SaaS operations, also known as SaaSOps, were not a major priority for many IT leaders around the world. Until now. The changing landscape of business, with more people working from home, has meant that SaaS operations are at the forefront of many businesses around the world.
In this post, we are going to take a look at SaaS operations management in further detail, helping you to get a better understanding of the pros and cons of this.
What Are SaaS Operations?
SaaS operations involve putting together the perfect collection of SaaS apps, managing who has access to them by the department and/or user, monitoring their usage, and offboarding them correctly when they are not needed anymore.
In simpler terms, this refers to the operations part of SaaS management, where you will manage, secure, comply, and track your SaaS applications.
If you are looking for further information on what SaaS operations are, this guide on Zluri.com is a helpful resource for understanding SaaS operations.
What Are The Pros Of SaaS Operations Management?
Now that you have a better understanding of what SaaS operations management is, we are going to take a look at the pros and cons in further detail.
Ultimately, SaaS operations management is all about monitoring your business’ SaaS landscape. It gives you the ability to have complete visibility and control over everything in your SaaS stack. You will be able to manage, control, and track all of your SaaS tools and usage from one dashboard.
So, what sort of benefits can you expect this to bring your business? Let’s take a look:
Ensure Compliance And Security
There is only one place to begin when it comes to SaaS operations management, and this is the fact that you will be able to considerably boost compliance and security.
We all know that data security is something we need to take seriously, no matter whether your business is big or small. After all, data breaches are on the rise, and cybercriminals are getting more and more sophisticated.
A SaaS management platform (SMP) is going to make it a lot easier for you to remain compliant with the regulations that are in place.
A good example of this is when doing a GDPR audit. You need to see whether all of your applications are following the GDPR requirements that are in place. This means an awful lot of work and manual task completion if you do not have an SMP tool that will give you complete visibility and make this easy.
Needless to say, if you do not adhere to the laws that are in place, the consequences are grave. Not only will you be subject to huge non-compliance fines, but you will have to spend a lot of money on repairing your reputation. This is why a lot of businesses find themselves closing their doors for good after experiencing a data breach.
Secure, Quick, And Convenient Onboarding And Offboarding
If you speak with any IT team or department, we are sure that they will tell you that they do not enjoy onboarding or offboarding. It can be incredibly time-consuming and repetitive. However, if stringent requirements are not put into place, it can cause even more hassle, and the security risks are substantial.
If you integrate a SaaS management system into your business operations, the onboarding and offboarding process can be automated, meaning it is incredibly easy to provide new employees with access while revoking access whenever someone leaves your business.
Failing to offboard ex-employees is a massive security breach, resulting in a whole host of potential security threats to your organization. However, when these tasks need to be performed manually, they can often end up being overlooked, which is why automating them makes much more sense and will give everyone peace of mind.
Manage Your SaaS Spend
The third benefit that is associated with SaaS operations management is the ability to effectively manage how much your business spends on SaaS. You will get a much better picture of where your money is being spent, as all of your expenditure will be visible in one location.
This makes it a lot easier for you to highlight if you are spending money on SaaS applications that you do not really need.
There are many different ways that businesses waste money on SaaS. Examples include the auto-renewal of apps businesses do not want to renew, unused licenses, duplicate apps, incorrect license tiers, and abandoned apps.
You may be surprised to discover just how much money you are spending on SaaS applications that you do not even need. Therefore, while SaaS operations management software does cost money, it actually ends up saving you much more money in the long run.
What Are The Cons Of SaaS Operations Management?
As is the case with anything in life, there is always a good side and a few drawbacks that need to be considered, so let’s discuss the cons of SaaS operations management so you can get a well-rounded picture.
It is worth noting that these drawbacks can be overcome. It is all about having the right approach and recognizing these challenges so that you can put the right provisions in place to ensure your business does not go down the right path.
1. Potential Security Threats
It may be strange to see that security is included in both the pros and the cons. However, security does not need to be an issue. It only becomes one if you do not choose a SaaS operations management tool with a lot of care.
After all, not all software applications are created the same, so you need to do your due diligence to ensure the tool you select is of high quality. You also need to make sure that your employees are using the SaaS operations management tool in a safe and secure manner.
The same goes for any tool you use at your business. This means that they need to update software whenever they are prompted to, use secure passwords, turn on multi-factor authentication, and change their passwords on a regular basis as well.
2. You Need To Ensure All Of Your Software Stack Can Be Connected
The importance here is to ensure that every tool you use can be placed into your SaaS management operations tool. After all, you are not going to get a clear picture of your SaaS stack if you cannot integrate all tools.
The best SaaS operation management tools on the market today will have a huge number of possibilities when it comes to the different types of software and tools that you can connect. However, do not simply assume that every tool is going to be covered. Make sure that this is the case before you sign-up.
If the tool you use is critical to your organization, yet it is not compatible with the SaaS operations management tool you have selected, you are going to put yourself in a bit of a sticky situation. You either waste money on a SaaS operations management tool you cannot use, or you need to change one of the tools your business currently relies on.
3. They Represent Another Expense For Your Business
Of course, one of the drawbacks associated with SaaS operations management applications is that this does represent another expense for your business. As mentioned earlier, though, these sorts of tools are ultimately going to save you more money than they will cost because of the advanced expense management features.
Nevertheless, this is only going to be the case if you rely on a number of different tools for your business. If you only rely on one or two software applications, your business probably does not have much of a need for SaaS operations management right now.
Final Words On The Pros And Cons Of SaaS Operations Management
As you can see, there are a number of pros and cons that are associated with SaaS operations management. It all comes down to your business and what is going to be best for you.
Ultimately, though, if you are relying on software in your business today, it makes sense to have a system in place so that you can manage this effectively. If you don’t, you could end up spending more than required, and security issues can manifest, which is the last thing anyone wants.
Ella Marcotte
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