The Brightwork Research Cloud Spend Management Guide

Executive Summary

• Cloud spend management has become an increasingly important area to understand.

Introduction

Cloud spend management is directing spending in a way that

What is a Cloud Spend Management?

The following quotation does a good job of explaining how Cloud spend management fits within the overall context of SaaS management.

Cloud spend management is the process of actively managing internal SaaS licenses.

Today, more businesses than ever are dependent on SaaS tools. Companies use between dozens and thousands of SaaS applications to manage their day-to-day work.

In an average organization, many employees across departments and functionalities have the ability to buy new SaaS tools, which leads to SaaS waste.

SaaS waste takes several forms, including unused tools, unused licenses, and apps with duplicate use-cases.

Each of these oversights can add up to increasingly costly mistakes for your business. According to our research, the average SaaS-heavy company wastes over $135,000 on duplicate or unused tools.

By vigilantly managing your SaaS inventory, you can ensure you’re getting the most out of each SaaS subscription you’ve purchased.

Constant vigilence is required to prevent:

Duplicate apps. Two different departments buy two different apps that end up having exactly the same use-cases.

Forgotten cancellations. A department stops using a specific application but forgets to notify the IT department to cancel the subscription.

Unused licenses. Department buys a new SaaS tool, fails to gain buy-in from their team, and it ends up being abandoned (but still paid for).

Overpaid licenses. When an employee quits, the IT team forgets to cancel their SaaS licenses. -Blissful

Considering What is Happening in SaaS Software

SaaS software allows companies to access many more types of software, are “cornucopia” of different SaaS software that was never possible under the on-premises model.

This video does an excellent job of explaining Cloud spend management and brings up some of the implications of using so much SaaS software.

Content Disclaimer

*The use of quotes or content from vendors should not be construed as an endorsement for any SaaS vendor management vendor. We are independent and include this material to provide a better understanding.

More Overhead of Managing a Multitude of SaaS Applications

However, it also means more overhead in managing many more applications than ever before, and as mentioned, this trend shows no sign of slowing. But this means a large assortment of applications that must be managed. And this is where Cloud spend management comes into play.

What We Do

We are knowledgeable about Cloud spend management and the different Cloud spend management applications.

Who Manages Cloud Spend Management Application?

The question is tricky because while some of the SaaS applications a company uses are purchased by the IT department, the SaaS applications from the smaller vendors tend to be bought by the business departments. Also, the budgets are local, so the finance department will care about the SaaS applications that it funds and will not care about the SaaS applications the marketing department funds.

This lack of centralization means that the use and funding of many SaaS applications mean that the Cloud spend management system and the approach to Cloud spend management are also decentralized.

All of this is still nascent, and the company’s ways of dealing with this are still evolving, with some companies doing it one way and others doing it another.

Remarkably, there is little written on this particular topic.