SaaS Management

  • 8 min read

Top 5 Strategies To Reduce Duplicate SaaS Subscriptions/Apps

Team Zluri

2nd October, 2023

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As an IT manager, you constantly face the ongoing challenge of managing an ever-growing array of SaaS subscriptions and apps. With the increase in cloud-based solutions, it's common for your IT team to accumulate duplicate subscriptions and apps unknowingly. These duplicate subscriptions lead to unnecessary costs, inefficiencies, and potential security risks. 

Thus, implementing effective strategies is crucial for your organization to overcome these hurdles and reduce duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps. 

Duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps can have a significant impact on your organization. Apart from wasteful spending and operational inefficiencies, it can also lead to data fragmentation and security risks. Therefore, simplifying SaaS inventory and reducing duplicate subscriptions is essential to ensure optimal utilization of your SaaS stack and minimize costs.

By optimizing your SaaS ecosystem, you enable your entire organization to save costs, and mitigate risks. It also enhances overall employee experience by simplifying software usage, reducing IT-related frustrations, and ensuring that employees have access to the tools they need. However, this can only be achieved when all stakeholders are actively engaged, as it requires a collective effort from all teams and departments within your organization.

To simplify this and proactively reduce duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps, there are a few effective strategies that will empower your IT team to take control of your SaaS landscape, enabling you to utilize your subscriptions for maximum efficiency.

5 Effective Approaches To Reduce Duplicate SaaS Subscriptions/Apps

From conducting a comprehensive inventory analysis to establishing robust governance processes, we'll explore various steps and techniques to help you identify, manage, and reduce duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps effectively. 

Let's dive in and discover how you can regain control of your SaaS stack and unlock its full potential.

1. Discover Every SaaS App In Your Organization

Discovering every app used in your organization is crucial to identifying duplicate subscriptions and simplifying your SaaS inventory. Begin by conducting an audit across your departments and teams to create a comprehensive inventory of the SaaS applications in use. 

Start by engaging with key stakeholders, including department heads and employees, to gather insights and information about the apps being utilized. 

By actively involving all relevant parties, you can ensure a comprehensive and accurate overview of the SaaS apps deployed throughout your organization. Remember, the goal is to leave no stone unturned and create a complete inventory of every SaaS app. 

If you're overwhelmed by discovering each SaaS subscription and app, consider leveraging automated discovery tools. One such tool is Zluri, which simplifies the process and helps you discover all the apps used in your organization.

How Zluri Helps You Discover Every SaaS App in Your Organization?

Zluri is a top notch SaaS management platform that provides comprehensive assistance in uncovering and cataloging all the SaaS applications. It makes discovering every SaaS app within your organization effortless with its outstanding data-backed capabilities.

Zluri offers a centralized dashboard that acts as a repository for all your SaaS applications. It allows you to create a comprehensive and up-to-date record of every app being used across different teams and departments.

Zluri employs 5 discovery methods to identify SaaS apps in your organization. Let’s see how these discovery methods work and help to discover even the hidden apps:

• SSO and IDP Integration: Zluri seamlessly connects with your SSO and ID providers (e.g., Google Workspace, Okta, Azure Active Directory), capturing app users, departments, hierarchy, and application types. 
  
  Zluri collects authorized app lists and login events, including sign-in attempts, app access frequency, and success or failure status. It also captures data shared with third-party apps, such as names, emails, and other details.

  

  

• Finance and Expense Management: Zluri integrates with finance and expense management systems (e.g., Quickbooks, Netsuite, Zoho Books), identifying SaaS apps purchased by employees using corporate or personal cards. It gathers transaction details through finance systems, including app expenditure amounts and expense dates.

  

  

• Direct Integration with Apps: Zluri directly integrates with 800+ SaaS apps, eliminating the need for additional tools. The integration process is quick and simple, requiring only a one-time setup during onboarding, and subsequent connections are managed at the admin level.
  
  Zluri's direct integration provides insights into user access and permissions for SaaS apps. It captures user activity data, enabling you to measure individual users' SaaS usage effectively.

  

  

• Desktop Agents (Optional): Desktop agents provide additional insights, such as device information, installed apps, and app usage time, offering a comprehensive view of SaaS usage (optional).
  
