SaaS Renewal Management: Everything You Need To Know in 2023

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Have you ever felt lost in the never-ending cycle of SaaS subscription renewals, as if you were sailing in circles with no apparent direction? We understand! For many SaaS organizations, the renewal process can be stressful and unpleasant.

So don't worry; there is still hope! You can significantly improve your company's success with the correct renewal management tactics and stop losing valuable money through auto-renewals.

In this blog post, we'll review the best practices for streamlining SaaS renewals for optimal success. We've covered everything from finding renewal triggers to comprehending pricing models. So tune in and learn how to determine when to "cash out" or prepare renegotiation plans.

What is a SaaS Renewal?

The process of renewing or extending an existing contract or agreement for a software as a service (SaaS) application is called SaaS renewal.

When a business purchases a SaaS app, they normally engage in a contract or agreement for a specified duration. Once the contract period comes to an end, the organization decides whether or not to renew the subscription.

SaaS renewals are common for businesses worldwide, whether done manually or automatically.

It offers an excellent chance for businesses to examine their application and license usage. understand the value it adds to the team to ensure that each application is fully utilized.

SaaS renewal management is the process of tracking renewal dates, analyzing usage, preparing a negotiation plan, and renewing SaaS contracts. To optimize SaaS renewals, businesses must understand the significance of subscription optimization and have the necessary resources to ensure they are getting the most out of their SaaS spending.

Factors To Consider While Creating A SaaS Renewal Strategy

It is critical for organizations to develop a successful SaaS renewal strategy to maximize their SaaS savings and maintain great vendor relationships.

While establishing a SaaS renewal strategy, keep the following factors in mind:

Product fulfillment

It is the most important factor to pay attention to when renewing a SaaS subscription. Businesses must decide whether SaaS products and services matched their demands and expectations.

It's critical to examine whether the product is still relevant to the company's goals and whether it provides enough value to justify the renewal.

Costs and Licenses

Before renewing a SaaS subscription, businesses should assess whether the pricing is competitive, if it matches their budget, and if the licensing terms are appropriate for their needs. This will help businesses make more educated decisions and get the most value for their money.

Alternative Vendors

Study and assess alternative vendors to ensure the business gets the finest service possible. If you find a better product or service, it may be worthwhile to switch vendors.

Application Usage

Assess the usage of SaaS products to ensure your teams are utilizing the most out of the licenses. Also, evaluate usage data, as this will help in deciding whether the app is providing value or not, and its renewal should be considered.

Avoiding Auto-Renewal

Make a renewal calendar to track when contracts or agreements are up for renewal. This will give you enough time to analyze the satisfaction level, review your options, and, if necessary, negotiate new contracts.

Ultimately, a successful SaaS renewal strategy is all about offering value and addressing the demands and needs.

SaaS Renewal Process: How to Approach It?

SaaS subscription renewal can be tricky and demands careful preparation and execution. These are some approaches to the SaaS renewal process:

Review your app usage

Before embarking on a renewal negotiation, it is critical to understand how your team is using the SaaS product. Collect usage information to understand which features are used the most and which are not. This information can assist you in negotiating a better bargain and avoiding paying for extraneous features.

Create a vendor renegotiation plan

Create a plan to renegotiate with the vendor based on the usage report, which should comprise a comprehensive breakdown of necessary and unnecessary features and licenses, a budget for renewal, and a timeline. This strategy will assist you in negotiating with the vendor and ensure that you receive the most value for your investment.

Have a Plan B

Always have a backup plan and vendor in mind if discussions with the present vendor do not go as anticipated. Having a backup plan can give you negotiating leverage and more choices if you need to change vendors.

Creating a plan B will empower you to approach the renewal negotiation process confidently and give you the upper hand against vendors.

Use automation workflows

Set up automated workflows to notify you when the renewal date approaches to avoid auto-renewal. This allows you to weigh your choices and negotiate a better deal.

You can use SaaS renewal management software like CloudEagle to create renewal workflows. CloudEagle will create a renewal calendar for each software and trigger workflows 90 days in advance, sending constant renewal reminders via Slack, email, and in-app notifications.

You can always stay on top of renewals with automated workflows; tracking them manually using spreadsheets will lead to missed renewals and needless expenses.

Negotiate for usage-based pricing

Try negotiating usage-based pricing. Rather than a set price, this pricing plan depends on how much you use the app. Since you only pay for what you use, usage-based pricing might be more cost-effective.

By following these steps, you will be prepared to confidently tackle the renewal process and guarantee that you are getting the best value for your money.

SaaS Renewal Best Practices To Follow

Renewal of a SaaS contract necessitates careful preparation, analysis, and tracking. Here are some SaaS renewal best practices to follow while renewing SaaS contracts.

• To begin, plan ahead and schedule reminders, ideally 90 days in advance, to analyze your usage and determine if any adjustments to your subscription are required.
• Second, adopt a contract management platform to centralize your SaaS contracts, allowing you to discover and retrieve all contract data in one location conveniently.
• Analyze your usage to find features or services that you are not using, as well as new features or services from the vendor that can be advantageous. Switch the new features for the features that you don’t need.
• Negotiate with sellers to secure the best possible offer by asking for discounts, unique terms, and custom packages. Vendors will most likely offer discounts if you’re choosing long-term plans.
• Explore and analyze other vendors or providers and solutions that may be able to fulfill your demands better. If renewal negotiations don’t work with an existing vendor, you’ll have another vendor ready to migrate if needed.
• Create a well-defined SaaS renewal process using SaaS contract management software for renewing your agreements, including regular usage checks, vendor discussions, and a straightforward decision-making process.
• Monitor and analyze the application regularly to verify that you are getting the most out of your contract and that it meets your company's needs.

