5 Reasons to Ditch Spreadsheets and Adopt CloudEagle.ai

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Are you still manually tracking your SaaS stack, costs, and resource usage with spreadsheets?

If so, you're probably aware that with the rapid growth of SaaS app usage, relying on spreadsheets alone no longer works. While they might seem simple, manually tracking usage, licenses, and costs gets harder as your business grows and you add more apps.

Those spreadsheets can easily turn into a source of errors, inefficiencies, and hidden costs. You need a better way to manage your SaaS stack. This is where CloudEagle.ai comes in.

With real-time usage tracking and feature-level usage insights, it simplifies SaaS management, identifies cost-saving opportunities, and eliminates the hassle of manual tracking.

Let’s explore why switching from spreadsheets to CloudEagle.ai is a more efficient solution.

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TL;DR

• CloudEagle.ai automates tasks like license tracking, renewals, and usage monitoring, reducing errors and saving time spent on manual updates.
• The platform identifies underused licenses and duplicate apps, helping you cut unnecessary costs and optimize your SaaS spend through actionable insights and predictive analytics.
• CloudEagle.ai automates user access management, ensuring new hires get the right apps, while access is revoked for departing employees, minimizing security risks.
• The platform centralizes vendor information, compares subscription prices, and automates procurement workflows, ensuring better deals and reducing inefficiencies.
• CloudEagle.ai offers real-time insights and automated forecasting to help you predict future SaaS needs, keep track of spending, and stay within your budget.

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The limitations of using spreadsheets for SaaS management

Managing SaaS with spreadsheets creates challenges that make it difficult to track, optimize, and control costs effectively. Here are some of the limitations:

1. Time-consuming and error-prone: You can use spreadsheets to track SaaS subscriptions, but it takes a lot of time, and the more data you manage, the higher the chances of errors. Simple mistakes can result in overspending or missed renewals, which can be costly for your business.

2. Lack of visibility: Spreadsheets don’t give you a clear, real-time view of all your apps, making it hard to track spending, usage, and renewals in one place. Without this visibility, it’s easy to miss things like unused licenses or unnecessary subscriptions that are costing you money.

3. No automation: Managing everything manually means that tasks like tracking renewals or adjusting (downgrading or upgrading) licenses require constant attention. This takes time and increases the risk of mistakes, like missing a renewal or overpaying for unused licenses.

4. Data Inaccuracy: Spreadsheets are prone to human error. A small mistake, like a wrong formula or data entry, can lead to incorrect information, causing budget miscalculations and inaccurate predictions for software expenses. This can result in poor financial decisions and overspending.

5. Limited insights: Spreadsheets only offer basic data and don’t provide the detailed feature-level insights you need to make smart decisions about your SaaS spend. Without the ability to analyze trends or predict future costs, it’s tough to optimize your SaaS budget and spot areas where you could save.

6. Collaboration issues: Spreadsheets can hinder collaboration due to inconsistent data entry, multiple versions, and lack of access. This leads to miscommunication and silos, preventing effective cross-functional teamwork.

7. Scalability issues: As your business grows and you adopt more SaaS apps, spreadsheets become increasingly difficult to manage. The more apps you add, the more complex it becomes to track everything, and eventually, they can no longer keep up with the growing demands.

8. Compliance and security risks: Spreadsheets can pose compliance and security concerns, especially with sensitive data. Managing user access manually and missing shadow IT risks can expose the company to security and privacy vulnerabilities.

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Key reasons to switch to CloudEagle.ai

Managing SaaS apps efficiently is key to controlling costs and aligning with business needs. CloudEagle.ai simplifies SaaS management and helps optimize your apps.

Here are the top 5 reasons to adopt CloudEagle.ai:

1. Automated SaaS management

CloudEagle.ai simplifies SaaS management by automating tedious tasks. It tracks licenses, contracts, renewals, subscriptions, and usage, reducing errors and providing real-time updates.

With CloudEagle.ai, you can skip the hours spent on spreadsheets—automation keeps your team informed with relevant updates, and automatic syncing ensures your data is always current with no extra effort. The tool helps you with:

License usage tracking: CloudEagle.ai simplifies tracking SaaS app usage at both the departmental and user levels, helping you avoid paying for unused licenses.

The tool automatically tracks usage and flags underutilized apps, allowing you to cancel or scale back subscriptions to reduce costs. This ensures you're only paying for what you actually use, keeping your SaaS stack streamlined and cost-efficient.

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License harvesting: The platform tracks license usage and flags unused or underutilized licenses. After identifying these SaaS licenses, you can reclaim them through the license reclamation workflow for future use. When a new requirement arises, you can easily reassign the license, ensuring all licenses are utilized efficiently and no subscriptions go to waste.

