The Survival Guide To SaaS Optimization: A Practical Guide to SaaS Governance and Optimization Best Practices

By Jim C Hussey

The Survival Guide to SaaS Optimization is the follow-up to The SAM Leader Survival Guide. Through the combination of his experience supporting clients establish SaaS governance operations, extensive interviews with corporate executives, leaders of SaaS Management Platform providers and his corporate role establishing a SaaS Governance and Optim

• Language: English
• Publisher: Technology Vendor Management Educational Serv
• Release date: Feb 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578876313

Jim C Hussey

Jim Hussey is the former leader of a Fortune 500 technology vendor management organization. In this role, he was responsible for Software Asset Management, Telecom Expense Management, IT First Line of Defense (FLOD) Third Party Risk Management and IT Sourced Services. In addition, working closely with his IT sourcing partner and Chief Procurement Officer, Jim led the development of the Policies and Controls for utilization of Software as a Service capabilities in addition to the detailed requirements workflow by which use of a SaaS application would be approved.

Book preview

Part 1 – SaaS Governance

I know many of you are asking yourself ‘I want to know about SaaS optimization, why are we wasting our time on governance?’ Gartner estimates that 30% of all funds invested in SaaS applications is wasted due to poor governance practices. Labeling this wasted investment as ‘Toxic Spend’, organizations are rushing to develop strategies and tactics to optimize with little understanding of the multi-level complexities.

To fully understand the extent of potential SaaS optimization within your organization, I urge you to work through this section as it will form a powerful foundation for you and your team to achieve outstanding SaaS governance and optimization results. The governance activities we are about to review establish a risk-based approach to the subject of governing and optimizing your organizations SaaS portfolio. For those of you in heavily regulated industries, you will see the subtle alignment with Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) practices. For those of you with firms placing a heavy emphasis on Information Security, you will see the aspect of monitoring vulnerabilities. For those of you who are not in these market segments, you will be able to broaden your communication with the ‘C-Suite’ in terms dominating today’s Board discussions: Business resilience, risk monitoring, ongoing optimization and continual identification of alternatives for rapid transition and transformation.

When I am running a training session on SaaS optimization or working with IT, Sourcing or Compliance executives frustrated by their inability to control their growing SaaS footprint, I ask them a basic question: ‘Can you truly optimize what is not governed?’ Many times, I encounter the reaction I just described where they only want to focus on optimization. However, after a few moments and sharing the overview of how a comprehensive governance model is key to achieve true optimization, these executives settle down and are ready to engage on the subject.

Now that we have set the stage for a focused discussion on SaaS governance, let’s dig into the tactics and activities that will enable your organization to reduce risk associated with SaaS-sprawl across the enterprise, maintain diligence on usage and drive maximum value from those SaaS partners identified as strategic to your