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What Is SaaS Management?

SaaS management

Zylo is a 2023 G2 Leader

 

Outdated Tools and Process Just Don’t Cut It When It Comes to Managing SaaS

Decades ago, we never would have imagined a world where software was available at the click of a button. All that changed with the arrival of SaaS. Today, it plays a pivotal role in how we run our businesses. Join us as we unravel the mystery of SaaS Management, exploring its significance, benefits, and how it is reshaping the way organizations harness the power of software in the modern era.

Definition of SaaS Management

Let’s begin by defining SaaS Management – what it is and why it’s important.

SaaS Management is the holistic business practice of proactively managing, optimizing, and governing all the SaaS applications within a company’s portfolio through inventory, license, and renewal management. It is founded on four tenets: complete visibility, license optimization, cost savings, and risk avoidance. 

You may call the process by different names. For instance, SaaS operations, SaaS spend management, application portfolio management, and software asset management, among others. Despite different terminology, each business practice has the same goal: getting a handle on software applications and their associated costs and risks. 

SaaS Management as a business practice emerged in response to the unique attributes and challenges of Software as a Service (SaaS).

Why Deploying SaaS Makes Sense

Until the early 2000s, software was hosted on-premises, installed on local devices, and perpetually licensed. Then SaaS came around and forever changed the software landscape for IT, Software Asset Management, and Procurement. What makes it so unique?

  • SaaS is hosted in the cloud and owned by the vendor/supplier. 
  • Licenses are by subscription, giving you flexibility in deploying and scaling your software across the business and allowing for shorter-term commitments.
  • IT is no longer the sole buyer of SaaS – everyone at the company purchases it, often on credit cards. This decentralized purchasing leads to duplicate purchases and app redundancies that waste money and hinder efficiency. 

4 Challenges SaaS Management Helps Solve

SaaS brings several challenges to modern businesses as they come to grips with how to manage it.  Transitioning methodologies – from Software Asset Management to SaaS Management – requires a mindset shift. Your program should help:

Decentralized purchasingEliminate blind spots

What was once a centrally purchased and managed asset by IT, ITAM, and SAM teams is now purchased by individual employees and lines of business. On average, IT manages 28% of an organization’s SaaS portfolio by spend, and just 17% by application quantity. In contrast, lines of business control the lion’s share of your portfolio – 67% of SaaS spend and 48% of applications. IT’s limited oversight into the tech stack means a majority of the apps and spend are unaccounted for and unmanaged.

Contain and reduce spend

For most organizations, cost containment is a big concern. But so is getting the most value from each app or software investment. Proving application value or return on investment for SaaS is hard to quantify, so uncontrolled spending has a significant impact on the bottom line. 

Today, the average company spends $45M annually on SaaS. In contrast, enterprise spend is a staggering $246M each year. On top of that, organizations are wasting $18M on average each year in unused licenses.

Portfolio size and spend

Govern shadow IT

Apps often fly under the radar and are not reviewed by another department like Compliance or IT. How? Individual employees are responsible for about 3% of an organization’s SaaS by spend and 35% by application quantity. Yikes! 

More than one-third of your apps likely come from employee acquisitions — because nearly 1 in 10 employees (7%) expense SaaS.  If you have 300 apps in your portfolio, that’s just over 100 unvetted apps that increase the security, financial, and operational risks for your organization

SaaS security risksReduce security and compliance risks

Worse still, 65% of expensed apps (shadow IT) have a security risk score of “Poor” or “Low.” That means your company could be on the hook for data breaches, identity theft, or doxxing that resulted from employee use of unauthorized and insecure apps. It presents a strong case for governance policies to nip unsanctioned purchases in the bud – before they happen.

Signs You Need a Clear SaaS Management Strategy 

Since SaaS is digital, cloud-based, and easy for anyone to access or download, your company needs a different approach to manage it. And, yes, having a SaaS Management strategy has numerous benefits that we just covered. 

