Do You Need a Software Asset Management Tool for SaaS?

What SaaS Means for Your Software Asset Management Strategy

SaaS has changed the way software is purchased. And now Zylo is changing the way software is managed. According to a past Gartner study, IT spending on enterprise applications was expected to grow at a 8.6% rate from 2015 to 2020. During this same period, SaaS growth was predicted to reach $76 billion by 2020. Today, it’s expected to exceed $197 billion. Strong SaaS revenue growth and corresponding client expenditure mean that IT leaders can no longer ignore the need to manage SaaS costs carefully.”

CapEx versus OpEx has been a focus for IT purchases in the past, and it’s a strategic part of traditional software asset management tools. But with the increase in SaaS application purchases at the enterprise, CapEx doesn’t exist with SaaS technology subscriptions.

This shift can have a number of benefits, but now the CIO and CFO have to manage a greater amount of the OpEx recurring costs without an effective tool to measure and optimize it. That tool is SaaS Asset Management software.

But before we dive into why, let’s take a look at the problem and how managing SaaS differs from traditional on-premise software.

Why Most Companies Don’t Think They Have a SaaS Management Problem…Yet

Many organizations don’t have strict procedures for purchasing SaaS applications or requesting access to licenses of existing SaaS applications. Especially since it’s so easy to purchase, and IT and Finance are not always involved with many of the lower-cost solutions. Discovering and gaining visibility into all of the SaaS applications being purchased across the entire business, large and small, is often an arduous task and difficult to keep up to date.

Many teams are missing a huge opportunity to corral one of the fastest-growing expense categories in their organization. That can only be accomplished with real-time data to showcase what SaaS applications are purchased throughout the organization and user data to track provisioned users and if they are actually using the application regularly.

This means that departments across the organization are acquiring new SaaS applications (sometimes with IT and other times without IT knowing), but often aren’t following through to cancel subscriptions or properly manage which team members have access to each application as teams and needs change over time.

Managing SaaS Utilization is More Complex and Critical than Ever

SaaS is often viewed as a solution to reduce complexity around software compliance and audit needs, which is partially true. But shifting gears to SaaS application usage monitoring and right-sizing licenses is more important than ever, not to mention complicated to execute well.

Actively tracking SaaS utilization is important because without knowing how services are being used across an organization, it’s impossible to quantify the value being delivered from each SaaS application.

With SaaS, It’s All About Spend and Usage Optimization, Not Just Compliance

It’s time for enterprises to move away from the sole focus on software license compliance and focus more on delivering cost savings and business value. SaaS optimization is an area of immediate impact that most organizations are missing today on both the spend and utilization fronts.

IT and Finance teams can identify cost savings opportunities by uncovering unused or overlapping subscriptions to SaaS applications or consolidating multi-channel spend for the same SaaS application. Getting real-time utilization provides the metrics to rightsize licenses and ensure upcoming renewals are negotiated for the number of licenses needed.

But, how? With SaaS Asset Management software.

Yes, You Do Need SaaS Asset Management Software

Technology is accelerating businesses, and the shift to the Cloud and SaaS is driving change faster than ever. As a result, technology spend and value are on the agenda in more and more executive meetings. Having one system of record to accurately report SaaS spend, active utilization and employee feedback is invaluable to making the best financial decisions for the organization.

SaaS is not purchased or used like traditional software and cannot be managed like it.

What should you be thinking about as you being your SaaS Management journey? Review the three questions you should be asking yourself before jumping in here, and learn how to build your business case here.