How SAM Experts Can Justify the Need for a SaaS Management Platform

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The software sector has had a seismic shift, with businesses rapidly moving from on-premise solutions to cloud-based SaaS applications.

This transition comes with scalability, cost-efficiency, and remote accessibility. However, there are some challenges for software asset management (SAM) experts.

As the adoption of SaaS surges—with 99% of companies expected to use at least one SaaS solution by 2025—SAM professionals must upgrade their strategies to effectively manage and optimize an increasingly complex SaaS stack.

That is where the SaaS management platform comes in. But how can you convince your management about the need for a SaaS management platform? That's what the article is all about.

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TL;DR

• Traditional SAM tools struggle with managing SaaS due to issues like shadow IT and decentralized purchasing.
• SaaS Management Platforms (SMPs) offer significant cost savings, risk reduction, and better efficiency.
• SMPs automate key processes like license reclamation and renewal tracking, boosting operational performance.
• Enhanced security and compliance are achieved by managing shadow IT and ensuring data regulation adherence.
• SMPs improve vendor and contract management through data-driven insights, enabling better terms and cost reductions.

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The Limitations of Traditional SAM in Managing SaaS Applications

Traditional SAM tools focus primarily on managing perpetual licenses and on-premise software.

These tools undoubtedly excel at tracking installed software, monitoring license compliance, and managing physical assets. However, they fall short regarding the dynamic nature of SaaS applications.

SAM experts now face several challenges in managing SaaS:

• Decentralized purchasing: Employees can easily subscribe to SaaS applications without IT approval, leading to uncontrolled spending and potential security risks.
• Shadow IT: Unauthorized SaaS usage often goes undetected, creating compliance and security vulnerabilities.
• Lack of usage visibility: Traditional tools cannot accurately track who uses which SaaS applications and how often. That makes it difficult to optimize licenses.
• Frequent updates and changes: SaaS applications update regularly, making it challenging to track features and compliance requirements.
• Complex licensing models: SaaS often uses subscription-based or user-based pricing, which will be hard for traditional SAM tools to manage effectively.

While SAM tools are valuable for on-premise software, they cannot provide comprehensive management for SaaS applications.

SAM tools lack real-time visibility into SaaS usage and spending across the organization. This limitation makes it impossible to identify redundant or underutilized subscriptions promptly.

Traditional SAM tools cannot integrate with the many SaaS applications, and that prevents automated provisioning and deprovisioning of user accounts. This gap leads to inefficient license management and potential security risks when employees leave the company.

To address these limitations, you need a specialized SaaS management platform to provide a complete overview of your SaaS stack. We will show you how to justify the need for one.

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Here’s How SAM Experts Can Justify the Need for a SaaS Management Platform

Below are what you must do to justify the need for a SaaS management platform:

#1: Building a Strong Business Case for a SaaS Management Platform

As a SAM expert, you must effectively communicate the importance of SaaS management platforms (SMPs) to decision-makers.

This step is crucial because leaders always focus on immediate business needs and may not fully grasp how complex managing a growing SaaS portfolio is.

When you present a strong business case, you will secure the necessary support and resources for implementing an SMP. To convince leadership, focus on these talking points:

1. Cost Savings

SMPs help achieve significant cost reductions by:

• Identifying and eliminating redundant or underutilized SaaS subscriptions.
• Providing data for better negotiation of contract terms and pricing.
• Automating license reclamation from inactive users.
• Offering insights for rightsizing licenses based on actual usage.

2. Increased Efficiency

SMPs boost operational efficiency by:

• Centralizing SaaS management, reducing time spent on manual tasks.
• Automating user provisioning and deprovisioning processes.
• Streamlining approval workflows for new SaaS purchases.
• Providing a self-service portal for employees to request access to approved apps.

3. Risk Reduction

SMPs mitigate various risks by:

• Detecting and managing shadow IT to enhance security.
• Ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
• Monitoring vendor security certifications and compliance statuses.
• Alerting IT teams to potential security threats from unauthorized apps.

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You have to highlight how an SMP aligns with broader business objectives. For digital transformation initiatives, emphasize how SMPs provide visibility and control to support a cloud-first strategy.

Explain that SMPs enable faster adoption of new technologies while maintaining governance.

For cost control objectives, demonstrate how SMPs offer detailed spending analytics across departments and applications. This visibility allows for more accurate budgeting and forecasting.

Additionally, showcases how SMPs can identify opportunities for consolidation and optimization, directly contributing to cost reduction targets.

Stress that SMPs support scalability, a key business objective for growing companies. As your organization expands, an SMP will help maintain control over SaaS sprawl, ensure new employees are efficiently onboarded with the right tools, and prevent unnecessary license purchases.

When you present these compelling arguments, you will be able to effectively justify the need for an SMP and gain leadership buy-in for its implementation.

#2: The Key To Complete Visibility and Usage Data

You have to emphasize SMPs' ability to provide complete visibility and detailed usage data. Traditional SAM tools often fall short in this area, especially regarding SaaS applications.

