From Managed to Optimized: Automating, Benchmarking, and Scaling SaaS Governance

Contributing authors: Kristine Briggs, Vinay Patel and Bernard Williams

Introduction

Reaching the "Managed" level of SaaS governance is no small feat. At this stage, organizations have implemented structured policies, centralized oversight, and tools to control SaaS acquisition, usage, and compliance. However, to unlock the full potential of SaaS investments, the next step is to evolve from being merely managed to becoming truly optimized. This means automating repetitive processes, benchmarking performance, and scaling governance in a way that supports innovation without sacrificing control.

To provide context, the OIC SaaS Governance Maturity Model (SGMM) defines four distinct stages of maturity:

• Level 1: Chaotic – No oversight, resulting in shadow IT and unmanaged costs
• Level 2: Emerging – Initial awareness, with inconsistent controls and visibility
• Level 3: Managed – Structured policies and tools in place, but governance is still largely manual
• Level 4: Optimized – Governance is automated, strategic, and aligned with business objectives

This article focuses on the critical transition between Levels 3 and 4—helping organizations move beyond management into a state of optimized SaaS governance.

The Journey to Greatness - From Manual Oversight to Intelligent Automation

Automation is the cornerstone of the "Optimized" level of SaaS governance. Manual audits, license reconciliations, and provisioning workflows—while effective at a smaller scale—become bottlenecks as organizations grow. Automating these functions not only improves efficiency, but also reduces the risk of human error.

Key areas for automation include:

• Onboarding and Offboarding: Automatically provisioning or deactivating SaaS accounts based on employee status changes
• License Management: Dynamically reallocating or de-provisioning under-used licenses
• Security Controls: Triggering alerts or actions based on access anomalies or non-compliance

By integrating automation into identity systems, HR information systems, and finance platforms, governance becomes embedded, seamless, and self-sustaining.

Using Benchmarks to Guide Governance Strategy

To know whether your governance efforts are successful, you need benchmarks. These serve as performance indicators and help quantify the value of your governance strategy.

Common SaaS governance benchmarks include:

• Utilization rate: % of active licenses in use
• Redundancy rate: Number of overlapping tools with similar functionality
• Cost per user per tool: Measures efficiency across departments
• Time to onboard and offboard users: Indicates operational maturity

By regularly measuring these metrics and comparing them internally over time or against industry benchmarks, organizations can pinpoint opportunities to improve governance ROI.

Scaling Governance Without Creating Friction

One of the biggest challenges in reaching optimization is scaling governance across distributed teams, geographies, and business units. A great way to hamstring your improvement efforts is to add red-tape, slowing down the delivery of value. If not done thoughtfully, increased control can feel like bureaucracy and slow down innovation. Talk to people and understand the impact of the changes you are looking to make.

To scale effectively:

• Create flexible governance frameworks: Allow business units some autonomy within centrally-defined boundaries
• Empower application owners: Designate department-level champions responsible for tool compliance and reporting
• Deploy federated tooling: Use platforms that offer both global oversight and local controls

Scalable governance is about enabling responsible SaaS usage, not restricting it. The goal is to support agility while ensuring accountability.

The Role of Culture in Optimizing SaaS Governance

Even with the best tools and policies, cultural buy-in is essential. Optimization only succeeds when stakeholders—from executives to app users—understand and embrace the value of governance.

Foster a culture of continuous improvement by:

• Communicating the "why" behind governance initiatives
• Showcasing wins (e.g., cost savings, security improvements)
• Involving stakeholders in developing policies and selecting tools

A transparent, education-first approach builds trust and makes compliance a shared goal rather than a top-down mandate.

Conclusion

No improvement effort can be successful without appropriate communication and change management. Leveling up from Managed to Optimized SaaS governance is a strategic leap that takes commitment and persistence. It transforms governance from a compliance function to a catalyst for cost savings, efficiency, security, and business alignment. Through automation, benchmarking, scalability, and cultural alignment, organizations can turn effective SaaS Governance into a competitive advantage.

If your SaaS environment is managed but you know it could be better; now is the time to ask: What’s standing between you and optimization?

Ready to start that journey? Take our free SaaS Governance Maturity Assessment and get tailored recommendations to reach the next level.