The Covid19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and forced many companies to quickly adapt to the new work environment. In McKinsey’s survey, executives confirmed that their companies have responded to a number of Covid 19-related digital changes much faster than they thought possible before the crisis.
The use of software tools and technologies has proven essential to remain productive and competitive in the current environment. However, the variety and quantity of tools available can often be overwhelming and make tool management a challenge. Therefore, in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of workflows, it is important to keep track of the many different tools available.
In this article, you’ll get 4 tips that will help you optimize the SaaS management in your organization to work even more effectively.
Tip 1: Inventory and prioritization
Inventorying and prioritizing tools is an important first step in optimizing tool management in your organization. It helps you keep track of the tools and figure out which resources you have available and which you may still need.
You don’t need yet another software tool to inventory your software inventory. Vendr provides you with a free software stack template that is ideal for conducting an inventory of your current software products.
After you know your software inventory, the next step is to prioritize the software products in your organization. To do this, create a survey that you send to the employees who currently use each software product and ask them, for example, how the tools increase productivity in everyday life. This will help you determine which tools are relevant to employees and which may not be.
Tip 2: Check software tools for security
It is critical that software tools are tested for security. This allows potential vulnerabilities and risks to be identified and eliminated in advance. The topic of data security in particular plays a central role here. Therefore, check whether all software products that you keep in your software stack are DSGVO/GDPR-compliant. This will ensure that all the data you use in the software is secure.
Tip 3: Avoid ineffective license management
Poor license management poses a lot of risks to the business. For example, if software licenses are not managed correctly, proper employee offboarding may not occur. Data remains forever or former employees have access to one or more software licenses.
This makes it all the more important for IT departments that handle software purchases to be knowledgeable in this area, such as attending training sessions on software asset management.
In addition, during the inventory process, identify two software products that may perform the same function but are used by different departments.
Tip 4: Avoid unnecessary spending
By creating a software stack table, you’ve already taken a big step toward getting an overview of your spending. By doing this, you may be avoiding hidden, unnecessary software spend.
Another way to avoid unnecessary spending is to look for alternative free or open source software solutions instead of buying expensive proprietary software products. By analyzing the software for usage and productivity, you can ensure if the tools are worthwhile for your business or if they are no longer needed.
In addition, you should ensure that licensing terms are adhered to. License violations can expose companies to heavy fines and legal conflicts.
Conclusion: Structure and order with SaaS Management system
It is worthwhile for companies to create an up-to-date, clear plan of their software portfolio and to actively manage it. Only then can you gain control over your software portfolio and make the right decisions. As more and more software solutions will be available on the market in the future, and thus also in companies, good software management is also an important task for the future.
