How To Empower Your IT team To Yield SaaS’s Strategic Superpowers

In a highly distributed work environment, SaaS applications can help organizations improve their efficiency and productivity. To get the most out of SaaS and circumvent the negative repercussions of shadow IT and duplicate applications, organizations need to empower SaaS superheroes. Eric Christopher, co-founder and CEO of Zylo, discusses the need to create visionary IT professionals who can leverage SaaS strategic power to drive organizational effectiveness and also serve as the organization’s best line of defense.

Today, software as a service (SaaS) applications give businesses “superpowers.” SaaS tools empower employees to automate administrative tasks, collaborate across geographies, and improve organizational efficiency and productivity.

But when SaaS goes unmonitored in an organization, it can wreak havoc in terms of unnecessary cost and risk. On average, companies have 651 SaaS applications in their technology environment, but most enterprises underestimate that amountOpens a new window by two to three times. Rampant, unregulated SaaS growth can waste budget, hinder efficiency, and pose a significant risk to security.

That’s why businesses need to cultivate “SaaS superheroes” within their organizations. These visionary IT professionals are able to wield SaaS’s strategic power to drive organizational effectiveness while also preventing application spending and inventory from getting out of hand. 

The Duality of SaaS: A force For Good and Evil

SaaS applications can help organizations realize greater efficiencies and cost savings in every business unit,  especially in today’s geographically dispersed, hybrid work environment. Nearly all employees (97%) say they’re more productive when allowed to use their preferred applications and technologies at work.

But SaaS has a dark side that can undermine its potential benefits. As organizations’ SaaS inventory continues to grow, the quantity of applications entering a company’s technology environment becomes more difficult for businesses to manage. 

At least 10 new applications enter a company’s technology environment each month, and four exits active use. Meanwhile, IT departments only have direct management of a quarter of these applications and control only 42% of total SaaS spend, meaning a significant amount of SaaS is managed by business units or exists as shadow IT. When applications exist as shadow IT, they’re not being vetted for security and compliance or removed from an organizations’ inventory when inactive.

Beyond security and compliance concerns, too much SaaS can result in wasted budget and lost productivity. Duplicate SaaS licenses or subscriptions dilute an organization’s purchasing power, resulting in a missed opportunity for negotiations with vendors. And redundant applications can impact cross-department collaboration, create information silos, and force employees to duplicate work or communication across multiple applications. 

To get the most out of SaaS and circumvent the negative repercussions of shadow IT and duplicate or redundant applications, organizations need to empower SaaS superheroes. The SaaS superhero understands the strategic power SaaS can have on an organization while also understanding the potential risks of the rapid application growth. Most importantly, they don’t wait for problems to take over, they meet them head-on to protect and power up their organization.

See More: Top 10 Software as a Service (SaaS) Companies in 2021

How To Transform Clark Kent Into a SaaS Superman

Any IT professional can become a SaaS superhero and help their organization manage SaaS growth. They just need to be equipped with the right tools, training, and attitude. The following guidance, illustrated by real-life examples from equity management platform Carta, can help you transform the ordinary IT professional into a SaaS superhuman:

1. Stay vigilant 

You can’t ward off evildoers if you don’t know they exist. Becoming a SaaS superhero starts by developing an all-powerful SaaS vision and keeping a watchful eye over SaaS portfolio growth and spending. To do this, the SaaS superhero needs to find every SaaS application in their organization’s technology environment and establish a central system of record to continually stay up-to-date. 

SaaS management solutions with artificial intelligence (AI) can help the SaaS superhero uncover and log all applications that enter a company’s peripheral vision, even ones that exist as shadow IT. By monitoring SaaS applications, IT can then vet for security and consolidate any duplicate subscriptions or redundant applicants. 

With the help of a SaaS Management solution, Carta’s SaaS superheroes found $18,000 in cost savings on one web conferencing application alone. Carta uncovered that a quarter of purchased accounts were never distributed to users, and another 14% of accounts had unused premium features. 

2. Commit to the greater good 

Constant vigilance will only help SaaS superheroes if they know what to look for and how to help their organization optimize its application stack and purchasing power. To ensure the SaaS superhero is a force for good, they need to keep a few guiding principles in mind:

• Shadow SaaS can often be saved. Many shadow applications are actually filling a need employees have within their specific business units and helping drive productivity. Once you detect shadow SaaS, determine whether the application performs a duplicate or unique function. If the application benefits users and is secure and compliant, consider bringing it into your technology environment and encourage company-wide adoption.
• Consolidate subscriptions and deprovision inactive users. In a typical 30-day period, over one-third (38%) of all SaaS licenses go unused. To prevent wasted spending and security vulnerabilities, the SaaS superhero should look for opportunities to deactivate inactive accounts or assign unused accounts to other users.  
• Supercharge organizational efficiency. A SaaS superhero can help their organization reach new heights in productivity. By identifying and reducing the number of applications that perform the same function. For example, multiple communication apps like Slack, Google Chat, and Microsoft Teams can reduce information silos, eliminate the need for employees to duplicate work, and cut wasted spend. 

Carta now goes into vendor negotiations with ample ammunition thanks to the critical eye of its SaaS superheroes. These IT professionals use their SaaS management solution to collect application utilization and licensing data, helping arm procurement with the information needed to achieve greater purchasing efficiency. Knowing exactly what their organization consumes, procurement can have informed negotiations and RFP evaluations.

3. Empower fellow SaaS sidekicks 

Employees don’t need to be in IT to help improve their organizations’ SaaS utilization. SaaS superheroes empower their colleagues to find the right tools, whether it be applications already in a company’s inventory or new applications that fulfill a unique need. 

Two-thirds (66%) of Gen Z and over half of (53%) millennial information workers say autonomy to choose the apps, services and devices they use for work is a top priority. To give employees the level of autonomy they desire, SaaS Superheroes should first establish through intake and purchasing policies for new applications, as well as shadow IT education. Once employees know best SaaS practices, IT can establish a self-service SaaS portal where employees can see approved SaaS tools and request other applications they need.

Carta’s SaaS superheroes created an easy-to-access catalog of company-approved applications. The complete inventory gives Carta’s employees easy access to all the SaaS solutions available, helping to prevent unnecessary purchases and increase the use of existing tools. 

See More: 6 Best Practices for Building a Successful SaaS Model

Think Like a SaaS Superhero 

As application quantity and spend continue to grow, every business needs IT professionals who can yield SaaS’s strategic power. With the right stewardship, SaaS applications have the power to transform an organization’s effectiveness. But if unguarded, rising application growth threatens to drain an organization’s budget, productivity, and security. SaaS superheroes, equipped with the proper tools and best practices, can serve an organization’s best line of defense. 

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