Why does your organization need an asset management software?

‍

Are you struggling to manage your organization's SaaS assets, including software licenses, contracts, and renewal agreements? If so, there's a high chance you're still relying on spreadsheets to handle all the details.

Relying on this manual method is inefficient and increases the risk of errors. Given the critical importance of your SaaS assets, overlooking agreements could lead to various issues, including penalties and compliance issues.

However, there's a better way to manage your assets using asset management software. Reports suggest that by 2027, 50% of SAM and FinOps governance functions will be crucial in aiding organizations in reaching their sustainability objectives.

This guide will explore why your organization needs the best asset management software. Also, you will learn about one such effective tool for managing your organization's SaaS assets.

‍

What do you mean by asset management software?

Asset management software is a tool for managing physical and digital assets, software licenses, and contracts. It also helps with inventory, tracking locations, monitoring usage, scheduling maintenance, and other essential functions.

With such a tool, you can make smart decisions by tracking asset details, monitoring replacement costs, and offering quick access to asset data.

This tool safeguards compliance across your operations by confirming that your organization's use of SaaS apps aligns with various regulations such as ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and others.

Check this table to understand the main functions of asset management software.

‍

‍

SAM tools are like smart assistants for software license management. They help organizations follow the rules set by software vendors and keep track of what software they have and how they're using it.

According to Gartner, here's a table summarizing the key activities that SAM tools must possess.

‍

‍

What are examples of software assets?

Software assets are digital products or applications a company owns or licenses. They include different SaaS licenses, contracts, and subscriptions. It also includes various types of software, such as licensed, custom, open-source, and SaaS applications, along with development tools and data resources.

These assets are vital for keeping an organization's daily operations, supporting business processes, and driving innovation. Managing them efficiently ensures optimal use, compliance, and security.

‍

Why do organizations need asset management software to manage SaaS assets?

Asset management software is crucial for organizations, especially when it comes to managing IT assets, for several reasons:

1. Streamlined inventory

With asset lifecycle management software, you can effortlessly streamline inventory management and track your company's software tools, licenses, contracts, and renewal agreements. Instead of searching through various locations, everything is neatly organized in one centralized system.

These tools simplify contract management by aggregating and structuring contracts from multiple applications into a centralized repository. They integrate with spreadsheets to track contracts and provide features for automating the extraction of renewal-related information.

This means you can easily see what software is being used, who's using it, and if all the licenses are up to date. This centralized approach saves time and ensures better organization and control over software assets, enhancing overall efficiency and productivity.

However, before opting for such a tool, you must ensure that SAM allows you to efficiently manage SaaS usage, track app access, and enforce security protocols in one convenient platform.

It should offer real-time monitoring of SaaS usage, costs, and security, along with various reports for SaaS spend visibility, renewal management, budgeting, and optimization.

2. Simplifying license and contract tracking

According to CloudEagle's SaaS spend report, an organization uses an average of 500 applications. Since each application requires its own licenses, manually tracking each license is impossible.

This is what asset management system simplifies. Thanks to its integration capabilities, it can connect with each application in your stack, identify purchase licenses, and start tracking usage.

Imagine sifting through paperwork or countless spreadsheets to find one contract or license agreement. This slow and error-prone process can cause missed renewal dates or overlooked contract terms.

Asset management software centralizes vital data in one accessible location, simplifying operations. It also sends automatic reminders for renewals and contract changes.

An asset management software will create a renewal calendar based on the renewal dates and send reminders to ensure you don't miss out on your renewals again. Ensure your SAM tool can easily integrate with internal systems like SSO, HRIS, finance systems, and direct app integrations.

This capability provides full visibility into your SaaS applications and licenses. You can easily monitor SaaS usage and reclaim and redistribute licenses as needed, all from one intuitive dashboard.

3. Optimizing license utilization

Managing SaaS licenses can be tough due to their unique usage metrics and renewal requirements. SAM tools simplify this by clearly displaying how each license is utilized across your organization.

It could also save you money by removing unnecessary licenses. These tools let you make informed decisions about your SaaS license utilization, ensuring you get the most value from your software investments.

With detailed insights readily available, you can identify software licenses that are properly used, underutilized, or unassigned. This insight helps you understand where licenses are effectively utilized and where they are not.

By utilizing licensing harvesting workflows, you can reclaim underutilized licenses and reallocate them to those who need them, optimizing your license asset management.

For instance, if you purchased 300 licenses but only 240 were assigned, and only 80 were utilized properly while the rest remained unused or underutilized, you can reclaim and reallocate them accordingly.

