Even with shrinking budgets, organizations occasionally make fatal errors when they cut in the wrong areas. With a quick slash of the IT budget, your organization could run the risk of opening itself up to some serious vulnerabilities. So, what makes sense going forward? Costs have to be optimized, but how can you do that efficiently without negatively impacting your business? 
 
A SaaS management platform is a wise investment during these tenuous times and can continue to deliver cost savings well into the future. Here are a few solid arguments you can present to your executive team when rationalizing the cost of a SaaS management platform (SMP). 

A SMP will allow you to gain visibility into where your SaaS spend is being wasted and where it is put to good use.

Nearly 25% of SaaS spend is wasted on unused licenses.

SOURCE: Gartner®

Nearly all organizations overspend on SaaS and by a significant amount. It’s a no brainer to want to reduce wasted spend, but it is very hard to identify potential areas to save without a full view of your SaaS landscape. Manual discovery methods are not reliable and very difficult to scale across your organization.  
 
SaaS management platforms vary in the ways they discover SaaS applications, and those variances can affect the benefits they provide, but the right SaaS management platform will utilize the discovery methods listed below to provide a comprehensive view:

• Single sign-on (SSO) platforms 
• API connectors 
• Agents 
• Cloud access security brokers (CASB) 
• Browser extensions

You can use a combination of those discovery methods to bring clarity to your SaaS portfolio, so you can better rationalize, secure and govern SaaS usage. Visibility is the critical first step into gaining control over SaaS sprawl. 

After you’ve gained visibility across your SaaS landscape, a SMP can allow you to take a deeper dive into SaaS usage details.

With a new, sweeping view into your SaaS landscape through a SaaS management platform, you can get serious about the details. Another major advantage of using a SMP is that you can gain granular insights into how a SaaS app is being used at your organization. If you’ve previously been relying on financial records to discover SaaS applications, you know you can’t see any real details about how a user is interacting with specific tools you’re paying for. 

A SMP provides you with software usage data. A software metering tool can monitor how long an application was in use, how often users logged into apps and the details on which features were utilized. This provides cost savings insights well beyond understanding licenses paid for versus licenses allocated. 

Armed with SaaS usage details, a SMP can enable you to optimize your costs, and rationalize your SaaS portfolio.

With SaaS usage data, you can compare purchase and entitlement data to identify areas of overspend and ensure your organization runs with just the right amount of technology. This information is especially valuable during license renewals, since organizations are able to rely on actual usage information as opposed to just re-upping for the same volume as the last contract. A SaaS management platform will make it easy to discover unused licenses.  

You’ll also be able to optimize the license types for each of the applications you keep. Many SaaS companies offer multiple, and sometimes complicated, tiers of software licenses. Armed with detailed usage metering data from a SMP, you can choose which package would best suit the users and teams in your organization. 

A SMP will also enable you to rationalize your SaaS portfolio, meaning eliminate redundancies. Applications for video conferencing, file storage, project management, and team communications are common sources of SaaS redundancies. A SMP’s normalization process can allow you to highlight redundancies by tagging applications during the discovery process with an application type.  
 
For example, you could then quickly identify you have four different project management applications throughout your organization, and a significant portion of those licenses are going to waste. It may be more cost efficient to sanction one project management tool for the whole organization under a larger license tier rather than paying for four separate platforms. 

A SMP will allow you to secure, monitor, and closely govern your SaaS landscape to prevent costly security breaches.

In addition to optimizing costs and eliminating redundancies, a SaaS management platform can go a long way to keeping your organization secure and in compliance. Snow surveyed 1,000 IT leaders and found the top concern with SaaS management is security. Most organizations have hundreds and sometimes thousands of SaaS apps, many of which are unknown to IT. 

The main challenge with security for SaaS applications is the ease with which anyone can sign up for a SaaS application, use any credentials they decide, and upload any company data. Each SaaS tool comes with many settings to configure. These configurations control everything from data protection to encryption to admin privileges and more. It only takes one misconfiguration by one user to open your entire organization up to a major, costly cybersecurity attack. 

In addition to all the benefits listed above of a SMP, you can’t afford not to invest in a SMP when it comes to the added value of security.  

Investing in a SaaS management platform

SaaS is usually in the top three highest operating expenses for organizations. Even if you’re sold on the benefits of utilizing a SaaS management tool, you’ll have to convince your organization’s decision-makers. CFOs will want to see how the investment will pay off immediately, as well as into the future. CIOs will like to see the data around how SaaS apps are being used.  

A SMP can help you discover cost savings, or how much you can save immediately, by eliminating SaaS app redundancies, identifying unused SaaS licenses, and optimizing costs. 

A SMP will also help you with cost avoidance, or how much you can save on future costs, by better preparing your organization for SaaS renewals and negotiations, securing your SaaS environment to prevent costly security issues, and preventing SaaS sprawl. 

By implementing a SMP now, even during budget cuts, organizations can realize quick savings as well as continue receiving a return on their investment well into the future.  

_{GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.} 

The post Why Investing in a SaaS Management Platform During Budget Cuts Makes Sense appeared first on Snow Software.

Here are four money-saving tips for SaaS contract negotiations to safeguard your budget and avoid costly compliance fines.