An SMP will give you deep-level telemetry through direct integrations with SaaS applications, providing accurate and actionable insights.

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For instance, CloudEagle.ai's 500+ integrations enable real-time monitoring of software license usage across your entire SaaS portfolio. This level of detail allows you to track not just whether a license is in use but how it's being used.

A good SMP helps centralize data from various sources, including SSO, HRIS, finance systems, and contracts.

This consolidation eliminates data silos and provides a comprehensive view of your SaaS stack. As a result, you can make informed decisions about software usage and license management, leading to significant cost savings.

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SMPs offer feature-level usage tracking. For example, you can monitor specific activities like the number of meetings held in Zoom or documents processed in DocuSign. With this granular insight, you will identify underutilized features and optimize your subscriptions accordingly.

By presenting these capabilities to decision-makers, you demonstrate how an SMP addresses the limitations of traditional SAM tools.

Remember, in today's SaaS-driven business environment, complete visibility means you maintain control over your software assets and expenses.

#3: Cost Optimization and License Management: The Financial Justification

SMPs give you the right tools for cost optimization and license management, providing a strong financial justification for their adoption.

These platforms help you eliminate unused or redundant licenses through automated discovery and usage tracking.

For instance, CloudEagle.ai's license management dashboard provides a comprehensive view of purchased, provisioned, and utilized licenses, enabling you to identify and rectify inefficiencies quickly.

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SMPs also excel at tracking renewals and preventing unexpected costs. They create automated renewal calendars and send timely reminders, ensuring you never miss a renewal deadline.

With these, you will be able to negotiate better terms or cancel unnecessary subscriptions before auto-renewals kick in.

Some case studies from Cloudeagle.ai demonstrate the financial impact of SMPs. Consider Lob's experience with Cloudeagle, for example:

Lob faced challenges with visibility into contract and usage data. After implementing Cloudeagle.ai, they gained immediate insights through 300+ connectors.

This visibility led to a 20% reduction in SaaS spend by rightsizing unused licenses. Additionally, Lob saved 1830 hours annually in SaaS management and 1180 hours in renewal processes.

Beyond this, CloudEagle.ai's license harvesting features significantly enhance spend optimization.

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The platform automatically identifies inactive or underutilized licenses across your SaaS portfolio. It then initiates a workflow to reclaim these licenses by reassigning them to other users or reducing your subscription level during the next renewal.

With this, it helps ensure you're not paying for unused software, leading to substantial cost savings.

CloudEagle.ai's AI-driven insights also help recommend consolidation for similar tools and suggest alternative, cost-effective ones.

By providing detailed usage insights, automating renewal processes, and offering negotiation support, SMPs like CloudEagle.ai help you to make data-driven decisions that lead to significant cost savings.

When presenting your business case, emphasize these financial outcomes to demonstrate the clear ROI of implementing an SMP.

#4: Mitigating Security Risks and Ensuring Compliance

Unmanaged SaaS applications significantly increase security risks in your organization. Employees may inadvertently share sensitive data through unsecured platforms without proper oversight or fall victim to phishing attacks. Furthermore, forgotten or unused accounts can become entry points for cybercriminals.

SMPs address these risks by providing comprehensive visibility into your software stack. They achieve this through automated discovery of all SaaS applications, including shadow IT, and real-time monitoring of user access and activity.

CloudEagle.ai, for example, offers robust identity and access management features to enhance security and ensure compliance:

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Self-service app catalog: Streamlines access requests while maintaining control since your employees can easily search for a self-service catalog of sanctioned apps to request access through Slack or MS Teams.

App access reviews: Regularly audit user permissions to prevent unauthorized access. You can also set auto-access reviews for SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Privileged access management: Control and monitor high-level access to sensitive systems.

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Time-based access: Grant temporary access for specific projects or roles.

Provisioning and deprovisioning workflows: Automate user onboarding and offboarding processes. Through this automated workflow, the platform will recommend the right tools and apps for new employees, who will get to work as early as the first day. It will also revoke access to all the apps they were using once they leave your company.

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Deprovisioning workflows for inactive employees: Automatically revoke access for dormant accounts.

These features help maintain compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA by tracking data flow, providing audit trails, and alerting you to potential compliance issues.

As you implement a good SMP, you reduce the risk of data breaches and non-compliance penalties. This will help save your organization from costly fines and reputational damage, further strengthening your business case for adopting an SMP.

#5: Streamline Contract & Vendor Management and Enable Efficient Negotiations

SMPs like Cloudeagle.ai significantly enhance your ability to effectively manage contracts, vendors, and negotiations. These platforms provide the tools and data-driven insights that transform your approach to SaaS procurement and renewal processes.

Contract Management

CloudEagle.ai centralizes all your vendor contracts in a secure, single dashboard. With this centralization, there is no need for scattered spreadsheets. It also ensures easy storage and tracking.

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The platform's AI-driven metadata extraction automatically pulls key contract information, such as payment terms and usage caps. Consequently, you always have critical contract details at your fingertips to ensure you never miss a renewal deadline.