  Zluri's desktop agent monitors SaaS usage and activities in the computer's toolbar. It securely sends this data to the Zluri server for analysis, providing valuable insights that are presented on the Zluri dashboard.

  

  

• Browser Extensions (Optional): Zluri's browser extensions (available for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari) analyze browser activities, reporting SaaS app usage to Zluri's server for detailed analysis (optional).
  
  Browser extensions, running locally on the client side, capture browser activities and report them to the Zluri server for analysis. This enables Zluri to identify and analyze SaaS application-related activities displayed on the Zluri dashboard.

  

  

  With a vast app library of over 250,000 applications, Zluri has the world's largest SaaS app collection. Leveraging this extensive catalog and its 5 discovery methods, Zluri ensures 100% SaaS discoverability.
  
  Further, it enables ongoing monitoring of your SaaS ecosystem, automatically detecting new applications that are introduced and capturing changes in usage patterns. This ensures that your inventory remains up to date, providing you with a real-time view of the SaaS apps being utilized within your organization.

2. Evaluate & Categorize Subscriptions Based On Functionality/Purpose

Once you have discovered all the SaaS apps in your organization, the next step is to evaluate and categorize the subscriptions based on their functionality and purpose. This evaluation will help you gain a clear understanding of the overlapping functionalities and identify potential duplicate subscriptions.

Start by analyzing the features and capabilities of each SaaS app and compare them with others in the same category. Look for similarities in functionality and consider whether multiple subscriptions serve the same purpose. Categorize the subscriptions into different groups based on their primary functions, such as project management, communication, analytics, or customer relationship management.

During the evaluation process, consider factors like user adoption, user satisfaction, and the specific needs of your different departments or teams. This will help you identify the essential subscriptions that are widely used and add significant value to the organization.

By categorizing your subscriptions, you'll achieve a clearer distinction between essential apps and redundant SaaS subscriptions, making it easier to identify and reduce duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps. This categorization process lays the foundation for streamlining your SaaS inventory and optimizing your subscriptions effectively.

How does Zluri help you in categorizing?

With Zluri, you can effortlessly categorize all the SaaS apps in your organization, analyze features and functionalities, and make informed decisions on consolidation or elimination. The platform provides a user-friendly interface, powerful analytics, and intuitive dashboards that offer deep insights into your SaaS landscape.

Zluri allows you to map the functionalities offered by each subscription, enabling you to identify overlapping features or gaps in your software stack. You can gain insights into their relevance and potential redundancy by categorizing subscriptions based on their specific functionalities.

It provides usage analytics for your SaaS subscriptions, giving you visibility into the actual utilization of each application. This data helps you identify underutilized subscriptions or no longer serving their intended purpose, allowing you to make informed decisions about retaining or discontinuing them. 

With Zluri, you can analyze the costs associated with each subscription and categorize them based on their value and importance to your organization. This helps you prioritize high-value subscriptions and identify opportunities for cost optimization by eliminating duplicate or unnecessary subscriptions.

3. Analyze Overlapping Features & Functionalities

After categorizing the SaaS subscriptions based on their functionality and purpose, the next step is to analyze the overlapping features and functionalities among the apps in each category. This analysis will enable you to identify and reduce duplicate SaaS subscriptions/apps and pinpoint areas where consolidation or elimination is possible.

Compare the features and functionalities of the apps within each category side by side. Look for similarities and overlaps in their offerings. Pay close attention to the core functionalities that are essential for your organization's operations. Identify instances where multiple subscriptions provide similar capabilities and determine if these duplications are necessary.

By thoroughly analyzing overlapping features and functionalities, you can uncover opportunities for consolidation or elimination of duplicate subscriptions. This will reduce costs and enhance the user experience by providing a more focused and integrated set of tools.

However, after reading through the aforementioned steps, you may find implementing them manually to be quite challenging. This is where Zluri comes to the rescue. 

Zluri Helps Uncover Overlapping Features

Zluri provides a centralized repository where you can effortlessly manage and track all your SaaS applications. This comprehensive inventory allows you to monitor your software landscape, making identifying potential overlaps and redundancies easier. 

