8 Best Application Portfolio Management Software in 2024

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Ever felt like your SaaS portfolio looked like a disorganized closet, with apps scattered up like forgotten clothes? The struggle is real. Impulse app purchases, duplication, and underused software make managing them difficult.

You need an organized approach to de-clutter your software stack, ensuring each app serves a purpose and aligns with your organizational goals. Managing hundreds or thousands of apps in your SaaS portfolio can appear to be a complex task.

Fortunately, there is an organized approach to streamline this software clutter - Application Portfolio Management (APM).

Using an efficient application portfolio management software tool can help you understand your application landscape and make data-driven decisions about updating, retiring, or acquiring new software.

This guide explores the top 8 Application Portfolio Management software available, to help you make the right decision.

Application portfolio management software: What is it?

Application Portfolio Management (APM) is the process of managing and optimizing software app inventories to enhance business operations and your ROI.

This process enables your team to make crucial decisions like which apps to keep, which to invest in, and which to remove/eliminate, or consolidate.

Application Portfolio Management software is a strategic tool that provides complete visibility by integrating with your internal systems and helps keep your SaaS stack organized.

It is an automated tool that can centralize your entire software portfolio and enable your team to make informed rationalization decisions to keep your stack organized.

8 Best Application Portfolio Management Software

1. CloudEagle

CloudEagle is an all-in-one application portfolio management software solution capable of managing SaaS apps, minimizing shadow IT and SaaS sprawl risks, and streamlining SaaS procurement for businesses.

It was built to help SMBs and enterprises like yours to effectively manage application portfolios. CloudEagle enables you to optimize your portfolio through proactive app discovery, granular spend and usage insights, automated provisioning and deprovisioning and agile workflows for procurement.

It also includes features like license management, renewal workflows, custom reports and vendor research module to streamline your entire SaaS lifecycle.

Key features include;

Holistic SaaS visibility: CloudEagle provides a 360-degree view of your SaaS stack with over 300 integrations. By connecting with your SSO, finance, HRIS systems, etc. it discovers all instances of apps, spend, licenses, vendors, etc., and organizes them in one dashboard.

Proactive shadow IT alerts and cost optimization: Stay ahead of shadow IT with CloudEagle's proactive alerts, ensuring unapproved apps are detected immediately. The platform monitors app usage, identifying underutilized, duplicate, and hidden apps for improved cost decision-making.

Agile Procurement Workflows: CloudEagle's agile workflows simplify procurement by allowing users to raise purchase requests via Slack. Transparent communication among stakeholders ensures that decisions are well-informed. It has a complete procurement module to automate approval requests.

Renewal Monitoring: CloudEagle's renewal reminders start 90 days ahead, and timely reminders are delivered via Slack. You can stay ahead of renewals and renew contracts on time using CloudEagle workflows.

CloudEagle's advanced renewal monitoring capabilities are highly beneficial for organizations. Previously, Falkonry faced unnecessary costs and app downtime because of missed contract renewals. Their spreadsheet-based system became inefficient as they expanded and required a better solution.

They chose CloudEagle to automate renewals. The platform integrated with their systems, created a renewal calendar, and canceled auto-renewals. With reminders, Falkonry renewed contracts on time, saving costs and streamlining operations.

Read the detailed success story.

Assisted Buying: CloudEagle assigns SaaS purchasing experts to negotiate on your behalf. They will conduct competitive research and use price benchmarking data to make the best possible purchases.

Efficient negotiation with vendors can lead to significant savings on SaaS costs. When Nowports faced challenges tracking SaaS usage and missed renewal deadlines due to a lack of usage data, they chose CloudEagle.

The tool provided app usage visibility, and Nowports secured contract discounts with the help of CloudEagle's skilled negotiators, saving them valuable time and money on software spending.

Read the detailed success story here.

Vendor and License Management: You get complete visibility on all licenses. Workflows are available to automatically deprovision users from licenses based on usage and harness them. A centralized dashboard is available to manage all vendors.

Automated User Provisioning: CloudEagle's automated user provisioning and de-provisioning workflows ensure streamlined onboarding and offboarding operations. Users can access the right applications based on their roles and responsibilities.

