SaaS licenses. They can be a pain if you don’t get a handle on them as best as possible. They definitely aren’t something you want to brush off to the side and hope you’ll have the energy to deal with later.
Why? Because SaaS license mismanagement can lead to all kinds of problems.
Creating a system that helps you manage your SaaS licenses can save both time and money. As we all know, both are precious when you’re running a profitable and streamlined operation.
But how can you expertly manage your SaaS licenses? And what are the things you should think about when you’re determining the best course of action? You’re in luck, because it’s what we explain here in this guide.
Below, let’s dive into the fundamental areas you need to focus on when managing your SaaS licenses. It starts with creating a centralized source of truth for all your license data.
Usage and Why SaaS Management Matters
Did you know that as much as 38% of enterprise software is going to total waste? That’s not a number to sneeze at. That’s a big chunk of money you could be saving in the long run!
This waste of money is due to one main thing: IT departments don’t have a system to keep track of vendors, keep track of usage, and negotiate better licensing agreements when renewal dates come around each year.
There’s also shadow IT to consider. If teams within your organization aren’t somehow informing the IT department of their individual adoption of SaaS apps, you run the risk of taking on more tools and features that overlap in utility. It doesn’t take a genius to see how this can quickly turn into yet another huge loss of money in the form of expenses for a company.
Create a centralized space for it all
In an environment that’s run and dominated by SaaS tools, there are some granular details to remember. When you ignore the details, you risk going over budget and spending more than necessary on certain SaaS applications.
Today, you don’t have to pay for a SaaS license upfront and call it a day. A cloud-based approach means paying for SaaS usage per month, per quarter, or per year. This means you have more chances of periodically checking in with your vendor and changing your usage if necessary.
One centralized source of truth is where you can access all your licenses. Remember that the more SaaS apps your company needs to run operations, the more difficult it becomes determining whether to keep a SaaS app, discard it, or negotiate a different usage rate with your vendor.
A single source of truth will always equal more organization and leave less room for error. This is what we want to strive for—and it’s what apps like Multiplier, once integrated with a tool like Jira, helps you with.
Know which users are using your apps
Multiplier comes with a very helpful feature that can show which users are actually using the apps and the last time they logged on.
How exactly does gathering this type of information help you? Well, for one, you can potentially save your company operating costs by revoking licenses for inactive users. In other words, cut down your usage costs for the seats you aren’t using.
Easy, right? But only when you’re able to get a clear glimpse into this type of information. Keeping track of SaaS apps is one of the easiest ways to cut down your spending and optimize for usage.
Keep track of renewal dates
Yet another way to manage SaaS licenses? Learn exactly when your licenses are up for renewal. While knowing if apps are being underused or not is great, you can’t do much with this information if you miss the renewal period as it falls through the cracks and you have to get to the million other things on the IT to-do list.
Keeping track of renewal dates also empowers you to prepare for a possible renegotiation with a vendor.
For the uninitiated, here’s a quick overview of SaaS licenses types:
- User: You buy seats for each individual user that will be using the SaaS application. This can be great if you need it for a small team and it doesn’t need widespread usage across teams.
- Usage: An organization pays for the use of an application regardless of how much or how little they’re actually using the tool.
- Flat rate: When you pay a flat rate you’re usually paying on a recurring basis, either monthly or annually.
- Tiered: The more features you need a SaaS application to have, the more it’ll cost you. This is great for tools that come with many different features.
Once you look over how any one SaaS application can be set up, it’s easy to see why it’s so necessary to have an automated way to keep track of dates. Let’s say three of your SaaS applications are based on usage and flat rate, while another two are based on a tiered license, and yet another two are based on a flat rate.
Keeping track of all those dates without a system will be hard to do. It’ll also undermine your whole SaaS management process as you go. Automating your SaaS management process with the help of Multiplier changes this for the better. This is true regardless of the number of SaaS applications you’re working with.
Manage your SaaS licenses with Multiplier
SaaS app usage can become excessive rather quickly if you aren’t actively keeping a finger on it all. That’s why it’s best to be proactive about managing your SaaS applications from the beginning.
The SaaS license management process will look different for every IT team. But there are fundamental things you can do to ensure you’re making the most of your SaaS applications.
Enter Multiplier. It was designed by people with experience in the IT department! It helps you to effectively manage SaaS applications and optimize for efficiency and costs.
Check out Multiplier here and try us out for free. We are ready to help with your SaaS license management needs.
