SaaS Management Software – Uses, Features, and Cost
Organizations use software as a service (SaaS) management to monitor and optimize the various cloud-based software applications used. This involves finding top-performing SaaS tools, tracking the usage of the applications, keeping a record of the costs involved, and ensuring all compliances are met. Some organizations also monitor user access and licenses to the applications. Doing all of these ensures that the processes and operations of the business are cost-effective and seamless.
Its uses in business
The best SaaS management tools facilitate the effective and efficient streamlining of a business’s SaaS management process. These tools are critical for an organization for several reasons.
- Provides the tech team with a 360-degree view
Tech teams find it harder to keep track of all the apps manually when an organization increases the number of SaaS applications being adopted into its business processes. Besides this, employees may also buy and utilize applications that do not go through the tech team’s approval process. As a result, the team is not always aware of the various applications used within the organization. In such situations, they cannot manage and monitor these apps. This is when a SaaS management tool can help. It can give complete visibility into the organization’s SaaS stack, which ultimately also helps eliminate duplicate and redundant applications.
Many organizations frequently purchase various SaaS tools to meet business requirements. But buying these tools and applications involves managing the various licenses as well. Manually doing this is time-consuming and quite difficult. With SaaS management software, the license management process becomes simplified and streamlined. This is because the software provides the tech team with complete information on how many licenses have been purchased. Knowledge of how to use the software effectively also helps the team gain insights into the number of unused licenses, underutilized licenses, and the cost of all the licenses. All of this information can be gathered from one central piece of software.
A common problem that many organizations face is missing out on the renewal dates for the various SaaS tools used within the business. This usually happens when an organization’s procurement team manually manages the renewal of SaaS apps and tools. Since the team does not have any way of getting timely updates and alerts about upcoming renewals, it cannot keep track of the various renewal dates. This means certain operations and processes that depend on the specific tools and apps will be disrupted. This problem can be easily avoided with SaaS management software that has features to send regular notifications regarding renewal dates and subscription expirations of all the SaaS apps and tools.
Some of the top SaaS management software has built-in security features. With these, an organization gets real-time notifications about unauthorized access attempts. This helps to take proactive preventive measures. With Zluri, the IT team gets real-time alerts on unauthorized access attempts, which helps them take preventive measures to secure the SaaS data from data breaches and cyber-attacks. Aside from this, SaaS management software helps inspect all the SaaS applications and tools regarding various events, security probes, shared data, and compliance. This helps meet compliance standards, which is an added advantage of SaaS management software.
Features of SaaS management software
SaaS management software is useful for three primary functions: tracking costs, monitoring compliance, and procuring additional tools and apps.
- SaaS ppend management
This identifies the various expenses involved in purchasing and renewing the licenses of the different SaaS apps and tools in the organization’s ecosystem. The expenses are also kept up-to-date with information such as subscription type (monthly, quarterly, or annually), renewal date, and names of teams or employees responsible for processing the payments. - SaaS operations
With this service, a business can track compliance and access requests. By using several sources of data, this service maps out the different users of all the tools and applications. It also helps track new enrollments of employees who have just joined the organization and manage the non-enrollment of employees who have left or moved to different teams. - SaaS procurement
This is more dependent on the other two services. It involves gathering all the essential information, such as costs, vendors, and licenses, to understand the best ways to optimize the procurement process.
Cost of SaaS solution
The cost of software involves several factors.
- Total cost
This is the overall cost, which includes setup and maintenance costs and expenses for customizations and integrations. - Subscription model cost
Different vendors have different models. Subscriptions can usually be based on the number of users, usage, or features. - Hidden fees
Typically, these fees are incurred for technical support, software upgrades, data storage, or exceeding usage limits. - Scalability costs
For businesses that expect considerable future growth, the cost of the software will increase with increased usage. The solution should be cost-effective from the long-term perspective of scalability.
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