If you're interested in how streamlining employee onboarding and offboarding with automated provisioning and deprovisioning workflows can increase efficiency in your organization, check out this testimonial from Alice Park at Remediant.

She details how CloudEagle streamlined their onboarding and offboarding, tracked vendor contracts, managed user access, and generated custom reports for informed license renewals.

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Application Library: Gain access to a vast collection of 150,000 applications for in-depth analysis and informed decisions.

Pros:

• Cost Optimization: Identify redundant, free, and duplicate apps and optimize them to save on spend.
• Application Rationalization: Simplify the SaaS stack by eliminating low-value apps, lowering complexity, and improving overall portfolio efficiency.
• Security and compliance: Using centralized control and transparent reporting, expertly address security weaknesses, assuring data security and regulatory compliance.
• Procurement: Minimize time wasted on manual procurement by automating the entire process using workflows and Slackbot.
• Save time: Your lean procurement team can save time by outsourcing negotiations to our experts and focusing on their strategic tasks.

Pricing : CloudEagle offers three plans, free of hidden charges.

1. Starter - $2000/month

2. Growth - $3000/month

3. Enterprise - $4000/month

2. Flexera

Flexera One emerges as an innovative IT asset management solution designed for businesses navigating complicated hybrid ecosystems. From on-site setups to SaaS and the cloud, Flexera One provides a comprehensive view of your IT assets, enabling data-driven decision-making.

Key features include:

• Comprehensive Utilization Analysis: Flexera One examines hybrid infrastructure use and spending, delivering insights by business services, units, cost centers, and users.
• Consolidated View of Software and Cloud Products: It overviews software, SaaS, and cloud-product consumption, easing vendor negotiations and renewals with key providers such as Microsoft and Oracle.
• Resource Optimization: Flexera One proactively lowers software waste and unused resources across desktops, data centers, and SaaS.

Pros:

• The user interface is intuitive.
• User-friendly with excellent customer service.

Cons:

• Higher price when compared to other similar products.
• API exploration is hampered by documentation constraints.

Pricing : Contact the team to get a customized quote.

3. Torii

Torii emerges as a modern Application Portfolio Management Software, enabling you to automate app discovery and management of software apps.

Torii is a critical solution in the modern business landscape, providing clear visibility into the utilization and expenditure of SaaS applications.

Key features include:

• Shadow IT Elimination: Torii proactively detects and resolves unidentified apps, hence eliminating the issue of shadow IT.
• Optimized Spending: Torii's smooth integration with over 100 applications ensures reliable data for automatic spending optimization.
• Onboarding and Offboarding Automation: Torii streamlines procedures by automating onboarding and offboarding workflows.
• Improved Vendor Management: It avoids auto-renewals and allows for better vendor management.

Pros:

• Good client service.
• Complete feature overview in licenses.

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve.
• Demands extra integrations for broader compatibility.

Pricing: Torii offers customized packages. For personalized quotes, users can contact the Torii team.

4. LeanIX

LeanIX is an advanced enterprise architectural management software that guides you in transforming your IT landscapes and risk management.

It is the foundation for enterprise architecture, facilitating technology utilization, decision-making, and change management.

Key Features include :

• Insights: LeanIX enables the development of insights, customized reports, and data visualizers, demonstrating a clear Return on Investment (ROI).
• SaaS App Discovery: It specializes in discovering SaaS apps, which is critical for comprehensive portfolio management.
• Integrated Capabilities: LeanIX integrates effortlessly with financial, contract management, and single sign-on systems, offering an in-depth overview of the company's apps. This integration improves app discovery and visibility across the IT landscape.

Pros:

• User Experience: Recognized for providing an excellent user experience.
• Customer Support: Armed with excellent customer support.

Cons:

• Reporting features have been criticized for their lack of clarity.
• Lacks the standard interfaces for imports.

Pricing: Contact sales team for pricing details.

5. Productiv

Productiv's advanced analytics transform application portfolio management, providing you with a potent tool for analyzing, improving, and strategically managing your app portfolios.

Productiv supports effective decision-making and helps minimize redundancies and shadow IT concerns by offering insight into app usage, spending, and engagement at various tiers.