What are the tell-tale signs you need a comprehensive SaaS Management strategy? Here are seven signs to look out for:

  1. No clear SaaS sourcing policy: Without a well-defined sourcing policy, organizations may find themselves in a chaotic software landscape. Lacking guidelines for selecting and integrating SaaS solutions leads to inefficiencies and potential security risks.
  2. Too few or too many licenses: Striking the right balance in licensing is crucial. Too few licenses can hinder productivity, while an excess can result in unnecessary costs. This dichotomy emphasizes the importance of optimizing licensing agreements to maximize resource utilization.
  3. No measurement of SaaS application adoption or utilization: Failing to track how employees engage with SaaS applications hampers the ability to optimize workflows and identify underutilized tools, wasting resources on unused software.
  4. Redundant SaaS applications create friction: Overlapping functionalities of multiple SaaS applications can lead to confusion, data silos, and increased complexity. This, in turn, hinders collaboration and efficiency within the organization. 
  5. No vetting process for SaaS acquisition: Not having a vetting process may expose the organization to security vulnerabilities, compatibility issues, or integration challenges. This risk emphasizes the need for a systematic approach to acquiring new SaaS solutions.
  6. No identification of overall SaaS costs: Failing to account for subscription fees, integration expenses, and potential hidden costs, prevents organizations from accurately budgeting and optimizing their SaaS investments
  7. Unexpected or missed SaaS renewals: Overlooking renewal dates or not anticipating changes in licensing agreements can lead to service interruptions. This affects operations and may cause procurement to scramble to renew subscriptions in a timely manner.

Enter the Role of SaaS Manager

Today, the responsibility for SaaS Management lies with IT, Software Asset Management, and Procurement teams, typically with IT and Finance leaders at the helm. Coordinating information across these departments can be difficult, especially in the enterprise. Not to mention, the changing nature of how enterprises acquire software completely changes the game in how you manage it.

That’s where the role of the SaaS Manager comes in. It’s now one of the hottest careers in enterprise tech – and it should be. 

After all, SaaS is here to stay. In 2022 (for the first time ever), companies spent more money on SaaS than on-premises software – according to IDC. SaaS Management is a need that won’t be disappearing anytime soon. 

Enterprise companies need someone (or several someones) to manage, track, and streamline SaaS purchases across departments. Not to mention ensure utilization, security, and more. This is not to mean you’ll have a specific role title “SaaS Manager”. Typically, the responsibilities of the role will be divided or shared between IT, SAM, and Procurement. 

Learn what new career path means to the individuals taking it head-on.

Now’s the Time to Start SaaS Management – Or Get Left Behind

SaaS is an enormous blind spot but also your greatest opportunity. It’s rife with low utilization, redundancy, risk, and relatively zero governance. Not to mention, purchasing and ownership is completely decentralized. That’s why your SaaS portfolio has fallen into complete chaos.

license wasteFar too often, organizations underestimate the number of SaaS applications in their tech stack.

Without visibility into every piece of software in your environment, it’s impossible to effectively reduce application and license waste, prevent overspending, and stay ahead of security and compliance risks.

Here are a few compelling reasons why you can’t wait to get started:

  • Reduce waste: Companies spend an average of $18M annually on unused SaaS licenses.
  • Stop overspending: Gartner’s 2022 Market Guide to SaaS Management Platforms predicts that by 2026, companies will overspend on SaaS by 25%
  • Mitigate risk: Gartner also estimates that companies are 5X more susceptible to cyber incidents if they don’t have a SaaS Management practice.
  • Prevent data breaches: Globally, the average data breach costs $4.35 million in mitigation costs, lost business, and subsequent process improvement. In the US, the cost climbs to $9.44 million (IBM 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report).
  • SaaS is here to stay: In 2022, IDC reported that SaaS spending surpassed on-premises software spending. IDC projects that in 2024, 60% of the global spend for software will be on SaaS. 

Don’t let the status quo hold your business back. It’s time to rise above the SaaS chaos! How do you get started? What approach should you take?

