Are shadow IT and lack of visibility a cause for concern? Are decentralized purchases escalating your SaaS spend?

A study by G2 shows that 80% of workers use SaaS applications without approval from the IT department.

Shadow purchases are a major cause of security breaches, and preventing them can be tough without a robust SaaS visibility tool.

Not anymore!

Presenting SaaS Management Software—the key to complete visibility and optimization of your SaaS Stack.

In this article, we'll dive into the world of SaaS management, explore its significance, and show you why you should start using a SaaS management software in 2023.

What is SaaS management software?

SaaS management software is a specialized solution that provides complete application visibility and helps organizations streamline their SaaS lifecycle.

By utilizing the best SaaS management software, businesses can better manage their SaaS landscape.

It can integrate with your internal SSO, finance, and HRIS systems to provide unified visibility over your entire SaaS stack.

This will allow IT, finance, and procurement teams to gauge usage, regulate access, monitor and optimize spend, enhance security, compliance, and streamline procurement from a single platform.

Check out this detailed list of the best SaaS management softwares in 2023 →

A quick rundown of the ideal functionalities of SaaS management software::

• SaaS visibility and cost optimization
• Contract management
• Accurate usage insights
• Automated procurement and renewal workflows
• Automated provisioning and deprovisioning
• License management
• Vendor research and price benchmarking.

The need for SaaS management software

SaaS applications significantly enhance team productivity and drive revenue for companies by automating and accelerating business operations.

A report by BetterCloud forecasts that 85% of business ops will be SaaS-based by 2025.

To emphasize the need for efficient SaaS management, we discuss here three compelling reasons.

Increased spending

Organizations frequently deal with unmonitored and unauthorized expenditures due to a lack of visibility and control over SaaS purchases. This lack of transparency increases shadow IT.

Enterprises can get visibility and insights into SaaS spending with one of the best SaaS management softwares. Duplicate and redundant applications in the SaaS stack can then be eliminated to increase SaaS savings. Subsequently, SaaS purchases can be streamlined to prevent budget overruns.

Security and compliance risks

Unapproved SaaS applications may not comply with industry regulatory standards or the security protocols of your business.

A SaaS management platform empowers IT teams to enforce security protocols, identify possible data breaches, and ensure compliance with industry standards.

Further, by automating user provisioning and deprovisioning, a SaaS management software reduces the risk of unauthorized access to critical data.

Loss of time and productivity

Manual SaaS management operations, including procurement, vendor research, contract management, and renewals, are all repetitive, time-consuming, and impede team productivity.

These tasks can be automated by a SaaS management solution, which uses workflows to streamline the process and frees up valuable time for teams to concentrate on more strategic responsibilities.

Organizations can improve productivity and encourage innovation by decreasing administrative hassles and eliminating manual errors.

Benefits of using the best SaaS management software

1. Provides application visibility

SaaS management software’s integration library helps the platform offer a 360-degree view of your SaaS stack. This visibility enables organizations to detect applications, contracts, and spend within the SaaS portfolio and make necessary optimization decisions.

You can see which applications your teams are using, along with free and paid applications, as well as accurate app usage and spend data.

With complete visibility, organizations can effectively assess their needs and make informed decisions regarding budget allocation and application investments. They can ensure that each app aligns with their business objectives by thoroughly analyzing the entire range of SaaS applications.

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A SaaS management solution will mitigate all the pain points and help IT teams optimize their SaaS portfolio.

2. Centralizes SaaS contracts

SaaS management solutions like CloudEagle consolidates all contracts in one location, making it easy to view and track licenses and important contract details like renewal dates, terms, and conditions.

This single repository guarantees that businesses have a clear understanding of their contractual commitments, can plan ahead for renewals, and can avoid costly, unanticipated auto-renewals.

3. Prevents shadow IT and improves security

A SaaS management software mitigates the risks of using unauthorized apps by giving insight into all the apps utilized within the enterprise, whether sanctioned or not.

Platforms like CloudEagle send alerts when they detect a free, unsanctioned application in the system, so you can be proactive with your optimization efforts.

