Stakeholders and business leaders often power through their workflows without considering the implications around software terms of service or license restrictions. This could be due to a lack of shared visibility within your organization regarding precisely what acceptable software is available, restricted budgets, or not enabling staff access to use the software.
This can lead to some understandably stressed stakeholders, so the Herculean challenge is to deeply understand the problem they are trying to solve and why they are not using the resources provided by IT. Here are a few tips on how to achieve balance between meeting stakeholder needs without compromising your own priorities in SaaS management.
Enhance shared visibility
Decentralized purchasing patterns, where business units and individual employees drive significant technology spending, have created a fragmented reality for IT departments. By providing visibility to the organization on what is available and how to access it easily (this could be with a “StoreFront” or “AppStore”), IT leaders can review what software is available, review it and even deploy it directly.
Provide availability
By enabling stakeholders access to software on demand, you can prevent rogue deployments and reduce the investment needed by IT. Having a request process can also enable access in a reasonable time frame, reducing the delay for the end user.
Clarify needs vs. wants
Software review surveys can clarify issues within your business. Regular surveys of software within your business ensure what you’re providing your teams is meeting the requirements. For example, you may find your chosen solution for file storage isn’t providing a good user experience. Or the webinar solution you’re using across your org is reported to be buggy and force-quits during certain actions. By getting this detailed feedback, you can ensure you’re meeting the needs of your teams and also gather a wish list of capabilities you can review during renegotiations.
Draw a line in the sand
When it comes to security and compliance, clearly communicate to your stakeholder the risks associated with hastily implemented solutions. No one wants to be patient zero for opening up the organization to a vulnerability. Protecting the organization’s data and adhering to security protocols must remain a top priority. Integrating a scoring system that evaluates criteria such as data protection, encryption and vendor reliability helps assess the overall risk and trustworthiness of your SaaS suppliers. It also lends a bit of transparency to your process for your stakeholder to understand.
Commit to ongoing support and review
Finally, assure stakeholders that their needs will be continuously reviewed and supported. Make sure there is an understanding of which solutions are needed indefinitely and which can be utilized for project-specific needs or short-term goals. Regular check-ins and open lines of communication ensure that any gaps in resources are promptly addressed, developing a sense of partnership and shared responsibility.
A few final thoughts
The world of SaaS has brought more complexity to the SAM landscape than ever before. Software can be implemented into a business without anyone’s knowledge and spread like wildfire. Valuable IP can be leaked. Sensitive data can be shared. By ensuring you simplify your SaaS processes, you can better navigate the landscape of SaaS management. These tips will help you establish the delicate balance between meeting immediate stakeholder needs and ensure long-term efficiency, security and cost-effectiveness.
This is the second post in our series on SaaS management. Be sure to read our first write-up about where to start when it comes to rationalizing your SaaS portfolio and our latest post on how to measure the success of SaaS rationalization. We have more advice coming on how to make the most of your SaaS budget, so subscribe to the Flexera blog, and stay in the loop.