2024 SaaS Management Index Report Banner

What Holistic SaaS Management Looks Like in Practice

Now that you’ve decided to take control of your SaaS stack and implement effective management practices, you may be wondering what that looks like in practice. Holistic SaaS Management involves inventory, license, and renewal management. This section explains what each is, the problems they solve, and typical use cases for each.

SaaS Inventory Management

Because much of your SaaS is purchased by individuals and departments – not IT – it’s often a huge blindspot. While you want to get control of the sprawl, spend, and risks, you’re unable to do it at scale. That’s because you can’t manage what you can’t see. 

“If you would have asked me two, three years ago, I probably would’ve said we have 100 apps. Now that Genesys has a SaaS Management tool, we know we have over 600.” 

Samantha GriffinSamantha Griffin, Sr. Software Asset Manager at Genesys

Enter SaaS inventory management – the foundation of your SaaS Management program.

Inventory management is the ongoing discovery of SaaS in your environment and centralization of key application data such as suppliers, spend, app owners, and security certifications. Doing so enables you to implement effective SaaS governance, which helps you control and prevent unsanctioned spending and stay ahead of security and compliance risks. Inventory management is the essential first step that makes license and renewals management possible. 

IT teams often lead the charge regarding inventory management – while SAM teams get involved at the enterprise level. Inter-departmental cooperation ensures company-wide visibility and continued program success. 

By practicing good SaaS Inventory Management, you can: 

  • Continually discover applications as they enter your business, no matter the owner.
  • Maintain a current system of record for application ownership.
  • Understand the category and functionality of all applications.
  • Report on SaaS spend by department or cost center.
  • Control Shadow IT and identify employee-led software purchasing.
  • Review all security accreditation, certifications, and risk scores for all SaaS.
  • Know where unmanaged applications are introducing risk.
  • Compare your business’s SaaS portfolio to other organizations in your industry to uncover gaps.
  • Streamline the software access request process for employees.
  • Facilitate the purchasing process for new applications when employees need something.

Genesys Leverages SaaS Management to Further Digital Transformation

See how the leader in cloud customer experience and contact center solutions reinforces software asset management and enterprise architecture with Zylo.

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SaaS License Management

Underutilization and waste is pervasive throughout your SaaS inventory. Our data shows that the average company only uses 49% of its SaaS licenses, leaving the remaining 51% ripe for optimization. That equates to $18M in wasted spend annually!

The need for regularly managing and optimizing your licenses has never been more important. That brings us to the second pillar of SaaS Management: license management.

SaaS license management oversees the full life cycle of a software license, from onboarding to offboarding. It enables you to maximize software adoption, avoid unnecessary costs, and drive efficiencies across your tech stack. Depending on the size of your organization, you may see a combination of IT, SAM, or Procurement involved in license management.

For instance, Adobe has developed its software management program with license optimization in mind. Ash Rai, Director of Software Asset Management, shared, “Zylo allows us greater insights into our software usage. We harvest software licenses, resulting in millions of dollars in cost avoidance. And this data also allows us to build better strategies for contract renewals and negotiations.” 

A comprehensive license management strategy allows you to: 

  • Understand the usage of all applications across all departments.
  • Uncover opportunities to reduce spend by identifying redundant subscriptions.
  • Identify all unused licenses to reprovision or remove from inventory.
  • Identify where employee expenses can be migrated to an existing enterprise agreement.

Adobe Drives Innovation and Massive Savings with Zylo

In the past 4 years, Adobe has rapidly scaled from $9B to $18B. This growth has made an already complex environment even more complex. Learn how they leveraged Zylo to get complete visibility into their SaaS portfolio, unlock millions in cost savings and avoidance and improve the employee experience. 

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SaaS Renewal Management

In most companies, SaaS renewals occur without any sort of structure. Auto-renewals, click-through terms, and lack of benchmark data leave you ill-prepared and overpaying for software. The average organization has more than 200 renewals a year – that’s about one per business day! 

