SaaS Licence Management
Expert SaaS licensing advisory to help you manage SaaS spend.
Why SaaS licence management?
Tackle SaaS sprawl: Centralise ownership and sourcing and identify and consolidate SaaS apps to eliminate SaaS wastage.
Cost control: Optimise your SaaS licences to ensure your organisation is using everything it’s paying for and paying for everything it’s using.
Knowledge is power: A clear view of SaaS usage versus contractual entitlements arms you with the insights needed to negotiate better deals with your vendors.
Why
now?
Rising vendor audits: 52% of organisations have been audited more than twice in the past 18 months. With proactive SaaS licence management, you’re always audit-ready.
Hybrid workforce: With the rise of hybrid and remote work has come an influx of SaaS contracts to manage. SaaS cost management must be brought sharply into focus.
Time is money: Don’t wait for the renewal bill to come – get a handle on your licences now so you can negotiate from a position of power with vendors.
SaaS security risks: Adopting SaaS without proper security and oversight increases the costs and risks of SaaS usage. Organisations that don’t centrally manage SaaS lifecycles are more susceptible to cyberattacks and data loss due to misconfiguration.
Why Invictus
Partners?
Proven results: We’ve saved our clients more than $1 billion in enterprise software costs since 2014. The vendors won’t tell you if you’re paying too much, but we will.
Extensive experience: We have deep knowledge of each SaaS vendor’s unique licensing models, contractual nuances, sales processes and negotiation strategies.
Vendor-agnostic: We are objective advisors that do not resell, audit or implement software, so we can help you discover (or rediscover) the value of your licences across all vendors.
Chat to an expert
The key to SaaS spend management is in the licensing.
Signing up for SaaS tools is easy, but managing the costs associated with subscription licensing can be challenging at the enterprise level. Proactive usage monitoring and licence optimisation is necessary to avoid overprovisioning and excess payments.
If your organisation has a large stack and you don’t have an effective SaaS Licence Management program in place, your SaaS spend is likely much less optimised than you realise.
Where are organisations going wrong with SaaS subscription management?
When there is no centralised software procurement process within an organisation, excess SaaS spend is inevitable. This can usually be attributed to one or more of these common cost traps.
Duplicate subscriptions:
Multiple subscriptions to the same SaaS service within the organisation not only increases the per-user price for each licence, but weakens your bargaining power and prevents you from securing enterprise-level discounts.
Unused/under-used licences:
Low SaaS utilisation is the main cause of over-spending. It’s estimated that more than 50% of SaaS subscriptions go unused over a 90-day period.*
Overlapping functionality:
Different departments often use similar types of software with overlapping features, resulting in redundant subscriptions.
No SaaS renewal strategy:
Allowing subscriptions to roll over leads to missed opportunities to reduce wasted SaaS spend, negotiate better pricing, and update agreements according to evolving needs.
Sub-optimal licensing:
Without intricate knowledge of SaaS licensing structures, over-provisioning is required to ensure you choose the subscription models that align with usage needs and business requirements.
Duplicate subscriptions:
Multiple subscriptions to the same SaaS service within the organisation not only increases the per-user price for each licence, but weakens your bargaining power and prevents you from securing enterprise-level discounts.
Unused/under-used licences:
Low SaaS utilisation is the main cause of over-spending. It’s estimated that more than 50% of SaaS subscriptions go unused over a 90-day period.*
Overlapping functionality:
Different departments often use similar types of software with overlapping features, resulting in redundant subscriptions.
Auto-renewals:
Allowing subscriptions to roll over leads to missed opportunities to reduce wasted SaaS spend, negotiate better pricing, and update agreements according to evolving needs.
Sub-optimal licensing:
Without intricate knowledge of SaaS licensing structures, over-provisioning is required to ensure you choose the subscription models that align with usage needs and business requirements.
SaaS spend optimisation: Understand SaaS usage to control SaaS costs.
Download our Licence Management Services datasheet
Perpetual licence vs. subscription licence: The pros and cons of moving to a SaaS licence model.
While big names like Salesforce, Workday and ServiceNow have only ever been SaaS, traditional software vendors like Microsoft and SAP are becoming increasingly focused on their SaaS offerings. There’s a growing trend of vendors ceasing sales of new perpetual licences (or making them cost-prohibitive) in an effort to push customers onto subscription products.
There are many advantages of moving to a subscription model, including lower initial costs and greater flexibility to scale usage up or down as needed. However, there are some downsides:
- Higher long-term costs: Easier to spend more in the long run with the ease of deployment and consumption-based pricing.
