order to monitor satisfaction over time and correlate SaaS application usage and spend with SaaS application satisfaction.
Develop a process to claw-back employee licenses if they aren’t using them
Once utilization reports and dashboards exist, it’s a best practice to put a plan in place around SaaS license optimization. Taking back unused licenses to provision to new users is a common strategy. Working with the business to determine what works best will be paramount to your success.
Develop a training program to increase adoption of strategic SaaS apps
If there is low utilization for the SaaS applications employees should be using to do their job, setting up a training session for the non-active users is recommended. In the training, ensure employees know how to use the SaaS application and the importance of why it matters to use it.
Getting to this level of sophistication in measuring the value of your SaaS applications sounds difficult. But with a SaaS optimization platform, it is an achievable outcome in a just a few short weeks. As more and more software purchases are continuing to be made outside of IT, and the majority of new purchases are SaaS applications, ensuring IT and IT Procurement have a centralized management and optimization platform is critical (for the budget, for security and for everyone’s sanity!).