With that many renewals, it can feel impossible to keep up. That’s why renewal management is the critical third pillar of SaaS Management.

Zylo renewal managementSaaS renewal management is the process of renewing a software contract from strategy and preparation to negotiation and acceptance. The right framework enables you to proactively and programmatically manage renewals, negotiate the best price, and save money – and ultimately make more intelligent and confident renewal and purchasing decisions. 

Renewals typically fall under the purview of Procurement or IT, depending on the size of your organization – and even Software Asset Management at large enterprises. 

Karen Hodson, Global Procurement & Real Estate Officer at Marigold, believes proactive renewal management starts with visibility. Hodson shared, “The visibility into your SaaS data allows people to take action. And when you can take action based on information, you’re making decisions that will then result in savings.”

A streamlined process for renewing SaaS subscriptions will:

  • Centralize everything you need for renewals, including contracts, terms, owners, and usage data.
  • Create a comprehensive renewal calendar (including auto-renewals) and proactive alerting to avoid surprises.
  • Help you benchmark existing prices and negotiate to lower costs.
  • Avoid budget overages by gaining visibility into actual vs. budget comparisons.
  • Leverage your full purchasing power by aggregating disparate purchases.
  • Centralize cost savings and quantify ROI for each purchase.

Marigold Uses Zylo to Save on Sprawling SaaS Costs & Streamline M&A Technology Integration

Discover how Marigold unlocked the door to nearly $1M in SaaS cost savings with Zylo, while undergoing a M&A tech integration and cutting software waste from their portfolio.

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Your Guide to Starting A SaaS Management Program

Now that you know what SaaS Management is, why it’s important, and what it helps you accomplish, how do you start your program?

Before we jump into the steps, you should understand the ‘why’ behind starting your program. Why is it important to you and your business in the first place? For many leaders, that comes to life as an “oh shit” moment that ignites the search for a solution. 

Maybe it was the eye-popping amount of SaaS spend you suddenly discovered. Perhaps you experienced a heart-stopping audit. Or (and this actually happened) someone revealed the unsanctioned use of a tool for making cat videos. 

Have you had an “oh shit” moment or revelation about the way you’re managing software that needs to change? Start by answering this question for yourself and your organization. Then, read on to understand what effective SaaS Management looks like, who needs to be involved, and tips and best practices for success.

Step 1: Build the Foundation of Effective SaaS Management

Once you’re clear that you need to take control of your SaaS estate, there are a few requirements before you can get started. Many companies begin managing SaaS in legacy tools or spreadsheets – but these require manual effort and are laden with data integrity risks. Effectively managing SaaS in the long term requires a solid foundation of several elements. 

Requirement #1: A system of record

Tools for on-premises software are not equipped to address the unique challenges of SaaS. You need a purpose-built enterprise SaaS Management platform to serve as your system of record and central source of truth. Having your SaaS inventory and all the app, license, and contract data in one place enables cross-departmental visibility and better management and optimization of your SaaS. 

Zylo Discovery EngineRequirement #2: A discovery mechanism

The SaaS Management Platform you use as a system of record should have a discovery mechanism that finds all of your SaaS in perpetuity. Legacy software tools are neither equipped as a system of record nor have sufficient discovery mechanisms. Not only does shadow IT go undetected, but business-owned purchases do, too. As much as 51% of expensed software is miscategorized by employees in expense reports

Requirement #3: Executive sponsorship

Business initiatives that have executive buy-in and top-down support are the most successful. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to rally everyone behind the same SaaS Management strategy. 

Come to the conversation armed with facts and figures. You’re not only getting buy-in from the start but driving alignment and accountability for your program. Help your sponsor(s) see how a SaaS Management strategy helps drive growth, enable innovation, and reduce risk – levers to help future-proof your business. That’s certainly something they can get behind. 