1. Inventory your SaaS environment.

Before entering a contract or renewal negotiation, conduct a complete inventory of your IT assets (including software, SaaS, and cloud) and usage. This way, you know what you have and what you really need, which leaves room to trim out anything unnecessary the SaaS vendor may offer.  

• With SaaS applications, that’s easier said than done because SaaS applications are not often purchased centrally. Take a detailed look at both your paid-for and free applications in use. There are several different types of SaaS discovery methods you can deploy. Browser extensions offer the most comprehensive SaaS discovery available, as they can discover any type of SaaS application – known, unknown, paid and free. They are deployed on the browser of each managed employee, and they register the login and usage of any SaaS application. 
• If you have hybrid applications, those that can be accessed via browser and installed versions, then you will want to use an agent (to check installed usage) and a method to capture web usage (SSO, vendor portal API or browser extension).  

2. Deeply understand your SaaS usage.

Arm yourself with data on who is using what and how. In the case of a renewal, you’ll know how well the application is working for your organization, and if you’re actually using what you purchased. 

• Some SaaS vendors offer different license types (with differing features) at varying price points. Know how each license is being used to ensure you aren’t paying the highest price tier for someone who could just as easily use a less expensive license. 
• Many organizations rely on financial records to keep track of SaaS licenses. However, financial records reveal nothing about application usage. With a SaaS management platform, you can leverage software metering to monitor how long an application was in use and specifically which features are used. This usage data will better prepare you for contract negotiations, so you can determine where your money is well spent and where you’re wasting dollars on unused software. 

3. Don’t be afraid to negotiate price.

There’s almost always wiggle room in a SaaS contract – you just have to ask the right questions. 

• Do they offer volume discounts? Discounts on unit prices are more difficult to come by in today’s climate. 
• Are there features that you don’t need? Slash unnecessary spend on add-ons, extra capabilities, success packages, etc.  
• Can you enter into a longer term and get a bigger discount? Does the SaaS contract represent a “have to have” application? If you’ve reviewed your usage data and spoken to the business units responsible for using the software and have identified this as a well-used application, some SaaS vendors are willing to lock you in at a lower price if you agree to a longer contract term. You won’t incur as much risk if you’ve done your research prior to the negotiation and can save some value spend in the process. Longer terms also can protect you against near-term prices increases. 

4. Optimize your SaaS licenses.

Identify savings opportunities on your next contract cycle by optimizing your licenses and clearing out the waste. Bring that information to your next renewal conversation.   

• Do you have any unused accounts or are any of your accounts duplicate users? 
• Are any applications in use redundant? Does your user really need both licenses, for example, or can one be repurposed or even cut? 

These tips for negotiating SaaS contracts and renewals only scratch the surface on how you can land a good-fit agreement. We’ve got more information in the Gartner^® Report, 3 Reasons Why SaaS Vendors are Raising Prices and What You Can Do About It. 

If you’re preparing for a conversation with one of the four largest software vendors – IBM, Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft, check out our guide, A Perspective on Rightsizing Your Enterprise Application Software Costs.  

_{GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.} 

The post 4 Money-Saving Tips for Negotiating SaaS Contracts and Renewals appeared first on Snow Software.

1. Reducing risk. Unless you’ve locked down access to the internet, your employees are very likely not going through your formal procurement or SSO to use SaaS applications. Applications not vetted by IT security might not be secure and your employees may not be using strong passwords.

2. Removing complexity. The complexity caused by redundant applications and multiple contracts with the same vendor is a challenge, especially for organizations with distributed IT and procurement and frequent M&A. This “SaaS sprawl” is the biggest challenge in managing SaaS applications, according to a Snow survey of IT leaders.

3. Optimizing cost. Around 30% of SaaS cost is wasted due to unallocated or unused licenses. With SaaS, vendors bundle functionality in tiers. You may be paying for a more expensive tier than you need.

Read more about the importance of understanding how many sanctioned, unsanctioned and free SaaS applications are used in your organization here.

Comparing SaaS discovery methods

Now that you’ve considered your goals for managing your SaaS environment, your next move is to learn how to collect this information so your organization can actually reduce costs, remove complexity and identify risk. There are multiple methods of capturing SaaS details and some may be more appealing than others, depending on your goals and technologies in use. Your specific goals for SaaS app discovery will impact your discovery methods.

Check out the tables below to learn more about each of the methods and their benefits and identify which method is right for you.

Combining discovery methods

In order to fulfill all use cases outlined above (reduce risk, remove complexity, optimize cost), you may need to employ multiple discovery methods. It is important to note that combining methods increases the accuracy and value of the data collected. Here are some examples you can put into practice:

• Identify applications that are not going through SSO. Capturing usage via browser extensions will inform you of all applications in use. You can then compare this data with applications in use via your SSO platform and determine if there are applications that should be going through SSO.
• Identify users with individual licenses that should be leveraging the corporate agreement. You may have a corporate agreement in one business unit and can detect usage by connecting to the SaaS API, but other business units may be using individual accounts of the same software.
• Assess the value of unused/under-allocated licenses/redundant applications for renewal and rationalization conversations. By marrying application usage data with contract financial details, you’ll have a better understanding of how much these unused premium licenses, unallocated licenses and redundant applications are costing your organization.

Learn more about the benefits of tracking SaaS usage for both paid and free applications and see how Snow can help with SaaS discovery. 

The post How to Find the Right SaaS Discovery Method for Your Organization appeared first on Snow Software.