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Learn how RingCentral saved over $1.2 million in license harvesting with CloudEagle.ai, reducing costs and streamlining operations effortlessly.

Renewal management: Renewing contracts can be stressful, but CloudEagle.ai streamlines the process by tracking renewal dates and sending timely reminders 30, 60, and 90 days in advance. It allows you to review contract terms, compare prices, and renegotiate, helping you secure the best deal while avoiding last-minute scrambling.

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Contract management: CloudEagle.ai uses an AI-powered metadata extraction feature to extract key details like pricing, renewal dates, and terms from your SaaS contracts. It consolidates all your contracts in one place, making contract management easier for hundreds of SaaS apps.

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Discover how Oyster HR improved efficiency and gained better contract visibility by switching to CloudEagle.ai from spreadsheets for SaaS contract management.

2. SaaS cost optimization

CloudEagle.ai helps you save money by identifying unused or underused licenses. It tracks which apps are frequently used and which ones are just costing you without providing value. This allows you to cancel unnecessary subscriptions or reduce the number of licenses, ensuring you only pay for what you truly need.

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It helps eliminate duplicate apps across departments. If different teams are using separate software for the same tasks, CloudEagle.ai flags these instances, helping you consolidate and cut down on costs. This streamlining of your software stack helps keep your budget in check.

The platform doesn’t just track data; it turns it into actionable insights. It analyzes your software usage and gives you suggestions on how to optimize your apps. These insights help you make smarter decisions and save money in the long run.

It also offers predictive analytics, which helps you plan for future needs based on past usage. By forecasting upcoming requirements, you can avoid surprises and plan your budget more effectively. This proactive approach helps you manage your SaaS spending more easily.

3. Onboarding, offboarding, and access management

CloudEagle.ai simplifies the onboarding and offboarding process with automated workflows that assign and remove SaaS licenses based on employee roles. When a new employee joins, they’re instantly given the apps they need to get started.

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Similarly, when someone leaves, CloudEagle.ai ensures their access is revoked immediately, reducing the risk of security breaches. This automatic access management minimizes errors and keeps your systems safe.

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CloudEagle.ai ensures employees only have access to the apps required for their specific role. If an employee changes roles, the platform automatically updates their permissions. It offers various access control options, such as role-based and time-based access, to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.

This streamlined access management helps businesses maintain security and compliance, eliminating the need for manual tracking and reducing the risk of errors.

4. Vendor management and procurement automation

Managing multiple SaaS vendors can be complex as businesses grow. CloudEagle.ai streamlines this by consolidating vendor data in one platform, simplifying contract evaluation, pricing comparisons, and performance tracking.

Vendor research: CloudEagle.ai centralizes vendor information, giving you a clear view of your SaaS ecosystem. No more digging through websites—CloudEagle.ai pulls reviews and ratings from various platforms, providing real-time, reliable feedback on vendor performance.

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Price benchmarking: With AI-powered real-time price benchmarking, CloudEagle.ai compares your current subscription costs with industry standards. This highlights overpayments, giving you the insights needed to renegotiate better terms.

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Procurement automation: CloudEagle.ai streamlines procurement with automated workflows, and tracking requests, approvals, and purchases. This reduces manual work, eliminates errors, and ensures every purchase aligns with your SaaS strategy. It also prevents unnecessary spending, keeping your software stack lean and optimized.

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Slack Integration for procurement: CloudEagle.ai integrates with Slack to simplify procurement workflows. Track requests, approvals, and discussions directly within Slack, saving time and avoiding platform-switching for a faster, more efficient process.

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5. Forecasting and SaaS budgeting

CloudEagle.ai simplifies forecasting and budgeting by offering real-time insights into future SaaS needs. By analyzing past trends, it predicts license requirements, tool usage, and costs, helping businesses plan finances and avoid surprises during renewals or new purchases.

The platform tracks real-time spending, helping you stay within budget. Alerts notify you of any discrepancies or overspending, so you can take action quickly and maintain control over your finances.

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CloudEagle.ai’s automated forecasting and budgeting eliminate guesswork. It continuously monitors and updates data, making it easier for organizations to plan for future SaaS costs. With detailed insights at the department and employee levels, you can track spending trends, set budget alerts, and ensure alignment with allocated budgets.

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Are you ready to make the switch?

As organizations grow and depend more on SaaS apps, managing SaaS costs has become crucial. Today, over 400 SaaS apps are used across companies, making it easy for inefficiencies to arise, leading to overspending and security issues.

CloudEagle.ai provides the insights and automation necessary to optimize SaaS costs, enhance security, and streamline operations. By moving away from manual spreadsheets and adopting an automated platform like CloudEagle.ai, you can reduce administrative work, minimize errors, and make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Ready to take control of your SaaS management?

Schedule a demo with CloudEagle.ai and discover how to optimize your SaaS management.

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