“Start with finding executive sponsorship – a champion that is able to bring alignment at the highest levels in the company, on the importance of [SaaS Management] and making sure it’s run, it’s funded, it’s kept accountable.”

Shravya RaviShravya Ravi, Head of Software and IT Hardware Asset Management at LinkedIn 

Requirement #4: Alignment with strategic business objectives

When you tie SaaS Management into your company-level goals, it’s easier to drive business value. Depending on your business, that could be a lot of things. We often see companies use SaaS Management to minimize risk, increase software adoption, reduce operating expenses, fund innovation, reduce shadow IT, and drive sustainable business growth – to name a few. In short, understand your strategic company goals and outline how SaaS Management will support them.

Step 2: Define Effective SaaS Management

Effective SaaS Management involves the strategic oversight and optimization of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications within an organization. This includes implementing policies, processes, and tools to ensure the efficient and secure use of cloud-based software. 

As we mentioned before, SaaS Management must be tied to your business objectives. Your organization is unique, so those goals may differ from other companies. 

An effective SaaS Management program promotes the following goals:

  • Establish a SaaS system of record.
  • Collaborate with business units.
  • Contain SaaS costs and reduce operating expenses (OpEx).
  • Implement and enforce SaaS governance.
  • Reduce security and compliance risks.
  • Operationalize SaaS Management within existing business practices.
  • Calculate software value.

Step 3: Get the Right People Involved

We see the best results when IT and Finance come together to tackle SaaS Management. This results in three functional roles that make the partnership possible. 

Typically, IT and Finance executives establish the vision and goal for the program. VPs or department leaders of IT, Procurement, and Finance develop the strategy and lead the charge. Your day-to-day players can analyze the data and act on opportunities based on everyday use cases.

Get these stakeholders involved to keep the process flowing smoothly:

  • CIO: Shapes the overall technology strategy, ensuring that SaaS Management aligns with the organization’s IT goals and objectives.
  • Procurement/Sourcing: Establishes policies for acquiring SaaS solutions, vetting vendors, and negotiating contracts to optimize value and minimize risks.
  • CFO: Manages the financial aspects, overseeing SaaS budgets, optimizing licensing costs, and ensuring cost-effectiveness in the organization’s software portfolio.
  • Legal: Ensures compliance with regulations, oversees contract negotiations, and mitigates legal risks associated with SaaS usage and procurement.
  • Business Unit Leaders: Collaborate with IT and procurement to align SaaS solutions with specific business needs, ensuring optimal functionality and productivity.
  • IT: Implements and manages the technical aspects of SaaS applications, including integration, maintenance, and support to meet organizational requirements.
  • Software Asset Management: Monitors and tracks SaaS usage, ensuring compliance with licensing agreements, and optimizing software assets to avoid unnecessary costs.
  • Security and Compliance: Safeguards data and ensures that SaaS applications adhere to security protocols and regulatory requirements, mitigating cybersecurity risks.
  • Identity Management: Manages user access and permissions for SaaS applications, ensuring secure and efficient user authentication and authorization.
  • Enterprise Architecture: Designs the overall structure and integration of SaaS applications within the organization, aligning technology with business objectives for seamless operations.

Step 4: Understand Your SaaS Stack 

professional woman leaning over computer using applications

So, you’ve got all your ducks in a row and have involved every necessary department. Now it’s time to start your SaaS Management journey. There are several essential questions to ask yourself about your SaaS stack to understand the extent of your SaaS problems. 

  • How many applications do we actually have?
  • How much do we spend on subscription software, and who’s doing the spending?
  • Do employees get the full value from the software subscriptions, licenses, or seats we’ve provisioned them?
  • Are they using SaaS applications that we don’t know about?

Step 5: Follow Best Practices for SaaS Management 

The unmanaged growth of SaaS creates uncontrolled costs and increased risk. That’s why you started this process, after all. You need to discover all the apps in your environment and get visibility into each app’s metadata. And don’t forget to put small wins up on the board to strengthen buy-in across the company as you continue the journey.