Leveraging the wealth of data it collects, Zluri provides intelligent recommendations for optimizing your SaaS operations and the overall SaaS stack. It identifies alternative apps that offer similar functionalities with improved cost-efficiency, suggests consolidation opportunities, and highlights potential savings.

With Zluri's cutting-edge analysis capabilities, you can confidently navigate through your SaaS applications, identify overlapping features and functionalities, and make informed decisions to optimize your software stack. Streamlining your SaaS ecosystem can reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and maximize the value derived from your SaaS investments. 

4. Manage Your SaaS Auto Renewals Proactively 

Signing up for SaaS apps has become increasingly accessible, often requiring only the entry of credit card details to start using the application. Many SaaS apps also have automatic renewal features enabled.

However, it is common for employees to forget to cancel subscriptions once they have stopped using the app and instead opt to try out new applications. This results in unnecessary payments for licenses that are no longer being utilized.

For instance, let's consider your IT department procured Trello, a project management app for the Marketing team. After completing a project within six months, your team ceased using the app without informing the IT department to cancel the subscription. Consequently, the app continued to auto-renew every month despite being unused. Such instances can cause SaaS wastage as well as unnecessary spending.

Assigning an individual owner for each purchased app can be beneficial to prevent such situations. An accountable individual responsible for managing the subscription ensures better oversight and timely cancellation of unused licenses, thereby mitigating unnecessary costs. 

Never Miss a Renewal Again, Zluri Keeps Your SaaS Subscriptions in Check

With Zluri's renewal calendar, you can easily stay on top of all your upcoming contract renewals and receive timely alerts well before the renewal date. The calendar provides alerts at strategic intervals to ensure you have ample time to take necessary actions.

Zluri sends you alerts 30 days, 15 days, and one day in advance for contract renewals, ensuring you have sufficient notice to review and make informed decisions. When it comes to payment, you receive alerts seven days and one day before the due date, allowing you to plan and manage your finances effectively. Additionally, Zluri allows you to set custom alerts based on your specific requirements.

By leveraging Zluri's renewal calendar and its well-timed alerts, you can prioritize high-value contracts and optimize your SaaS spending. This proactive approach empowers you to make timely decisions, negotiate better terms with vendors, and avoid any unnecessary auto-renewals or payments.

5. Conduct Periodic Reviews To Identify New Duplicates or Changes In Needs

As your organization evolves, new software needs may arise, and existing applications may become redundant or no longer align with your requirements. Regular reviews are crucial for ensuring the optimization of your SaaS stack. Conducting periodic reviews can help you identify any new duplicates or changes in your organizational needs and take the necessary actions.

Hence, it is recommended to conduct quarterly or bi-annual reviews, depending on the size and complexity of your SaaS stack. During the review, it is essential to analyze the usage patterns of each app, identify any overlaps or redundancies, and assess the overall value provided by each subscription.

By regularly conducting these reviews, you can stay ahead of changes in your SaaS ecosystem, identify new duplicates, and address evolving needs. This proactive approach ensures that your SaaS inventory remains optimized, relevant, and aligned with your organizational objectives. Additionally, you can use the insights gathered during the review to negotiate better terms with vendors and optimize your SaaS spending.

How Zluri can be helpful in this?

Zluri conducts regular audits to maintain comprehensive visibility into IT processes, ensuring a well-managed SaaS stack and minimizing risks associated with Shadow IT, security breaches, and compliance issues.

Through these audits, you can assess the threat level of SaaS apps by analyzing events, data sharing practices, compliance adherence, and security measures before granting access to employees. It provides insights into applications with high threat levels and assigns risk scores, categorizing them as critical apps. 

If an application fails to meet compliance standards, it is recommended for removal from business processes. The audits also enable the identification of employees who frequently share critical data, classifying them as critical users.

Moreover, Zluri detects unauthorized users accessing SaaS apps or sensitive data, allowing prompt action such as deprovisioning or restricting their access. This proactive approach mitigates the risk of potential damage to the organization's revenue and reputation caused by unauthorized access or data breaches.

By leveraging Zluri's auditing capabilities, you can proactively manage security and compliance risks, and ensure a safe and protected digital workplace for your employees and your organization as a whole.

Let Zluri empower you to unlock the full potential of your SaaS infrastructure. Schedule a demo today!

About the author

Team Zluri

Team Zluri