How to practice Safe SaaS – practical approaches to SaaS Management

SaaS usage continues to grow, seemingly outstripping every industry benchmark or estimate. For Software Asset Managers it is undoubtedly here to stay. Whilst perpetual software is usually more cost-effective for long-term predictable deployments such certainty is at a premium in our fast-moving technology landscape. Budgets therefore shift to tactical, short-term solutions to immediate business needs.

From Challenge to Opportunity

So how do we meet this challenge and turn it in to an opportunity? My session at our Australia conference & US conference will show you how. How to understand what the challenges are around knowing what SaaS apps your users are using. How to select the right approach to solve this problem. How to change your processes to ensure you’re meeting obligations for cost and risk management. And finally a roundup of vendors providing SaaS Management capabilities, along with their key differentiators.

The opportunity is laid in front of us to continue to deliver what we’ve always done for our organisations, it’s just the way that we go about it is changing. Recent research indicates that 37% of first-year SaaS spend is wasted. With the market estimated by Gartner to be worth US$100bn worldwide by 2020 that’s a $37bn cost saving on the table. The share could easily be in excess of $1m per year for a medium-sized business. This is a clear and immediate opportunity that is within your grasp to deliver – if you have the right processes, skills, and tools.

Cost savings are only part of the story. The risk management aspect of SaaS applications, brought to the fore by increasing requirements regarding privacy and security and breach disclosure, is potentially a bigger opportunity. In order to detect potential breaches you first need to know what software is running where, and what data is being processed. Some SaaS Management vendors are making this aspect of their product a key differentiator, and it is further evidence of the closer ties required between software asset management and IT Security – which is the subject of my other session at the Conference.