Modern business runs on cloud-based, SaaS products. From supply chain management to CRM, SaaS applications streamline how everyday business operations are done. However, it’s easy to go overboard with your SaaS investments.
For one, SaaS products come with a subscription-based pricing model. As your company’s software stack grows, it gets harder to track which applications are still relevant and which have essentially turned into money drains.
It can be hard for the IT team to keep track of who’s doing what where, if there’s nothing installed on the company’s systems, which is basically the case with SaaS products, which are accessed via the end user’s web browser.
There are also cybersecurity and compliance issues that IT managers must be mindful of when integrating these applications. With a SaaS management platform, IT managers can overcome these challenges through total visibility.
It allows them to monitor every single application in their organizations, identify who uses them, manage access permissions, evaluate fit, track costs, and even find more cost-effective alternatives — all in one place. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the biggest players in the booming SaaS management space.
First in our list is Torii — an autonomous SaaS management platform that allows companies to keep up with their ever-growing libraries of business applications. Torii follows a straightforward approach when it comes to SaaS management. It makes sure the critical pieces of data are immediately accessible with the least amount of effort.
The platform also grants IT managers complete and effortless control over their SaaS assets. It does so with its streamlined, user-friendly interface and a touch of automation where it matters. Here’s a quick rundown of Torii’s key features.
Upon logging in, the first thing IT managers will see is an overview of their company’s SaaS ecosystem — starting with metrics like their total number of users, applications, and software costs.
With Torii, you can have an uninterrupted view over every single SaaS app adopted by your team. Torii detects these apps by integrating with leading single sign-on services, web browsers and payment platforms, and it also allows you to manually add them.
On the “Applications” page, you can sort your apps list according to the number of users, total expenses over the past 12 months, and usage rate.
You can also use the search and filter features to quickly find the apps you need to manage, either because a product hasn’t been used heavily in months or because it’s been recently discovered and need compliance evaluation, for example.
Torii allows IT managers to automate the onboarding and offboarding of SaaS applications. This is done through the built-in “Workflows” feature, which lets you create automated emails and onboarding forms for triggering each time Torii discovers a new app. You may also design workflows that run whenever users stop using apps for more than 30 days.
These triggered emails can be set to inform IT managers as well as designated “app owners” on the team, who can be prompted to provide information regarding the relevant SaaS product such as who will have access and for what purposes.
Why is automated offboarding assistance important? Keep in mind that unused subscription fees can accumulate to hundreds (even thousands) of dollars if you lose track of your stagnant SaaS apps. With automatic offboarding, minimal intervention is needed to downscale accounts because of unused SaaS seats.
What’s more, when employees leave your company, it’s critical to ensure that they no longer have access to various company accounts, no matter where they’re hosted. Most other SaaS management platforms do not offer automated onboarding and offboarding. Torii and Blissfully do.
On the “Expenses” page, Torii will present you with a breakdown of your SaaS investments based on department. You will also be shown a graph that illustrates the movement of your SaaS budget over the months.
Digging deeper, Torii keeps a complete record of the monthly cost of each application to help you discover which ones are responsible for sudden spikes in SaaS expenses.
Blissfully is among the more popular SaaS management platforms in the market. Similar to Torii, Blissfully also boasts a user-friendly interface that eliminates the complication from tasks like application discovery, automated offboarding, and so on. Implementation is also fast and can be done single-handedly by an IT manager in less than an hour.
To help you manage your software budget, Blissfully provides you with real-time data on your SaaS expenses for each month.
The platform then smartly alerts you about account renewals, orphaned subscriptions, and duplicate vendors that needlessly drain your organization’s SaaS budget.
Similar to Torii’s “Applications” page, Blissfully has a dedicated “Vendors” page, where IT managers can access direct tracking metrics related to each of their SaaS assets.
Blissfully shows pertinent information that can help you make data-driven decisions, including each app’s renewal date, number of active accounts, owner, GDPR compliance status, and procurement status. Blissfully does offer data relating to app use, but only in cases where certain single sign-on providers were used to access those apps.
Blissfully allows your team to be productive from day one through automated app onboarding and offboarding, be it through your HR tool, G Suite, or Blissfully itself. Onboarded apps will be transparent to the IT department, managers, HR people, and new employees to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Apart from helping IT managers accomplish their tasks, Blissfully also provides employees with a one-stop-shop dashboard, where they can track their current tasks, manage the applications they use, and view the subscriptions under their name.
This feature helps ensure everyone in your organization works at their peak productivity and focus.
Tracking the app usage of your team is the focal point of Intello’s design. Just like Torii and Blissfully, Intello is a cloud-based SaaS management platform that can be deployed without the help of an on-site technician. The initial configuration of your SaaS ecosystem is also simplified with 25 ready-to-use integrations with third-party services, like G Suite, Okta, Dropbox, and Zendesk.
Managing your various departments’ software is made seamless on Intello’s “Teams” page. The feature allows you to set your software budget for each department (e.g., Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc.)
Once integrated, the compliance and risk profile of your SaaS products will be automatically tracked on Intello. A quick count of authorized apps, as well as those with high-risk data policies, will be displayed to help you make adjustments to optimize your SaaS spend and address data risks.
Intello collects truckloads of data for individual apps integrated into your SaaS management platform. In addition to the recorded and projected costs of an app, it also tracks its average feedback, payment history, product type, and usage.
“Shadow IT” is one of Intello’s more distinctive selling points — a browser extension that can provide you with in-depth insights on your employees’ app usage. This allows you to track the presence and usage of unauthorized applications and aggregate the collection of user feedback.
As you can see, all SaaS platforms in this list have their own set of pros and cons. Blissfully, for example, provides value to the entire organization with the Employee Portal. Intello, on the other hand, closely tracks user app data through the Shadow IT browser extension.
Blissfully and Intello, on the other hand, may compromise your privacy. In order to accomplish their advanced functions, Blissfully needs to read your organization’s emails, whereas Intello closely monitors your users’ online activities even if they’re not using any business software.
For larger organizations, however, Torii appears to be more loaded with features, despite the easier and more cost-effective implementation. The workflow automation modules might be the true difference makers here. Of course, you shouldn’t take our word for it. All of the platforms above offer either a free trial or a custom demo — capitalize on them and decide for yourself.
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