Is SaaS management any harder than other IT service management?
SaaS is easy to turn on for a user, and can be turned off when not needed. There is a tool for every job and it can be used from anywhere with an internet connection.
It has never been easier to understand the true cost of delivering a piece of software to a user. Not long ago, a myriad of factors needed considering when trying to calculate this. Cost of floor space, power, cooling, generator, UPS, servers, storage, the software itself, and the cost of the people to make it all work. What percentage of all that did delivering a service to a user actually cost?
So surely SaaS management is much more simple? Yes and no, as it does put a lot more focus on a couple of key areas:
SaaS Catalogue and Tracking
It is vital to track who is using what, and why. Who approved it and for how long? These things are very difficult to do and find out, and sometimes impossible. Especially if there have been department and personnel changes.
IT teams are always under pressure, so often asking who, what, why, goes out the window just keeping the lights on.
When services are all too easy to turn on, you need to have the information available in-order to be confident they are still in use, still in budget, or still approved. The biggest obstacle to turning anything off is confidence. Confidence it won’t break something. Disabling SaaS is no different.
If you don’t have this information on your SaaS estate now, you really need to start logging it for anything new, and go back to collect it for anything existing.
SaaS Management and Visibility
One thing is clear, you cannot just say no to SaaS usage. If a department feels like they can be better or more efficient with a tool, the best case is they will take their proposal to senior leadership and get approval for it. Worst case, they will start using it regardless.
This causes a cocktail of financial, technical, and security risks for a business. However, they will most likely go unknown until they rear their ugly head as a problem.
You need a way to see everything, even the things that are not visible. Establishing user groups to openly discuss needs can really help, but it is still no guarantee. There will always be historical items and ones that just slip through the net.
Need some help to see the invisible?
Our SaaS audit and discovery tool will help you be sure you are seeing everything, and provide the details around SaaS usage at your fingertips.