- More potential for vendor lock-in: Limited ability to switch vendors or solutions once your data is stored on a particular platform.
- Increased security risks: Less control over data privacy and security in the cloud.
- Limited customisations: Less flexibility in tailoring software to your specific needs.
Organisations must carefully assess their budgetary constraints, long-term strategic objectives, and operational requirements to determine the most suitable licensing model for their needs.
Our Enterprise SaaS Management Solution breakdown:
We provide expert licence management and advisory at any point along your SaaS journey. Our SaaS Licence Management Services are available as separate engagements or as an end-to-end service.
1
SaaS Licence
Health
check
2
SaaS
Licence
Optimisation
3
SaaS
Vendor
Management
4
SaaS Contract
Negotiation
Support
5
SaaS
Contract
Management
1
SaaS
Licence Health
Check
2
SaaS
Licence
Optimisation
3
SaaS
Vendor
Management
4
SaaS Contract
Negotiation
Support
5
SaaS
Contract
Management
SaaS Visibility
The first step in getting a handle on SaaS spend is working out exactly where your money is going. Our team can help you gain full visibility of SaaS distribution across your organisation. We deliver a complete and accurate view of your licensed and/or used SaaS programs to understand your entitlement position and determine the business relevance of your SaaS subscriptions.
This process provides you with:
- An understanding of actual usage against subscription entitlements
- A breakdown of costs associated with the SaaS subscriptions
- An overview of unused, under-used, sub-optimal, and inactive licences.
SaaS Optimisation
Our experts draw on SaaS optimisation principles to ensure you are contracting on the best-value licensing models and arrangement. We can help you strike the right balance between the number of licences and vendor compliance. We also offer continuous licence management as part of a monthly managed service, enabling you to scale your SaaS usage up or down according to your needs.
This process involves:
- Keeping an up-to-date inventory of all SaaS licences
- Analysing usage data to identify areas of overspending or underutilisation
- Rightsizing subscriptions to match actual needs
- Adjusting licence allocations to align with changing business demands.
SaaS Vendor Management
Building good relationships with SaaS vendors can significantly impact your bottom line. However, SaaS vendor management requires knowledge and skills not traditionally found in IT or business units.
With our in-depth understanding of subscription-based models, contract structures, and data security and compliance requirements specific to SaaS platforms, Invictus Partners can help you:
- Track SLAs and hold vendors accountable
- Define tools and processes for negotiations and escalations
- Standardise terms and conditions for SaaS providers.
SaaS Contract Negotiation
Many organisations unwittingly sign up for significant SaaS overspending by failing to negotiate critical contract terms. We don’t like to see anyone get screwed, so we make it our business to ensure that our clients enter into SaaS agreements with the most suitable licensing models, pricing, and terms.
We can help you de-risk SaaS contract negotiations by:
- Determining the best-fit pricing model for your organisation’s needs
- Negotiating favourable terms and conditions and co-terming agreements
- Identifying hidden costs and “gotchas” in SaaS contracts
- Mandating viable exit strategies and cancellation terms to reduce vendor lock-in.
SaaS licensing agreement essential: The exit strategy
Switching SaaS vendors is complex and can often result in data loss and unplanned migration costs. To combat this, we recommend including a clear exit strategy in your SaaS contracts. This typically outlines the data extraction process, transition support, and any associated costs.
SaaS Contract Management
Invictus Partners can help you streamline contract workflows to enhance transparency and maximise value from your SaaS investments. Managing the entire lifecycle of SaaS contracts, from initial negotiation and procurement to renewal or termination, our team can help you:
- Establish clear ownership and accountability for managing SaaS contracts within your organisation.
- Set benchmarks for vendor performance and measure progress throughout the subscription period.
- Mitigate risks associated with SaaS contracts, e.g. data security and compliance with regulatory requirements.
SaaS renewal best practices
Mature SaaS renewal processes are crucial to minimise service interruptions and control costs. We can help you gain access to SaaS usage data well ahead of renewal time so that you can evaluate the value of your subscriptions and engage in proactive renegotiations with vendors.
SaaS Asset Management
The most effective SaaS management programs operate in the context of an organisation’s broader IT ecosystem. We can implement Software Asset Management (SAM) best practices to help your organisation build and maintain a complete view of your SaaS licensing footprint along with that of your on-premise, cloud and hybrid environments. Having full visibility across software, hardware and cloud subscriptions gives you more control over cost, strengthens your compliance position, and arms you with the insights required to make key business decisions.