This is only the beginning; check out these detailed SaaS renewal best practices to truly streamline your SaaS renewal process.

By adhering to these guidelines, you can ensure that your renewals are handled consistently and that you are always using the optimal solution for your company.

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Challenges Businesses Face During SaaS Renewals

For enterprises, renewing a SaaS contract can be challenging. Businesses face numerous obstacles while renewing their SaaS subscriptions,

Lack of application visibility

This is one of the most significant difficulties businesses experience with SaaS renewals. Companies may lack a clear picture of the apps they use, the contract details, pricing information, and users provisioned to those applications.  

Due to this lack of visibility, it can be tough to determine whether the app is being utilized efficiently, delivering value, or is it worth renewing.

Poor usage insights

During SaaS renewals, businesses often work with poor utilization insights. They might lack access to precise information and details about how and by whom the application is being utilized. This lack of knowledge might make it challenging to identify which app or feature is unused, leading to resource waste.

Decentralized contract management process

Most organizations lack a centralized contract management system for managing their SaaS contracts, making it difficult to keep track of renewal dates, agreement terms, and other vital information. This might result in canceled contracts and missed renewal deadlines, resulting in higher costs and reduced productivity.

Poor vendor negotiation tactics

Many enterprises lack the skills to deal with SaaS vendors properly. As a result, organizations may end up paying more than necessary for SaaS subscriptions, consenting to unfavorable conditions, or passing up opportunities to negotiate better agreements.

Entering a negotiation with poor negotiation skills will allow vendors to upsell their products and services, and you’ll end up paying whatever they quoted.

Relying on manual renewal reminders

Finally, businesses use manual approaches to record their SaaS renewals. This can be time-consuming and error-prone, resulting in missed renewal dates and wasted expenses.

To address these issues, firms must be proactive about SaaS renewals. Companies should invest in tools and systems that enable them to gain visibility into their SaaS apps, gain usage analytics, and manage contracts centrally.

CloudEagle For Effective Saas Renewal Management

CloudEagle is an all-in-one SaaS management platform that offers comprehensive solutions for enterprises to manage SaaS renewals. The platform includes a number of features that ensure optimal renewal management and increased SaaS savings.

Let's look at some of its amazing features;

100% SaaS visibility and app usage insights

‍CloudEagle gives comprehensive visibility into all SaaS applications used in the enterprise and thorough usage insights. This assists businesses in determining which apps are vital and underused, allowing them to optimize their SaaS spending and negotiate better vendor contracts.

Expert negotiation services

CloudEagle offers expert SaaS negotiation services that can assist organizations in enhancing vendor negotiations and securing the most favorable agreement. Our experts possess extensive knowledge of the SaaS market and vendor practices, allowing them to negotiate beneficial terms and conditions on behalf of customers.

Centralized contract management

CloudEagle’s SaaS contract management module centralizes all SaaS contracts in one location, making it easy to track renewal dates, agreement details, and other vital data. This reduces the danger of contract loss and assists enterprises in staying on top of contract renewals.‍

Renewal workflows

CloudEagle lets business owners create renewal workflows for specific contracts. These workflows will initiate 90 days in advance and send consistent renewal reminders.

Not just reminders, but CloudEagle will escalate the process to various stakeholders until one of them acts on it and renews the contract.

No more missed renewals; our platform ensures that you get enough time to analyze app usage and contract data and prepare a negotiation plan on time to negotiate the contracts with vendors.

Check out this incredible customer story of how they streamlined SaaS renewals using CloudEagle:

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Conclusion

Efficient SaaS renewal management is essential for every business that utilizes cloud-based software. A decentralized and manual contract management approach is the primary reason behind missed renewals and auto-renewals, leading to wasted expenses.

This article emphasizes the significance of SaaS renewal management and provides guidelines on creating a SaaS renewal process using best practices.

If your business is encountering the challenges of SaaS renewals discussed in the previous section, CloudEagle is the ideal SaaS renewal management software for you.

With features like 100% SaaS visibility, centralized contract management, expert negotiation services, and automatic renewal processes, you can expedite your SaaS renewal process and guarantee you get the most out of your subscriptions.

Talk to our experts and streamline your SaaS renewal process before your contracts get auto-renewed.

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Frequently asked questions

1. What are the benefits of using a SaaS contract management platform for renewals?

A contract management tool can assist you in centralizing your SaaS contracts, ensuring that all relevant information is in one location. This can help speed up the renewal process by making it easier to keep track of critical dates and contract data.

2. How can I ensure I'm using my SaaS subscription to its fullest potential?

Regular and continuous service monitoring and review may assist you in ensuring that you are getting the most out of your SaaS subscription. Reviewing your consumption regularly using a SaaS management platform, finding areas where you may not be fully using the service, and exploring features or services can help you optimize your consumption and make the most of your investment.

3. What happens if I don't renew my SaaS contract on time?

If the renewal date is missed, the service may be temporarily stopped, you may lose access to essential services, or you may even lose data. It is imperative to have a renewal management plan in place to avoid missing any crucial dates.

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