Software-as-a-Service has become ubiquitous in the modern workplace, but how do we ensure that our overconsumption of SaaS isn’t negatively impacting our company’s bottom line, compliance risks and operational efficiency?
The Risks of Software Overconsumption
Ten years ago, Marc Andreesen predicted that software would be consuming the world – and it has.
But with this ubiquity of SaaS applications, organizations risk overconsumption and its associated pitfalls such as wasted costs, compliance risks and operational inefficiencies.
Unused SAAS Licenses
Up to 25% of SaaS apps and licenses go unused. If your company’s top two expenses are people and technology, you’re wasting a bunch of money on one of your top expenses.
What’s Driving Software Overconsumption?
To prevent these risks, it is important to understand the causes of software overconsumption.
These include the easy adoption of free trial SaaS applications, as well as the unbundling of traditional enterprise software due to improved UX.
Encouraging Self-Governance Across Teams
To help institute self-governance, companies should encourage their team leaders to incorporate self-service into their OKRs or V2MOM process.
They can also start small by sending out emails asking users to “👍” if they don’t use a certain software anymore or asking app admins to help reduce SaaS spend by removing licenses or canceling apps altogether.
Unlock Your Company’s Full Potential through Technology
To unlock your company’s full potential through technology, change the priorities of IT, security and procurement teams away from problem solving and towards empowering employees to self-govern software usage.
Encoding self-service
The question companies should be asking themselves is how to encode self-service in as many places as possible. For example: Once IT creates workflows around who should approve which app, employees can request apps, permissions, internal tools, or even developer resources without IT help. If procurement builds a system around who needs to approve what type of software purchase, employees can go ahead and use that self-service system.
Are we full yet?
Empowering your teams and employees through self-governance can become a competitive differentiator. Not only will employees feel like an integral part of the process and therefore have a stake in its success, but those in IT, security, and procurement will become true enablers instead of ticket or alert resolvers.
Outdated Approaches to Software Management
Companies are recognizing that they can no longer rely on centralized models of software management due to the sheer number of apps, in addition to factors such as security and compliance.
Many teams acquire their own tools and get to work, but IT, security, or procurement often need to help with these requests.
This process is lengthy and inefficient and results in employee frustration and wasted money.
Unlocking the Power of Self-Service Systems
Self-service systems can help reduce the need for IT help and allow employees to request apps, permissions, internal tools, or even developer resources without IT assistance.
This shift can change the role of software operation teams from responding to support tickets or alerts to encoding the system in the right way and coaching the organization.