Should you invest in SaaS management software?
Effectively implemented and managed tools can significantly enhance an organisation’s SaaS Licence Management efforts. Some technologies of note are:
- ServiceNow SaaS Licence Management
- Snow SaaS Management
- Flexera SaaS Manager
Invictus Partners can work with you to set up and optimally configure your chosen platform, whether it’s a SaaS-specific tool like those mentioned above, or one with broader SAM capabilities, such as ServiceNow ITAM.
Regardless of the platform you choose, the success of any tool – and your ROI – hinges on the accuracy and quality of what’s inputted. We can help you analyse and refine your subscription and usage data to ensure it provides a reliable and continuous overview of all SaaS products accessed across your organisation.
Manage SaaS subscriptions with the Big Four and more with our SaaS cost optimisation best practices.
SAP SaaS Licence Management
SAP is actively moving towards a cloud-first strategy, pushing customers onto its flagship next-gen ERP solution SAP S/4HANA and other core SaaS solutions, such as SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Customer Experience (CX), and SAP Ariba. As a result, SAP customers are now having to interpret and comply with the complex new world of SAP SaaS licensing. Invictus Partners can guide your organisation through the licensing challenges associated with SAP’s SaaS offerings.
Oracle SaaS Licence Management
Our team has deep expertise in Oracle Cloud applications, including Oracle ERP Cloud, HCM Cloud, and CX Cloud. Finding an optimal balance between licence sufficiency and cost efficiency is paramount, particularly when moving to Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP which is notorious for breaking the bank. Invictus Partners can assess your current Oracle licensing structure, identify areas for improvement, and develop tailored strategies for cost optimisation.
Microsoft SaaS Licence Management
Invictus Partners can help you navigate Microsoft’s complex subscription licensing models. Microsoft 365 Enterprise Suites plans and bundles alone consist of more than 30 services – we can help you make sense of them and find the best-fit licensing models for your organisation.
IBM SaaS Licence Management
Whether you’re using IBM Watson for AI-driven insights, IBM Cloud Pak for streamlined application development, or IBM Cloud Services for scalable infrastructure solutions, we understand the intricacies of IBM’s diverse SaaS product suite and can help you optimise your licensing accordingly.
ServiceNow Licence Management
Invictus Partners can help you keep on top of costs and compliance requirements for ServiceNow’s solutions, which range from user-based licences, subscription tiers, and add-on modules. Our team can continuously assess your ServiceNow usage, identify underused licences, and optimise your licensing to maximise the value of your ServiceNow subscriptions and avoid unnecessary expenses.
VMware SaaS Licence Management
VMware’s transition to a SaaS model has accelerated since it was acquired by Broadcom in late 2023. Invictus Partners helps organisations prepare for and manage the new licensing structures that come with this change. We can work with you to assess the current state of your VMware infrastructure and management products, review your inventory of perpetual licences, and effectively plan for contract renewals and negotiations with Broadcom.
Salesforce Licence Management
Salesforce offers various licensing models, including per-user, per-feature, and usage-based licences. These models are hard enough to understand, let alone manage, especially as your Salesforce usage grows and evolves. We can work with you to establish an effective SaaS Licence Management program for your Salesforce solutions so you can stay in control of compliance and costs.
Workday Licence Management
Ensuring compliance with Workday’s Human Capital Management (HCM), Financial Management, and Adaptive Planning licensing agreements and usage limits is critical to avoid penalties and legal risks. Invictus Partners can help you accurately track user licences, subscription tiers, and usage metrics to stay compliant and avoid over-provisioning.
Case Study
Hydro Tasmania enhances value of SAP investments with Invictus Partners Licence Management
The Invictus Partners difference:
SaaS Application Management & SaaS Cost Management Solutions
Invictus Partners is a specialist software licensing advisory firm that supports and supplements our clients’ in-house commercial, procurement, IT and vendor management teams. We deliver completely independent SaaS License Management services to help enterprises thrive in a world of complex and costly subscription licensing.
Our team understands the intricacies of SaaS cost optimisation and we love nothing more than empowering our clients to master this process. Invictus Partners is your ideal partner in SaaS Licence Management if you want to see impactful, lasting changes to your operations and bottom line.
Talk to a SaaS Licence Optimisation expert
Got questions about Invictus Partners SaaS Portfolio Management?
*Source: https://www.techopedia.com/saas-statistics