Along the way, follow these best practices for SaaS Management:

  1. Scale SaaS governance based on risk and impact.
  2. Treat SaaS as a strategic asset.
  3. Empower line of business owners to create accountability.
  4. Champion internal training and adoption campaigns for SaaS.
  5. Manage SaaS licenses in real time.
  6. Build a partnership between IT and Finance.
  7. Take a programmatic approach to renewals.

Power Your SaaS Management Practice with Technology

You’ve defined your SaaS Management program – now what? To set your organization up for success, it’s critical you have technology in place to enable it.

Why Your Legacy Tools and Spreadsheets Don’t Cut It

Despite recognizing the challenges inherent to managing hundreds (and even thousands) of SaaS apps, most IT and SAM leaders think they have their SaaS stack locked down. 

In fact, our latest report found that a surprising 70% think their current SaaS tracking methods are accurate. Unfortunately, 70% of companies are also still using legacy tools (like contract management and SAM tools) or spreadsheets to keep up with their SaaS apps. 

Let’s break down the pitfalls of using these approaches to manage SaaS.

Software Asset Management Tools

​​Traditional SAM tools were built with audit defense in mind. As they evolved, they have tried to incorporate SaaS. While they offer some visibility into your inventory and help you manage licenses, SAM tools only focus on your top-tier vendors.

They also don’t provide the functionality to manage SaaS holistically. They miss the mark on complete and continuous discovery of all SaaS – the foundation of SaaS Management – and don’t even touch renewal management.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets have inherent limitations as well. They immediately become outdated, offering only static, incomplete snapshots instead of continuous, comprehensive insights. They also aren’t scalable; as the amount of data grows, they become unwieldy to manage. Maintaining them is labor intensive, and visibility into all your apps remains fragmented at best. Additionally, data silos make information inaccessible to others who need it, hindering collaboration and effective decision making.

These outdated methods just don’t cut it for SaaS. Karen Hodson, Global Procurement & Real Estate Officer at Marigold, and her team used to rely on spreadsheets to manage SaaS. Hodson came to realize that, “The challenge is, inevitably, the moment you create those spreadsheets, they become outdated.”

Steve Gentry, the former CISO at Clari, agrees. “You can’t run forecasting and revenue off of a spreadsheet. Likewise, you can’t run SaaS off of a spreadsheet.”

SAM Tool + SaaS Management Platform = Better Together

Today, SAM tools still prove critical for tracking on-premises software. But as we mentioned, relying on them for SaaS Management leaves holes in overall SaaS visibility. In contrast, SaaS Management Platforms were purpose-built to address the unique challenges of SaaS. That’s why you need both tools to manage and optimize your software stack.

There are two primary gaps found in SAM tools that a SaaS Management Platform addresses:

  • Complete and ongoing discovery. An SMP will uncover all your SaaS applications, even the long-tail and low cost tools. In contrast, SAM tools fail in that they typically only cover top-tier vendors. Often, those are company-wide deployed tools like Microsoft, IBM, or Salesforce.
  • SaaS renewals. As we alluded to, SAM tools don’t have a feature to help you manage renewals. A SMP enables you to proactively prepare for renewals and provides data and benchmarking to make intelligent decisions.

If you think your IT department can whip something together for you, it won’t be the most efficient solution. Building your own tool doesn’t make sense when it’s so much easier to get one that’s ready-made for your needs.

“On-premises software tools don’t give you the SaaS Management and SaaS visibility that you need. You can’t run with just one tool in the software asset management space.”

Jason OwensJason Owens, Sr. Director, Asset Management, Salesforce

How Zylo Supports Holistic SaaS Management

As we’ve covered in detail, SaaS Management combines inventory, license, and renewal management. A SaaS Management Platform like Zylo is equipped to address the unique challenges of SaaS and support this holistic approach. 

