Why Your SaaS Management Tools Are Failing You

Was SaaS always the go-to software for businesses? Had it all the advanced features from the very beginning? Did it always keep the data organized in one place? Certainly, NOT.

Traditionally, SaaS Management was done via Spreadsheets, and every data (total number of apps, number of licenses, the total amount paid, per user, cost, etc.) was entered manually. However, this worked well for small-sized companies but became problematic when the company size increased. Why? Spreadsheets aren't updated in real-time; thus, keeping track became difficult.

Another mistake that IT teams made was to consider Software Asset Management (SAM) tools sufficient to manage SaaS. Though they possess some capabilities of SaaS management platforms, they were primarily made to manage on-premise software assets.

These limitations were obvious to any user. But let's understand why some customers hesitate to use an SMP, primarily made for managing SaaS apps.

What Data-Related Issues Do SaaS Management Platforms Have?

Before we go ahead and talk about the benefits that efficient SMPs offer to keep your data organized and optimized, let's understand the data-related issues that other SMPs have.

a. Missing data: Many SMPs need to discover your organization's total number of applications and users. This leads to exceeding SaaS spend and unmonitored SaaS usage.

b. Data isn't updated: Keeping track of what's happening in the organization is of utmost importance. An SMP failing to do the minimum can pose serious issues. Several SMPs prefer to update the data on a weekly or monthly basis. This leads to a vast data gap, as a lot can change in a day or two. Thus, choosing a platform that gives real-time updates works better for businesses.

c. Absence of data tracking:  Besides being time-consuming, manual application tracking only sometimes yields correct results. Sometimes, you will need to be made aware of the source of information, and verifying it would be another task. You might get your hands on an error once in a while, but is that fruitful in the long run? That's something to think about!

Why is data accuracy a challenge for many SMPs?

There isn't just a single reason, but many. The most important of these is data accuracy. It varies on the kind of discovery engine you use. If not, as per today's technology and advancements, you won't be able to manage, optimize and secure your applications.

So, what should you do to eliminate these challenges? Of course, all this depends on your choice of SaaS Management Platform. Zluri is an SMP with the best discovery engine, gives insight into hidden and true-up costs, optimizes data every day, and takes care of security and compliance.

A detailed insight into how Zluri resolves data accuracy issues:

• Having the best discovery engine leads to no missing data

Having a robust discovery engine, Zluri helps eliminate shadow IT, app portfolio rationalization, etc. How?

a. Biggest App Library: An SMP can only discover the apps that are present in its app library. To your surprise, Zluri has built the world's largest app library with over 2,25,000 apps. It keeps on expanding as new applications come into the market regularly.

b. Maximum no. of discovery methods: The efficiency of an SMP depends on how it finds applications. With 5 discovery methods (i.e., SSO & IDP, Finance & Expense Management, Direct Integration with apps, Desktop Agents, and browser extension), Zluri uncovers 100% of SaaS apps in your organization, including both free and paid.

• It updates real-time data

As mentioned, the inability to update data in real-time is something several SMPs need help with. Zluri, on the other hand, updates entire data, including license usage, number of applications, users, renewals, etc., in real-time on a single platform. This helps the user to analyze and make better decisions.

• Makes data tracking seamless

Whether you're looking for your application data or SaaS Usage data, Zluri has it all. In addition, it lists all the possible sources of an application, which makes it easier for the user to go back and verify it from the source.

As mentioned, Zluri integrates apps directly and thus has the most extensive direct integrations via API with over 750 SaaS apps—and this number keeps growing every month. Also, it's the only custom integration on-demand within a record turnaround time of 36 hours.

a. User data:

b. Primary data source: Zluri gives you an upper hand in choosing the primary data source. For that, go to settings and select a primary source for users' data.

c. Hidden Charges:

The cost column is sourced from the contract, while the amount you paid is in the spending column (sourced from financial management systems). The bigger the difference, the more you are charged than what is mentioned in the contract.

Is that all that Zluri Offers?

Definitely not! Let's dive in and learn about the other benefits that it provides.

What Are the Other Benefits Of Zluri?

The Zluri platform has been made so that users can extract information and work on problematic areas. Below we have listed some of the benefits that Zluri offers to maximize SaaS optimization:

• Tracks SaaS Usage:
  Zluri is efficient enough to provide data on total users, spend per user, department-wise spend, and apps by users/ spend. How can this data help? Analyze the application usage and understand what your employees need. Is there a scope to upgrade or downgrade an application's plan? Are there multiple applications of the same category? Figuring out these would help reduce SaaS usage and SaaS spend too

• Cost Reduction:
  With a robust discovery engine, Zluri discovers all the applications an organization uses. This discovery engine use nine discovery methods: MDMs, IDPs & SSO, direct integration with apps, finance & expense management systems, CASBs, HRMS, directories, desktop agents (optional), and browser extension (optional).This gives an insight into the redundant or duplicate applications as well. Based on that, you can discard the apps you no longer need leading to cost reduction.  

Zluri’s nine discovery methods.  

• Compliance & Security: Zluri keeps you updated on all the events that can affect the security or compliance of the app.

It shows the threat level for each application depending on two factors:

a. What kind of data is shared on the application?b. What type of permission the application has?

For example: If it's not sensitive information, say an email address, the threat level would be 0, 1. Whereas in the case of confidential data, it will change to 3, 4, or 5.

• Auto-renewal alerts:
  Zluri helps with contract management by maintaining a system of records that caters to all the information related to renewals and contracts. It also has a renewal calendar that helps you avoid surprise auto-renewals. Besides it also sends alerts for both contracts and payments.
  
  ‍For contracts: 30 days, 15 days, and one day in advance.
  ‍For payment: 7 days and 1-day alerts

By setting custom alerts, you can prioritize renewals that need your utmost attention.

Enhance Productivity with Efficient SaaS Management Tool

Inefficient SaaS Management tools can lead to data accuracy issues, resulting in missed auto-renewal alerts, decreased optimization opportunities, redundant purchases, etc.

That's where choosing Zluri as a SaaS Management Tool helps. It scales your business and optimizes your SaaS stack. Additionally, it monitors, measures, and controls application spend while demystifying shadow IT and gives deep insights to optimize application costs.

With 100% discoverability Zluri provides real-time insights and offers a single dashboard to manage all the applications' renewals, access details reports, and more.

Still looking for more insights on how Zluri works? Book a demo with us, and we'll guide you.