SaaS management spreadsheets may seem like a convenient way to track your organization’s application portfolio, but they can actually make your life harder in several ways.
Firstly, spreadsheets are designed for simple data analysis and presenting numbers to colleagues. However, when it comes to dynamic data sets contributed to from all corners of the business and affecting the bottom line, spreadsheets fall short. They lack the advanced capabilities required to effectively manage and analyze complex SaaS applications.
Secondly, modern businesses heavily rely on SaaS to power their operations. With the increasing adoption of SaaS applications, managing them becomes a crucial task. Spreadsheets simply cannot handle the scale and complexity of SaaS management.
Moreover, SaaS is a significant investment for organizations, with software expenses being the second-largest operating cost. A spreadsheet cannot provide a holistic and comprehensive view of your organization’s SaaS portfolio, making it difficult to track costs, utilization, and ROI accurately.
Additionally, spreadsheets lack automation and integration capabilities. SaaS management involves various tasks like onboarding/offboarding users, monitoring usage, and ensuring compliance. Without automation and integration with other systems, managing these tasks becomes time-consuming and error-prone.
Furthermore, spreadsheets do not provide real-time visibility and collaboration features. SaaS management requires cross-functional collaboration between different teams, such as IT, finance, and procurement. Spreadsheets make it difficult to share real-time information, resulting in miscommunication and delays.
Finally, SaaS management spreadsheets can be challenging to maintain and update. As the number of applications and users grow, maintaining accurate and up-to-date information in a spreadsheet becomes a daunting task. This can lead to outdated data, misplaced information, and ultimately, poor decision-making.
In conclusion, relying on a SaaS management spreadsheet may initially seem like a simple solution, but it ultimately makes your life harder. To effectively manage your organization’s SaaS portfolio, invest in a dedicated SaaS management platform that provides advanced features, automation, real-time visibility, and collaboration capabilities.
Reasons a SaaS Management Spreadsheet is Ineffective
A SaaS management spreadsheet is ineffective for several reasons: lack of real-time updates, inefficient collaboration, inability to track usage and adoption, tedious manual processes, limited scalability, and lack of integrations.
Lack of Details
Lack of details is one of the major challenges that come with managing SaaS applications using spreadsheets. Each SaaS application brings along a wealth of information, including the cost, number of seats, usage, renewal date, and budget impact. However, gathering these details manually becomes a time-consuming and laborious task.
For example, imagine your CMO wants to understand how their team is utilizing a project management tool. Without access to usage data, you’ll find yourself embarking on a wild goose chase for answers. You may need to conduct internal surveys, sift through countless expense reports, and dig into your ERP system just to gain insights that could be readily available with a SaaS management platform.
The problem becomes even more challenging because of the decentralized nature of SaaS adoption. In many organizations, anyone and everyone can be a buyer, leading to a plethora of expensed apps that don’t make it onto a tracking spreadsheet. Shockingly, over a third of the applications used are considered shadow IT, meaning they are not officially approved or tracked. To make matters worse, 51% of these expensed apps are often miscoded, making them even harder to detect and manage.
All of this points to a lack of details and visibility that spreadsheets alone cannot effectively address. Businesses need a robust SaaS management solution that provides real-time insights and centralizes all the necessary information, enabling them to make informed decisions, optimize their technology stack, and eliminate the tedious manual work involved in tracking SaaS applications.
Inaccurate Data
Inaccurate data is a common problem when using saas management spreadsheets. While spreadsheet formulas can perform advanced calculations and manipulate data in various ways, the initial input of data is done by humans, leaving room for errors. One simple copy/paste mistake or misplaced formula can lead to inconsistencies and throw off the entire workbook.
This becomes particularly problematic when it comes to financial forecasting. For instance, when asking the CMO to provide a budget forecast for the next quarter or year, relying on inaccurate data can result in significant underestimation of upcoming software expenditures. These errors can have serious consequences on business operations and financial planning, leading to unexpected costs and potentially damaging the bottom line.
Moreover, the decentralized nature of SaaS adoption exacerbates the issue. With a multitude of apps being used across various departments and by different individuals, inconsistencies and inaccuracies in data are more likely to occur. Without a centralized system that tracks and updates data in real-time, managing and analyzing SaaS usage becomes increasingly challenging, making it difficult to make informed decisions and optimize resources effectively.
