Proactive business leaders today understand the importance of streamlining operations and automating processes to improve productivity. Competition is fierce, and they know they will be left behind if they don’t adapt and use modern technology to help them grow. Several providers today deliver solutions to the SaaS Management Platform (SMP) space. They are doing everything from customer relationship management to project management to billing and accounting and everything in between. Some sources report that the SaaS market will expand from $314 billion USD in 2024 to $ 1 trillion globally by 2023.[1] Most organizations will use some number of SaaS solutions in their businesses.
SaaS is a vital and mission-critical component of most organizations’ digital environments. SaaS solutions support all aspects of core business operations and how organizations deliver value to their customers. Without oversight, ungoverned SaaS issues can quickly cause organizations to run afoul of regulatory and compliance issues.
It helps you stay secure. SaaS governance helps ensure you are not introducing security risks into your environment through unvetted tools. When “Mike in Manufacturing” decides that his team will use the latest tool for collaboration for manufacturing teams and puts it on his corporate credit card to expedite deployment, your company information goes wherever the SaaS vendor wants to put it.
It helps your team stay compliant. Imagine if hospitals allowed their staff to sign up for their own ClickUp or Dropbox accounts and store patient information there. Hospitals have policies and practices in place to ensure that does not happen. Suppose the same hospital is using a SaaS solution to manage patient data. In that case, they will ensure they use the appropriate SaaS governance processes and tools to remain compliant with HIPAA standards or face legal consequences.
It helps you get more value from your software spending. Multiple studies have shown that organizations globally waste 25-30% of their software investment due to unused licenses. In some cases, the waste is much higher. A strong SaaS governance policy will ensure that your team is actually using all the seats you have purchased and will help predict what the spend will be in the future.
It keeps AI at the forefront of planning. A robust SaaS governance policy has to consider the proliferation of AI and the new and unforeseen ways that its use will impact the SaaS solution fabric within organizations.
Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. There are steps you can take to help alleviate/mitigate your exposure. Let’s explore how you can implement a SaaS governance framework to help your company stay secure, reduce costs, and maintain compliance.
A good place to start is by working with the finance/accounting team or simply looking at your bank account to see what software you are currently paying for. Please keep it simple to start with. You need visibility into your SaaS investments, not just more process overhead. To begin with, put it in a spreadsheet and capture the basics below. Edit the list as appropriate for your situation.
This effort will give you the software your company knows about because you are paying for it. There may be software that people are paying for that you don’t know about. If that is a concern for your team, you will need to implement some type of discovery solution that will surface and catalog the software your team members are using. There are many. Work with your security team/vendor to help you.
To put this list together, you should have conversations with cross-functional team members to understand how the software is used and impacts the business. Having these conversations is a good thing.
Now that you understand what SaaS solutions are being used in your environment and which teams are using them, you can pull people together to discuss how you will work together to improve your SaaS governance practices. Additionally, you can start looking at ways to automate monitoring and compliance. There are many SaaS Management Platforms (SMPs) available, and more are coming out all the time. Each of them has its focus and strong suits. Talk to your IT team/vendor to help you select the best one for your organization. Lastly, take the time to build out the appropriate training and guidance material. Your team will quickly learn appropriate SaaS governance practices when you do this. You will need everyone on the team rowing in the same direction. This process takes time, focus, and persistence, but the payoff is worth it.
At some point, you will want/need to get your SaaS management efforts into a dedicated solution that does not involve spreadsheets. Because you consolidated your initial information, you will be much more efficient at this stage. There are many legacy tools in the SaaS Management Platform space, and new ones are constantly coming out. Additionally, with low-code, no-code solutions, your organization can build your own or hire a company to make the app. Each approach has its trade-offs, and it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The key is to identify your priorities from an automation perspective and find the solution that meets those needs most cost-effectively.
If you are reading this, you are likely seeking a level of transformation for your organization that you cannot accomplish alone. It takes all of your team members caring about the importance of SaaS governance if you want to reap the benefits discussed above. Leaders should designate a single individual to own the management of the SaaS governance process and hold all organizational leaders accountable for participating in and complying with the agreed-upon process. Leaders must also wholeheartedly support this effort if they expect to benefit from it. Lastly, the team must continuously collaborate to design, implement, and maintain a governance model that works over the long term.
The pace of the proliferation of SaaS solutions will only continue to accelerate in the near future, and most businesses will need to find ways to track and manage their spending and security compliance in this area. Failure to proactively manage SaaS acquisitions with appropriate practices and policies will cause increased waste and unnecessary security risks for your organization and the customers you serve.
As an aspiring or current organizational leader, you are responsible for taking action to drive systemic improvements in the organization. Are you curious about where your organization can improve its SaaS Governance practices? Would you like a customized guide on the next steps your team should take today to reduce waste and improve security compliance? Take 5 minutes to complete this SaaS Governance Assessment. You will immediately receive a guide tailored to your team’s situation. Act today to regain control. Take the assessment!