You can send reminders 90 days before the renewal deadline by leveraging advanced renewal workflows within the SAM tool. It allows you ample time to assess usage patterns and promptly renew contracts. This practice ensures operational continuity and optimizes costs.

4. Ensuring compliance with license agreements

Ensuring compliance with SaaS license agreements is crucial to avoid risks like financial penalties, reputational damage, and legal consequences. These tools help mitigate these risks by monitoring license usage and ensuring adherence to the terms outlined in the license agreements.

These tools closely monitor how SaaS licenses are used across the organization and track real-time metrics like usage and user access to spot potential issues early.

Plus, they often have auditing features, letting organizations thoroughly review their software usage and ensure they follow the license agreements.

With detailed reports and audit trails, organizations can prove they comply with the rules during audits or talks with software vendors. This lowers the chance of fines or lawsuits.

5. Cost efficiency in license management

Organizations must take necessary steps to manage their licenses effectively, save resources, and maximize cost efficiency. Asset management software is incredibly helpful for efficient spending management.

Firstly, it tracks license usage and identifies underutilized ones, preventing organizations from overspending on unnecessary licenses. This ensures resources are allocated efficiently, avoiding wasteful expenditure. Additionally, it aids in budget prediction by displaying historical license usage data.

With this information, organizations can better plan their budgets, using real data instead of guessing. This smart planning makes budgets work better and prevents unexpected costs or going over budget.

Asset management software helps organizations save money on licenses, avoid overspending, and plan budgets wisely. This leads to big savings and better resource use, which is good for the organization's financial health and future.

6. Enabling remote license management

Asset management software is vital for remote license management, particularly in today's dispersed work environments. These tools are adaptable to remote work setups and enable users to manage licenses and contracts from anywhere with internet access.

Asset management software streamlines collaboration for cross-functional teams by integrating communication tools like Slack. This ensures that stakeholders and team members can access the latest information, regardless of location.

It provides centralized visibility into SaaS license usage, aiding in alignment and coordination for remote teams. This ensures effective license and contract management in remote or hybrid work setups, supporting productivity and compliance organization-wide.

7. Integration with procurement and financial systems

You should choose an asset management tool that integrates with procurement and financial systems. This integration is crucial for making your license management processes within the organization more efficient and effective.

Integration between asset management software and procurement systems makes communication and data exchange seamless. This simplifies procurement processes by automating tasks such as purchasing new licenses and renewing existing ones.

Integration with procurement systems allows asset management software to automate tasks like generating purchase orders, tracking spending, and updating inventory records. This saves time and reduces the risk of errors associated with manual data entry.

Integration with financial systems enhances decision-making in license management. It combines asset management and financial data, providing insights into spending, usage trends, and cost-saving opportunities.

It streamlines procurement, leverages analytics, and optimizes license management, enhancing efficiency, visibility, and cost management while ensuring compliance.

8. Scalability and future-proofing

When choosing asset management software for license and contract management, it's important to consider scalability and future-proofing. This means ensuring you can add more software licenses or increase resources as your organization grows.

It helps handle many software assets and complex licensing arrangements as your business expands. So, look for flexible software to adapt to your changing needs over time.

This flexibility ensures the software stays useful as your organization grows without constant updates. It should also be able to adapt to changes in software licensing and industry rules.

With software licensing constantly changing, organizations need a solution to handle different models, such as subscription-based, usage-based, or perpetual licenses, and adapt to new regulations.

This flexibility helps organizations manage licenses smoothly, even as the software market and regulations change.

‍

‍

It is important to invest in long-term solutions for managing licenses and contracts sustainably. Rather than opting for quick fixes, choose software with strong features, scalability, and flexibility.

Choosing a comprehensive and scalable asset management solution helps you build sustainable practices that align with your long-term growth and compliance objectives.

‍

Conclusion

With an SAM tool, you can easily monitor your asset's lifecycle, their use, and when they might need replacing. This saves time and reduces errors, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.

For instance, when you opt for CloudEagle, an advanced IT asset management software, you get a user-friendly analytics dashboard for managing your software assets. This tool simplifies software asset management, covering everything from SaaS applications to licenses and renewals.

CloudEagle's SAM capabilities distinguish itself with its AI-powered analytics, utilizing machine learning algorithms to scrutinize software usage patterns. This functionality reduces cost by identifying and eliminating duplicate and redundant applications.

So, if you want to protect and manage your software assets properly, schedule a demo with CloudEagle to learn more about how to do this easily.

‍