What is a SaaS Management Platform?
What are the Benefits of SaaS Management Platforms?
Benefits when implementing an SMP include:
- Reduced security risks: SMPs identify unmanaged SaaS applications, unauthorized access, and exposed sensitive data. Non-compliant applications and unauthorized access can be reduced by up to 80%.
- Increased operational efficiencies: Onboarding and offboarding automation reduce operational effort by up to 50% per request. Contract renewal alerts cue the team to kick-off renewal workflows when negotiating contracts based on actual utilization.
- Reduced overall SaaS spending: SMPs reduce SaaS spending when removing redundant applications, underutilized applications or features, and unused seat licenses. Companies can save up to 40%.
What are the Scenarios of Use?
SaaS Management Platforms enable business and IT operations teams to manage the SaaS Application. Visibility to the SaaS applications allow leaders to make data-driven decisions for security compliance, operational efficiencies, ROI, contract renewals, and user productivity. Primary use cases include:
Identify SaaS Applications: SMPs proactively identify Saas applications, including details for spend, utilization, entitlements, and security configuration used by other scenarios.
Security Management: SMPs expose non-compliant applications, unsecure sensitive data, and unauthorized access. Workflows enforce policies and remediations while tracking audit trails.
IT Operations: Onboarding workflows allocate licenses and provide quick access to new users. Offboarding workflows revoke access, reclaim unused licenses, move data to authorized user. Automation creates efficiencies by automating repetitive tasks.
Optimize Spend Management: SMPs drive SaaS application cost savings by identifying underutilized features, unused licenses, and application redundancies. Insights highlight savings opportunities.
Optimize Vendor Management: SMPs provide quantifiable application usage data to renegotiate cost-effective contracts. Benchmarks guide recommended entitlements & pricing.
What are the Alternatives?
There are multiple levels of SaaS management maturity. SMPs represent the most mature. Alternatives are expensive and produce poor results, which limit benefits.
Spreadsheets and browser tabs: Manual management results in inconsistent operations, high operational costs, low user productivity, unplanned spending, low ROI, and reactive contract management.
Siloed best of breed tools: Disconnected financial, contract, IT operations, security, and SaaS application tools result in inconsistent data, reactive cross-functional business processes, out-of-sync entitlements, complex operational workflows, and low user productivity limit the benefits.
Custom developed utilities: Custom-developed utilities address symptoms not systemic SaaS application management issues. Utilities help individuals perform their respective roles but do not achieve strategic outcomes.
Customize existing enterprise tools: Customizing existing enterprise tools requires considerable effort. Customization increases complexity. The complexity adds to operational overhead and causes defects.
What are the Costs and Risks?
SMPs require both up-front investments and ongoing support expenses.
Platform Subscription and Usage. SMP licenses are based on the number of users, applications managed, integrations, annual SaaS spend, and features. Services and support may require additional charges. A general starting price point is between $3 and $5/per managed end-user/month.
Implementation and Integration: SMPs require configuration, customization, and multiple integrations. A broad cost range for services is $20k to $100k plus. Simple implementations can be done with a sales engineer when augmenting with skilled internal resources.
Organizational Change Management. A team is needed to coordinate the roll-out across groups, conduct training, engage stakeholders, and measure outcomes.
You may require a part-time Change Management SME. A broad cost range is $20k to $50k plus.
On-going Operations: SMPs require active monitoring, daily support, enhancements, application onboarding, issue management, and iterative changes. Expect at least a 10%-20% IT Service Management effort increase.
Risks
SMP implementation is a medium risk since it involves multiple teams, new technology introduction, integration, and business process change.
SaaS Management produces a good ROI when correctly executed with cross-team governance, clear outcomes, accountability for technical complexity, and operational change management.
Major risks to be aware of are:
- Cross-functional project: SMPs require the finance, vendor management, IT, and security teams to partner when achieving shared outcomes. Risks are business priority disagreements and uncoordinated dependencies.
- Data integration: SMPs rely on multiple integrations across external vendors and internal operational systems. Integration capabilities vary across SMP platforms which may require SMP vendor and internal system custom development.
- Organizational change: SMPs change how people perform their roles and work with other departments. Without a change management plan, leaders should expect low ROI, frustrated employees, and missed outcomes.
30/60/90 Plan
SMP implementations vary based on the financial, operational, security, and user productivity goals. Below is a typical plan to implement an SMP for a few SaaS applications with a cross-functional team.
30 Days: Mobilize team and identify ROI. Form a cross-functional team with shared outcomes and an executive sponsor. Inventory SaaS applications and assess SaaS Management benefits and risks. Select the pilot application(s) based on having many users, features, and a large spend. Create a strategic plan and obtain an approved budget.
60 Days: Design and acquire the solution. Finalize use cases and identify the top platform vendors. Conduct functional POCs with sample corporate data and pre-built third-party integrations. Acquire the platform and engage services as needed. Build the organizational change management plan.
90 Days: Deploy and measure outcomes Pilot SMP platform with a few Collaboration, Project Management, or Business Operations SaaS applications. Drive continuous improvements until achieving outcomes. Create a plan to add SaaS applications and expand SMP operations.