In conclusion, relying on saas management spreadsheets for accurate data can be risky. Human input errors combined with the decentralized nature of SaaS adoption make it harder to ensure data integrity and accuracy. To overcome these challenges, organizations should consider adopting a SaaS management platform that provides real-time insights and automation, minimizing the risk of inaccurate data and enabling better decision-making.
Inefficient Use of Time
Using spreadsheets for SaaS management can be a significant drain on time and productivity. Rather than focusing on more strategic tasks, employees often find themselves spending valuable hours tracking down app owners, researching usage and renewal terms, and updating spreadsheets with new app information. This becomes an ongoing process, as an average of six new apps are introduced into the environment every month.
Additionally, this inefficient use of time is compounded by shadow IT. Without accurate usage metrics, it’s challenging to determine which tools are actually beneficial to the team’s productivity and which ones are not. This lack of visibility hampers efforts to equip employees with the right tools to perform at their best.
The decentralized nature of SaaS adoption and the lack of a centralized system further exacerbate the time-consuming nature of spreadsheet-based management. With apps being used across different departments and by different individuals, it becomes difficult to collect and update data accurately in real-time. This leads to inconsistencies and inaccuracies, making it challenging to make informed decisions and optimize resources effectively.
Overall, relying on spreadsheets for SaaS management results in a significant waste of time and limited productivity. Business owners and teams need to consider more efficient alternatives that provide centralized tracking, real-time updates, and accurate usage metrics to free up valuable time for more important tasks.
Collaboration Breakdowns
When it comes to SaaS management, collaboration breakdowns and inefficiencies are a common occurrence when using spreadsheets. This is primarily due to the decentralized nature of SaaS adoption and the lack of a centralized system. In spreadsheet tracking, it becomes increasingly complex to understand the logic and data behind it when multiple parties are inputting data, adding rows, or deleting formulas. This often leads to errors or inconsistencies.
Furthermore, the collaborative nature of SaaS acquisition is not well-supported by spreadsheets. Spreadsheets can be easily hidden or forgotten, and access may not be granted to new hires, creating information siloes. This hampers teamwork and prevents everyone from having equal access to the same set of tools.
In contrast, a streamlined App Catalog provides a centralized system where all employees can access the same set of tools. These tools are integrated with each other, promoting synergies and efficiencies. The App Catalog also offers detailed information about each app, including its designated function and the contact person for questions or access.
By relying on spreadsheets for SaaS management, businesses risk experiencing collaboration breakdowns and hinder their ability to effectively optimize resources and make informed decisions. Adopting a more centralized and collaborative approach, such as an App Catalog, can help overcome these challenges and ensure a smoother and more efficient SaaS management process.
Challenging to Manage
Employing a SaaS management spreadsheet can prove to be a challenging task for various reasons. Firstly, a spreadsheet does not provide the necessary depth of utilization and benchmark data that is required to make informed business decisions around SaaS acquisition, rationalization, and renewal. Without this valuable information, business owners and marketing teams may find it difficult to gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of their SaaS investments.
Secondly, no matter how often you update a spreadsheet, it may still remain outdated, simply because it lacks complete SaaS visibility. Spreadsheets are static and can easily become disjointed from the constantly evolving SaaS landscape, making it hard to accurately track and manage different software subscriptions. This lack of real-time visibility can result in wasted resources, missed opportunities, and potential gaps in security and compliance.
Additionally, spreadsheets are not designed to handle the collaborative nature of SaaS management. They do not provide a centralized system where the entire team can access and interact with a unified set of tools. This can hinder teamwork, create information siloes, and limit equal access to the necessary resources.
Furthermore, spreadsheets may be difficult to maintain and update over time, especially when new team members join or roles change. Access may not be easily granted to new hires, leading to further information siloes and hindrances in communication and collaboration.
Ultimately, relying solely on a SaaS management spreadsheet can be limiting and inefficient for businesses. To effectively manage the complexities of SaaS acquisition and utilization, businesses should consider adopting a comprehensive SaaS management platform or tools that provide real-time visibility, collaboration features, and detailed usage and benchmark data.