Key Features include:

• Insightful analytics: For complete insight, delve into crucial analytics such as app usage and spending.
• Enhanced Visibility: Increase overall visibility by gaining crystal-clear insights across teams, locations, and specialized features.
• Operational Efficiency: Improve operational efficiency by streamlining activities, eliminating redundancies, and reducing shadow IT.
• Decision-Making Assistance: Productiv, in addition to analytics, assists in making educated decisions, particularly regarding renewals and license allocations.

Pros:

• Shadow IT Discovery: Use Productiv's strong visibility into unauthorized applications to excel at managing shadow IT.
• Total SaaS Visibility: Obtain a comprehensive view of all SaaS apps, promoting transparency.
• User-Friendly Interface: Use easy charts to simplify complex data, delivering a seamless user experience.
• Integration Capabilities: Integrate with current ecosystems seamlessly, enhancing collaborative efficiency.

Cons:

• Requires improvement in customer service to improve overall user experience.
• The platform's email configurations are deficient and require improvement.

Pricing: Productiv offers customized packages to meet the specific requirements of each business. For a personalized quote, must contact the Productiv team directly.

6. Zluri

Zluri, an intelligent SaaS management tool, automates your SaaS applications' discovery, management, security, and optimization across several platforms.

Zluri automates IT operations such as procurement, onboarding, and offboarding while addressing SaaS waste issues such as duplicate apps, auto-renewals, and wasted licenses. Zluri provides unrivaled access to your SaaS ecosystem, assisting in identifying and removing non-compliant or security-vulnerable apps.

Key features include:

• Discovery Methods: Zluri utilizes five discovery methods, such as SSO and API integration, to recognize 100% of SaaS apps.
• Renewal Calendar: Sends out timely app renewal reminders, eliminating wasteful auto-renewals and optimizing subscription expenses.
• Usage Monitoring: It improves SaaS stack efficiency by monitoring and regulating app spending, minimizing shadow IT.

Pros:

• The UI is simple to use.
• Simplified renewal management.
• A powerful discovery engine with a large app library.

Cons

• Some integrations in Zluri need customization.
• Not very cheap
• Time-consuming set-up

Pricing: Zluri offers three pricing tiers: Starter, Growth, and Enterprise. For specific details, users need to contact Zluri's team directly.

8. BetterCloud

BetterCloud leads the way in streamlining SaaS management, increasing visibility, and strengthening data against internal and external threats. Its automated workflows make onboarding, offboarding, and administrative activities easier.

Key features include:

• Application Discovery: Identifies SaaS apps, reducing redundancy and shadow IT to improve overall efficiency.
• User Lifecycle Management: Manages SaaS apps by automating workflows to improve user experience.
• Data Security: Protects organizational data while also maintaining regulatory compliance through sensitive content discovery and automated threat remediation.

Pros:

• Customer Service: Recognized for providing exceptional customer service.
• User-Friendly: Has a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Cons:

• Alert Customization: There are a few options for customizing alerts.
• Integration Issues: Not all software apps can be seamlessly integrated.
• Cost: Considered relatively costly.

Pricing: Users must contact the team to learn more about pricing.

Listen to Joshua Peskay, a 3CPO (CIO, CISO, and CPO) at RoundTable Technology, as he discusses the challenges of managing rapid SaaS app adoption within organizations. He introduces an ROI score for SaaS tools that improves decision-making processes and provides valuable strategies for optimizing Shadow IT to drive ROI growth.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, effective Application Portfolio Management is critical for optimizing your portfolio, facilitating informed financial decisions, and achieving business goals.

This blog has highlighted the top eight software options for app and spend tracking, risk assessment, procurement, and optimizing the entire SaaS portfolio.

Dealing with the challenges of legacy applications, APM becomes a strategic need. CloudEagle, a comprehensive solution with user-friendly interfaces and powerful features, can help elevate your Application portfolio management strategy.

Are you ready to transform your application portfolio? Schedule a demo with CloudEagle today to experience increased transparency, cost efficiency, and strategic alignment, ensuring your business remains competitive in an ever-changing technology landscape.

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