Glossary

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    saas

    SaaS Cost Optimization

    What is SaaS cost optimization?

    SaaS cost optimization is the process of reducing and controlling the costs associated with SaaS applications. This involves identifying areas where SaaS spending can be reduced, optimizing SaaS usage, and negotiating better pricing terms with SaaS application vendors.

    Effective SaaS cost optimization requires a comprehensive understanding of an organization's SaaS usage, costs, and business needs. This includes maintaining an accurate SaaS application inventory, and analyzing SaaS usage and spend data.

    Common strategies for SaaS cost optimization may include:

    • SaaS application utilization: Identifying redundant SaaS applications and consolidating them with other ones available in the environment.
    • License management: reviewing SaaS application licenses along with managing SaaS user access, roles, and permissions to ensure that users have the appropriate level of access to SaaS applications and that costs are not incurred for either unnecessary or unauthorized access, or for unused or unnecessary features and functionalities.
    • Usage: Analyzing SaaS utilization data to identify opportunities for spend optimizations.

    How to achieve SaaS cost optimization

    To inform SaaS cost management and spend optimization, organizations leverage dedicated SaaS management solutions. The solutions help discover all SaaS applications, including sanctioned, unsanctioned, shadow, and unmanaged apps, identify SaaS users, and obtain insights into application and license utilization.