SaaS Increases Opportunities For Visibility in IT Procurement

The role of IT Procurement is no longer a functional job whose role entails sending out lengthy RFPs. Not to mention the never-ending chore of reviewing the responses before enforcing a decision. Over the past decade, the role is shifting to become one of the most strategic in the organization.

The change has largely been driven by SaaS and other cloud-based delivery models, which no longer require the same arduous process that used to take all of IT Procurement’s time.

While SaaS certainly isn’t a new concept, it’s only recently that IT Procurement teams across all industries and sizes have faced major challenges they must overcome. Coincidentally, the challenges can become major benefits with the right visibility, simplified departmental buying, empowered Shadow IT, and seamless one-click subscriptions. The key, however, is a non-negotiable. IT Procurement teams must have visibility into all aspects of the Cloud in order to keep their organization running smoothly; even excelling into this new era.

The Opportunity to Gain Visibility

The phrase “knowledge is power” relates well to IT Procurement’s shift. Without data, it’s impossible to make informed,  strategic decisions to guide your organization. But with visibility into aspects like SaaS spend across the organization (regardless of source), application utilization (or lack thereof), and how employees feel about the SaaS products, IT Procurement becomes empowered. Armed with data and visibility, the role can work out enterprise or group discounts. Or better yet, roll ad hoc subscriptions into a single master agreement to ensure dollars are not left on the table.

In the past, IT Procurement had to play the role of “bad cop”. Teams avoided going through the processes due to the red tape, drawn out RFPs, and so on. Today, Procurement teams can lay the proper groundwork across the organization and allow each department or individual to purchase the software that makes the most sense on their own terms and budget, while also giving visibility back to IT Procurement. Procurement now has the opportunity to initiate the conversation and inform departments and business units about innovation happening across the enterprise. That’s something that simply couldn’t be achieved without a single source to manage cloud subscriptions.

The End Goal For IT Procurement

To succeed in this new cloud-driven era, IT Procurement needs a way to fully understand an organization’s spend, utilization, and employee sentiment as it relates to SaaS subscriptions. Simply put, the goal of Procurement is to understand all of IT, including SaaS, Cloud, and subscription software. Visibility and cost optimization are top of mind for IT Procurement leaders. Can your organization relate?

Drive IT Procurement Strategy

For the first time ever, it’s possible for IT Procurement to obtain 100% of licensing data and have visibility to put a strategy around it. At Zylo, we believe Cloud licensing can make IT Procurement strategic. Interested in learning more? Download our latest ebook titled, “Complete Guide to SaaS Management for Procurement Leaders.”