Introduction :
SaaS has revolutionized the software market. But the way companies buy SaaS is flawed companies buy their SaaS is flawed: due to a lack of negotiation and knowledge of the market, they overpay for SaaS by 30% on average.
How can you optimize your SaaS spend? How to negotiate pricings? Why should you monitor your users? This article is here to answer all your questions on how to manage your SaaS expenses.
To begin, you need to clearly define your company's SaaS software needs.
This can be done by writing a specification or any other document that identifies:
You can find more info on our white paper here.
The SaaS market is constantly evolving and there are many software products that offer similar services. That's why it's necessary to do a brief market study before committing to a provider.
Once you have identified your needs, it is then a matter of evaluating and comparing the different SaaS software options available in order to select the ones that best suit your business needs.
An exemple of way to compare tools here for an accounting tool:
One element that is often overlooked is negotiating prices with suppliers. You have certain levers to optimize your SaaS expenses that you should use during these negotiations:
In general, do not hesitate to take advantage of the multiplicity of SaaS services on the market to negotiate with the different providers in order to obtain the best conditions and prices.
Get more "how to negotiate" here!
Establishing a budget allows you to set a time frame to stick to in order to avoid cost overruns.
To draw up this budget, you can go back to the specifications in which you determined your needs. Allocate to each service the costs that you allow yourself, according to the type of SaaS, the number of users for which it is intended...
One of the biggest areas of opportunity for reducing SaaS spending is underutilized functionality.
It is therefore essential to monitor user usage of SaaS software to ensure that they are getting the most out of it, as well as to identify software that is no longer needed.
This means tracking down underutilized licenses, removing duplicate applications, and removing the rights of inactive users, such as former employees, many of whom retain access to applications despite leaving the company.
In order to achieve economies of scale and have better visibility on your expenses, it is recommended to centralize your purchases.
It may be tempting for each department with specific needs to manage its own SaaS software purchases. But centralized management will optimize costs, especially by avoiding duplication.
Next, you need to track the costs associated with SaaS software to identify savings opportunities, such as:
Usage costs;
Integration costs;
Maintenance costs.
Implement a license management system to ensure that users have the necessary licenses for the software they use. This can include:
Make sure that the SaaS software you use is compliant with corporate policies and standards to avoid unpleasant surprises, such as privacy issues.
The assessment of your company's SaaS software needs and practices should be ongoing. It should help to:
A good management of your SaaS expenses requires two main elements: a rigorous and centralized management of the different software and the tracking of their under-use.
Let Welii assist you in purchasing and managing software adapted to your company's needs and optimize your SaaS usage!
Want to know how much you could save on your SaaS expenses with Welii? Do the simulation.
Shadow IT is present for a company of any size and we always identify 3x more tools than our customers thought. If you spend less than $400k annually on SaaS tools, we'll identify fewer saving opportunities than a client who spends millions, but we'll help you quickly implement a data-driven buying strategy to prevent this wasteful situation from occurring and keep you focused on your business.
The security of your data is our primary concern. Which is why we have taken appropriate measures to protect your business.
You are free to add any budget owners or anyone involved in SaaS purchasing to streamline your procurement buying process at no additional cost to our platform.
Managing users and identities is a separate business that we don’t do. However, to bring you value and help you with this process, we have partnered with industry leaders like Okta and Auth0 so that we can help you in your Zero Trust Identity process.
We have developed a simple and intuitive solution allowing you to analyze all your SaaS inventory data through dashboard and dynamic list views based on search criteria and filters.
Spendesk is an enterprise expense management solution that allows all employees to pay for SaaS tools. Welii will provide you with insight and support to help you optimize your spending, add leverage to your negotiations, and remove the headaches associated with SaaS purchasing.
