Software as a Service, in the tech industry better known as SaaS, is software that is owned, delivered, and managed remotely, and delivered in the form of a subscription. SaaS is currently the largest public cloud service and is expected to reach $208 billion in end-user spending in 2023 (Gartner, 2022). The pandemic of 2019 led to organizations seeking for new business applications to support remote work. These business applications were needed for standard business processes e.g., internal communication and collaboration, which perfectly fits the SaaS model. So, partially due COVID-19, SaaS is currently becoming the go-to option for Small and Medium Businesses as well as large enterprises, due the scalability cost-effectiveness, and the ease of use.
Due a proliferation of new SaaS options it can be difficult to you as a manager to choose and manage the usage all different services within your organization. One of the benefits of SaaS is the ease of implementation for businesses, which led to a proliferation of apps in many organizations. Access management provider Okta has reported on application use of its customers in 2020, in a report called ‘Business at Work’, giving insights into how organizations and people work today. This report shows that their larger customers with over 2,000 employees use an average of 175 apps, while smaller companies with less than 2,000 employees use an average of 73 apps (Okta, 2021).
As seen in the figure below, SaaS Management Platforms were ranked on the absolute peak of inflated expectations according to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Cloud Security (Moore, 2021). This hype cycle highlights the capabilities of these platforms but also indicates that current expectations are rising above the reality of what can be achieved. SaaS Management Platforms (SMP’s) help organizations monitor and manage their technologic portfolio of different SaaS applications in an optimal way. It enables managers to discover the most suitable SaaS options, monitor license use and costs, proactively manage renewals and monitor the use per employee in a scalable and automated way. It helps development, Finance, Procurement and Security managers grow with informed decisions, which result in a cost effective and secure strategy (LeanIX, n.d.).
Is a SaaS Management Platform for needed for my organization? You should consider SMP, if your organization is struggling with subscription costs, if multiple departments are buying software with overlapping features or if your security management is struggling with certain business apps. These tools help you manage your sprawl of apps and prepare your company for a future full of SaaS.
References
LeanIX. (n.d.). The Definitive Guide To SaaS Management. Retrieved 10 5, 2022, from https://www.leanix.net/en/wiki/saas/saas-management#What-is-SaaS-Management
Moore, S. (2021, 9 8). www.gartner.com. Retrieved 10 5, 2022, from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/4-must-have-technologies-that-made-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-cloud-security-2021
Okta. (2021). Business at Work. Okta.
