How to Manage the SaaS Spend Better?

Digital Transformation leads the way for businesses to exceed the physical boundaries and become fit for the future. Getting more and more digitalized, companies tend to change their habits and strategies. Cloud-native solutions and/or Cloud migration are getting popular, for example. More information about Cloud Migration can be found in the article.

This new infrastructure, Cloud, is a fruit of Digital Transformation. “The Cloud” is the umbrella term for online services that can be accessed over the Internet, having no need of on-premises like data centers, databases, spreadsheets that are stored on physical locations, etc. Thanks to Cloud, also known as Cloud Computing, businesses do not need to personally manage the physical servers, running them on their own machines. Rather, the datacentres and servers run on servers that can be reached via the Internet.

Along with this trend, the term SaaS (Software as a Service) also gained popularity. So, let’s dive into the digitalized world and get the details about the concept of Software as a Service along with managing the expenditure related to it.

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Software as a Service, SaaS in short, is an innovative approach towards software. It refers to providing/delivering business solutions (software) over the Internet. Rather than installing an application to a business’ computer and maintaining it through its lifecycle, SaaS solutions are reached over the Internet. Thus, the users and the businesses are set free of composite IT solutions and the burden of managing the hardware that the applications are stored or running.

Other names for SaaS applications are as follows:

1. Hosted software
2. On-demand software
3. Web-based software
4. Web-hosted software
5. Cloud application
6. Cloud software

So, SaaS applications are the solutions/applications that run on the provider’s servers, not on the end-users. Responsibilities like management, maintenance, performance check, security, repair, accessibility of the servers are up to the provider; not to the company of the end-user.

You could find different answers to the question of “Why Do You Need SaaS Management?” by reading the article.

There are several benefits of preferring SaaS software.

1. Faster profitability, efficient ROI (Return of Investment): As SaaS software is pretty much ready for use right off the bat, business processes that require it will be on track from the beginning.
2. Lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): Maintenance, repair, check-up, etc. expenditures are avoided.
3. Scalable structure: SaaS software can be adapted to be used for many different tasks.
4. Comprehensive integration: Most SaaS software can be integrated with each other. Plus, the future is on the Cloud, meaning that integrations of the future innovations will be easier once SaaS is the norm in a business.
5. Constant updates: As the standard solution is used by a lot of different companies from various lines of business, the provider understands and analyses the use cases and comes up with updates.
6. Higher security: SaaS providers allocate a great deal of personnel for security needs.
7. Easy-to-use and a lot of demonstrations: SaaS software is seen as “intuitive”. If not, the provider always has a lot of material and demo to share.

Considering all these, the popularity of SaaS software is better understood. So, how to manage the SaaS inventory and the budgeting efficiently?

How to Manage the SaaS Spend Efficiently?

Just like on-premises and hardware, SaaS software is, in fact, an IT asset. So, the efficient way of managing the SaaS inventory and the SaaS spend is rather similar to managing the on-premises software and the hardware: IT Asset Management.

IT Asset Management, or ITAM in short, is the comprehensive and robust process of accounting for all the IT belongings of a business. Monitoring, managing, and evaluating the performance and life cycles of the software and the hardware is the focal points of efficient IT Asset Management.

SaaS solutions are not so different. These steps for the SaaS software are similar to ones for on-premises:

• Procuring
• Licensing
• Deployment (SaaS takes little time)
• Putting to use
• Identifying and monitoring the end-users
• Evaluating performance, technical and business fitness
• Retirement when necessary

So, better management of SaaS spending can be conducted through IT Asset Management. An IT Asset Management software, for further performance.

Loggle, for example, provides

• Software Management Module
• Hardware Management Module
• Integration Management Module
• IT Cost Management Module

This way, the costs of licenses and the running cost of SaaS software can be understood and the visualized datasets can be used before making a corporate decision.

Feel free to learn more about IT Asset Management Software and Loggle by reading the article and surfing our blogposts.