SaaS subscription management (Image by Octobits)
Octobits Blog – With the explosion of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, managing SaaS subscription has become a critical aspect of modern IT operations.
While SaaS brings flexibility and scalability, unmanaged subscriptions can lead to spiraling costs, security risks, and operational inefficiencies.
Hence, to optimize SaaS investments and ensure the continued value of these services, a well-structured SaaS subscription management strategy is essential.
So, in this article, let’s talk more about the practicals of managing SaaS subscription.
Strategies for Reducing SaaS Costs
If you want to cut SaaS costs, you’ve got to think strategically. So, let’s start by centralizing your subscription management.
By putting all your SaaS subscriptions on one platform, you can get a clear picture of how you’re using them.
This approach helps you spot any subscription you don’t need and shows you where you’re spending more than you should.
For instance, your company might discover that different departments are using various project management tools, which is a waste of resources.
A SaaS management platform like Octobits can help streamline this process by providing a centralized dashboard where organizations can monitor usage patterns and easily identify inefficiencies.
Another thing a review of the active subscription list can help with is spotting any services that are being used twice.
It’s also important to have regular SaaS audits. A World Commerce & Contracting study found that companies lose over 9% of their total annual turnover each year due to poor contract management.
On any conditions, audits help your company figure out how much they’re using, catch any unauthorized SaaS usage, and see how much they’re paying for their subscriptions compared to what they’re using.
Quarterly audits can show you which services you don’t need or aren’t using, so you can cancel or adjust them.
Having a dedicated team to handle these audits means you can be sure of consistency and thoroughness.
Then, consider optimizing licensing and user access. Why? Many organizations purchase licenses in bulk, often exceeding actual user requirements.
Reviewing user access can help eliminate inactive accounts and adjust license tiers to align with actual usage.
Let’s say downgrading to a lower subscription tier for infrequent users can save significant costs over time.
Another good way to save money is to negotiate contracts and consolidate vendors.
Ideally, your company should get the procurement team to negotiate good prices and terms, especially when you’re consolidating multiple services under one vendor.
You can often get volume discounts and streamlined management through such negotiations.
Automating renewal management can also help you avoid auto-renewals you don’t want and make sure you cancel subscriptions you don’t need on time.
Setting up automated reminders before renewal dates and using SaaS management tools to handle renewals helps organizations stay on top of their subscription lifecycle and avoid unexpected costs.
Ensuring Compliance and Security with SaaS Subscription
To keep things secure and on the right side of the law, it’s essential to have a solid SaaS policy from the get-go.
This policy lays out the approved SaaS subscription list, compliance requirements, and security protocols.
It provides a clear framework for stakeholders. It should lay out the rules for adding new subscription, explain what data each level of access allows, and set out the security standards that SaaS solutions must meet.
For instance, the policy might require SaaS providers to comply with ISO 27001 standards for information security.
Another important part of SaaS security is Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
RBAC lets you assign permissions based on user roles, which means you can limit access to sensitive data and features to reduce the risk of data breaches.
It’s a good idea for organizations to regularly review and implement RBAC across all their critical SaaS solutions.
It’s important to regularly audit access permissions to make sure employees only have access to the data they need.
A company that uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system might limit sales reps to viewing only their assigned leads, while managers have broader access.
It’s important to regularly monitor compliance, especially when it comes to many SaaS solutions and sensitive data.
Hence, please always follow the rules, like GDPR and HIPAA, to avoid legal issues and data breaches.
SaaS management platforms can help automate compliance checks and maintain a compliance checklist for all SaaS providers.
As an example, a healthcare organization using a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) system has to make sure that the provider meets HIPAA requirements.
Integrating Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions into SaaS subscriptions makes things more secure by centralizing authentication and reducing the need for multiple passwords.
If you implement SSO for SaaS solutions that handle sensitive data, it’ll make user management easier and reduce the attack surface.
It’s a good idea for organizations to keep an eye on login activity for any suspicious behavior, like multiple failed login attempts.
It’s key to make sure that SaaS vendors keep up strong security standards.
When you’re getting started with a new vendor, ask for their security documentation and go with ones that have certifications like ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
Also, check out how they handle encryption, data backup, and regular security assessments.
This process makes sure that vendors stick to strong security protocols, which helps to reduce the organization’s exposure to risks.
To gain more perspective about the vendors, kindly read “Your SaaS Helping or Hurting? So, It’s Time for SaaS Vendor Management.”
Case Studies of Effective SaaS Subscription Management
ABC Corp, a mid-sized marketing firm, had a tough time keeping track of over 150 SaaS subscription across its various departments.
With different teams subscribing to similar tools, there were lots of duplicate licenses and services.
This, along with manual subscription tracking through spreadsheets, led to unnecessary spending, inefficiencies, and compliance risks.
After realizing that they needed to manage their SaaS subscriptions better, ABC Corp decided to use the Octobits platform to centralize and streamline their SaaS subscription management.
The first thing ABC Corp did was integrate Octobits so they could get a complete overview of all the SaaS tools they use across the company.
Octobits’ discovery feature was helpful in finding all the applications, even the ones that weren’t officially purchased or that were set up by people without IT permissions.
With Octobits’ centralized dashboard, the IT team could keep track of each tool’s cost, renewal dates and usage patterns.
Octobits showed us lots of licenses that weren’t being used or were unnecessary.
By looking at how often people logged in and how much they used each feature, ABC Corp was able to make sure it had the right number of licenses for what it needed.
As an example, one marketing department used two different project management tools, which meant that it was spending more than it needed to.
By switching to one tool, we got rid of all the unnecessary subscriptions and made our workflows a lot more efficient.
With Octobits, ABC Corp set up automated renewal alerts, so the IT team had enough time to evaluate contracts and negotiate better terms before renewal deadlines.
ABC Corp made some big improvements to its SaaS subscription management thanks to Octobits.
The company saved 25% on its SaaS spending by getting rid of unnecessary subscriptions and making better use of licenses.
The IT team saved 15 hours a week in admin tasks thanks to automated renewal tracking and streamlined access control.
The company also made things more secure and compliant by cutting shadow IT instances by 30%.
If you want to get a better understanding of how to use strategy effectively, please refer to “Effective SaaS Management Strategies for Optimal Performance.”
Conclusion
Please note that managing SaaS subscriptions isn’t just about saving money. It’s also about protecting your organization’s data and staying compliant with regulations.
By taking a proactive approach and applying the strategies above, you’ll transform your SaaS landscape.
This will help you manage SaaS subscriptions as efficiently as possible, keep your data safe, and get the best return on your investments.