App OverviewInventory management

As we’ve covered, inventory management is foundational to SaaS Management. A SMP gives you a centralized source of truth for your organization to help identify risk, understand spending, and govern your software environment. Zylo’s SaaS Inventory Management solution is backed by AI-powered discovery, categorization, and inventory. These features give you a complete picture of all your SaaS with control and insights to reduce sprawl and risk. 

License Insights Product Screen ShotLicense management

Data is most valuable when it allows you to take action. A SMP puts your usage data to work with insights and automations that make it easier to rightsize and reclaim licenses and rationalize overlapping applications. Zylo’s SaaS License Management solution helps you maximize software adoption and license utilization. The data-driven insights and recommendations surfaced by Zylo allow you to take action to optimize your software investments. 

 

Contract Renewals Product Screen ShotRenewal management

Renewal is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to cost savings. A SMP enables you to proactively manage renewals, make data-driven decisions, and save money. Pairing your renewal process with Zylo’s SaaS Renewal Management solution helps you make more intelligent and confident renewal and purchasing decisions.

How to Build a Business Case for SaaS Management

As you explore the best SaaS Management Platform for your business, you’ll encounter certain obstacles. These may include spending freezes, low budget allocation, and reluctant stakeholders. To build a business case for onboarding a comprehensive SMP, you’ll need to present the benefits in ways that appeal to that particular decision-maker’s priorities: 

  1. Present the desired business outcomes. Start by speaking the language of the decision-maker to whom you’re speaking. Present your case in terms they love and understand. Cost savings usually resonate across the board, so start there.
  2. Know your SaaS portfolio’s current state. Establish where you are now so that you can contrast it with where you want to be. Take a deep dive into your SaaS stack and start digging up hard numbers on the amount of shadow IT, duplicate purchases, and overall waste.
  3. Explain the scale of the problem. Armed with this information, you can present the numbers and state your case. Once everyone knows the true scope of the issue, they can begin to visualize how better SaaS Management tools can improve the scenario. 
  4. Compare the current state with potential futures. Now that you’ve described the current SaaS landscape, you can contrast it with the future situation you want to see. This will display, in concrete terms, what benefits the proposed program will offer. 
  5. Share the expected return and time to value. Once everyone can visualize where you are and where you want to go, you can pitch the ROI. How much monthly budget you’ll save, how much waste you’ll trim, and how much efficiency you’ll gain are great places to start. Have a detailed timetable for when these results may be realized. 

Once you have executive buy-in, it’s a good idea to assemble a buying committee from multiple departments. While there are shared SaaS Management goals, each team has different needs. An IT buyer looks for different features than someone in Procurement or Security. Your buying committee ensures every department gets to weigh in on the decision.  

Become a SaaS Management Superhero

Despite all the challenges of managing SaaS, you can reclaim visibility into and control over your technology stack. Whether you’re in IT, SAM, or Procurement, all SaaS Superheroes possess their own unique superpowers. Yours could be slaying automatic renewals, or guarding the organization from duplicate software applications. 

To be the best SaaS-y superhero you can be, you need the best armor, weapons, abilities, and strategy you can get your hands on. Asking the right questions is the first step to putting the right SMP in your superhero arsenal. 

Become a SaaS Management Superhero

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The most savvy SaaS Management superheroes will:

  • Establish a secure fortress by helping you choose and maintain the best SaaS inventory for your business. 
  • Unlock your Z-ray vision by providing full visibility into all your SaaS and its key data.
  • Help you face your fears head-on by going beyond data and taking action.
  • Stay vigilant by proactively monitoring your SaaS stack for security and compliance threats.
  • Empower you to lead with clear direction, because SaaS Management fits into strategic company objectives, delivering clear results.
  • Make sure you don’t have to go it alone as it helps you forge relationships across the business.

Are you ready to take the first step? The biggest enemy of effective SaaS Management is doing nothing. Don’t let the outdated tools and business practices hold your business back. 

Ready to wrangle your SaaS stack into line? Discover how some of the leading enterprises are practicing effective SaaS Management and driving business impact.

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