CloudEagle.ai has an auto-updated renewal calendar. This feature also leverages contract metadata to drive proactive procurement strategies.

The system analyzes all contracts and sets renewal and opt-out date alerts. With this, you can plan and avoid being caught off guard by auto-renewals.

Vendor Management

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CloudEagle.ai provides tools for research and analysis. The platform allows you to search for solutions using plain English. You just have to describe what problem your business is facing, and you will get a shortlist of relevant SaaS vendors.

It enables you to connect with peers so you can identify software used by similar organizations and validate your choices.

The platform leverages machine learning to display relevant reviews, pros, and cons of each vendor, eliminating the need to visit multiple review websites.

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CloudEagle also has a feature prioritization tool based on your industry. Instead of you reviewing all the feature sheets from vendors, the tool will only display the ones that are important to your peers, which will most likely check the relevant aspects of your needs.

The platform also has a side-by-side comparison functionality that allows you to easily compare potential choices based on price, features, support, and other crucial factors. This helps streamline your decision-making process.

Renewal Management

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CloudEagle.ai equips you with data-driven insights. The platform offers benchmarking data, comparing your SaaS spend and usage patterns against industry standards.

This information helps you identify areas where you might be overpaying or underutilizing services compared to similar organizations.

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CloudEagle.ai's renewal cards also show you key data points like contract value and vendor spend. With these, you will be able to negotiate the best terms.

You can leverage usage statistics, industry benchmarks, and historical spending patterns to build compelling cases for better pricing or terms.

By streamlining these processes, SMPs like CloudEagle.ai help save you time and effort and position you to make significant cost savings through more informed and strategic contract and vendor management.

#6: Improving Operational Efficiency and Streamlining Workflows

SMPs help enhance operational efficiency by automating some repetitive processes that traditionally consume valuable time and resources. These automated workflows streamline your SaaS management tasks, allowing your team to focus on better initiatives.

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Renewal workflows in SMPs proactively manage your software contracts. For instance, Cloudeagle.ai's system initiates renewal processes up to 90 days in advance.

It automatically notifies relevant stakeholders, provides usage data, and suggests optimization opportunities. This approach prevents last-minute scrambles and enables informed renewal decisions.

Procurement workflows simplify the software acquisition process. SMPs offer centralized request portals where employees can easily submit software requests through Slack.

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These requests then flow through predefined approval chains, ensuring proper vetting and compliance checks. This process reduces shadow IT and accelerates software provisioning.

User provisioning and deprovisioning workflows are crucial for maintaining security and optimizing licenses. When integrated with your HR systems, SMPs can automatically grant new employees access to necessary software based on their roles.

Similarly, when an employee leaves, the system promptly revokes access across all applications, mitigating security risks and freeing up licenses for reallocation.

License harvesting workflows continuously monitor software usage patterns. When the system detects inactive or underutilized licenses, it initiates a reclamation process.

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This might involve notifying the user or their manager or automatically revoking access after a set period of inactivity. Such automation ensures you're not paying for unused licenses and maximizes your software investments.

You have to let your leaders know that implementing these automated workflows in your organization significantly reduces manual effort, minimizes human errors, and accelerates processes.

This improved efficiency helps save time and also enhances your organization's agility in managing its SaaS portfolio. It provides a strong argument for adopting an SMP in your business case.

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Conclusion

As a SAM expert, you now have compelling reasons to justify the need for a SaaS management platform.

From providing complete visibility and optimizing costs to mitigating security risks and streamlining workflows, platforms like Cloudeagle.ai offer comprehensive solutions for managing your SaaS portfolio.

These tools address the limitations of traditional SAM approaches and deliver tangible benefits in efficiency and cost savings.

To take the next step in transforming your SaaS management strategy, book a demo with CloudEagle.ai today.

Experience firsthand how our powerful features can revolutionize your approach to SaaS management and drive significant value for your organization.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can a SaaS management platform integrate with our existing IT infrastructure?

Yes, the best SMPs are designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure.

They typically offer APIs and pre-built connectors for popular systems like SSO providers, HRIS, and financial software. This integration capability ensures smooth data flow and enables comprehensive SaaS management across your organization.

2. How does a SaaS management platform handle data security and privacy?

SMPs prioritize data security through encryption, access controls, and regular security audits. They comply with industry standards such as SOC 2 and GDPR.

Additionally, these platforms enhance your overall security posture by providing visibility into shadow IT and ensuring proper access management across your SaaS applications.

3. Can a SaaS management platform help with software budgeting and forecasting?

Absolutely. SMPs provide detailed spend analytics and usage trends, enabling accurate budgeting and forecasting.

They offer insights into upcoming renewals, potential cost savings, and growth patterns in SaaS usage. This data-driven approach allows you to create more precise budgets and make informed decisions about future software investments.

SAM experts face new challenges as businesses shift from on-premise apps to SaaS. Learn how to justify your leaders' need for a SaaS management platform.

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