Identifying shadow IT allows organizations to safeguard the SaaS ecosystem, prevent unnecessary spending, enforce regulatory compliance, and protect sensitive data from breaches.

4. Streamlines the procurement process

The SaaS management solution also doubles up as a centralized platform to streamline the procurement process. Employees can request new apps that management can assess and approve in real time.

You can create a procurement workflow where the relevant action is triggered as soon as a purchase request is raised, and the concerned stakeholder is alerted. This automation saves time, accelerates the process, and increases the overall efficiency and security of purchasing and managing SaaS apps.

5. Prevents auto-renewals and ensures timely renewals

The best SaaS management software enables timely reminders for forthcoming contract renewals.

These alerts can trigger the teams to analyze the usage and requirement of each application before its renewal. Automated workflows help users remove needless apps and stay ahead of renewals through effective renegotiation.

6. Automates user provisioning and deprovisioning

Managing user access to various SaaS apps can be tedious. SaaS management software streamlines user provisioning and de-provisioning, ensuring employees have the proper software access depending on their roles and responsibilities.

When employees join or leave the enterprise, their SaaS access can be immediately granted or canceled, lowering the risk of unauthorized access and boosting security. e.

IT and HR teams can use automated workflows to simplify user provisioning and increase productivity. No more visiting each application for granting and revoking access.

7. Negotiation assistance

SaaS management platforms make it easy to negotiate a good offer through SaaS buying experts that handle the negotiation process for enterprises.

These professionals use their knowledge and experience to negotiate favorable terms, prices, and conditions of use, especially for organizations that lack the means or expertise for vendor negotiations.

CloudEagle is one of very few SaaS management platforms that offers both platform and negotiation services. Our experts will leverage the latest pricing benchmarks and help you purchase the right product at the right price.

8. Simplifies vendor research and management

SaaS management software makes it easier to find and manage SaaS vendors. It offers detailed information on various providers, such as their services, pricing methods, customer reviews, and compliance certifications.

This helps enterprises make educated choices when finalizing new vendors and manage their existing vendor relationships better.

Why spend valuable time researching G2 and Capterra when you can access all relevant product details and reviews within a SaaS management system?

Why should you use CloudEagle for effective SaaS management?

CloudEagle is one of the best SaaS management software solutions thanks to a wide range of features that cover the entire SaaS lifecycle.

Here's what makes CloudEagle the ideal platform for effective SaaS management:

• CloudEagle’s Application Visibility, gets you comprehensive visibility into your SaaS stack, allowing you to identify usage, detect underutilized and duplicate apps, and keep shadow IT under control.
• With CloudEagle’s Contract Management, companies can streamline contract management by centralizing SaaS licenses, giving quick access to contracts and invoices for vendor negotiations and audits.
• Procurement workflows and Slack are available to save time and reduce bottlenecks.
• CloudEagle also provides Assisted Buying services, including expert negotiating support, where SaaS experts can negotiate on your behalf and purchase the right product at the right price.
• Further, the platform allows automatic user provisioning, de-provisioning, and integration with your SSO and HRIS systems to streamline employee onboarding and offboarding.
• The vendor management module helps you centralize all the spend related to vendors and make it easier for the finance team to manage them.

Experience the advantages of CloudEagle and enhance your business operations with effective SaaS management.

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Frequently asked questions

1. Why should all enterprises, regardless of size, employ SMPs by 2023?

As organizations rely more on SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) apps for their operations, using SaaS management tools will be critical in 2023.

SaaS management tools give visibility into the SaaS stack, reduce costs from unauthorized purchases and automatic renewals, simplify procurement, automate user provisioning, and improve data security.

2. What is the significance of SaaS management?

Good SaaS management ensures various benefits across the organization, including higher scalability, enhanced security, better utilization of software investments, and more. It enables executives to match their SaaS usage with business goals and remain agile in a quickly evolving digital world.

3. What functions should a SaaS management software include?

While choosing a SaaS app management software, look at the following key features: Application discovery and inventory, vendor management, contract management, procurement workflow, licensing management, onboarding and offboarding, usage insights, and integrations.

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