4 benefits of SaaS management platforms that replace spreadsheets

Do you manage SaaS with spreadsheets?

I think most people would answer “yes” to the above question. Published by Zylo, an American SaaS management platform company”2024 SaaS Management IndexAccording to”, 70% of companies use spreadsheets to manage SaaS. Not a very surprising result. Spreadsheets are an essential tool that has been used in businesses for a long time because they are easy to use and familiar. Because of this, spreadsheets are often naturally used in SaaS management. However, as the number of SaaS applications grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this approach.

Spreadsheets are limited in understanding SaaS usage, costs, and security status in real time, and are prone to errors during manual entry and updates. Additionally, it is difficult to accurately track license usage, and duplicate subscriptions can cause unnecessary costs. Collaboration and sharing between departments is also cumbersome and reduces management efficiency. As a result, many companies are considering adopting a SaaS management platform.

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In this article, we'll look at the challenges of managing SaaS with spreadsheets and look at 4 benefits of switching to a SaaS management platform.

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The challenges of managing SaaS with spreadsheets

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1. Security and compliance limits of spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are vulnerable to security and compliance management for various SaaS applications. The spreadsheet itself is difficult to fine-tune data access rights, and there is a high risk that information will be misshared or leaked externally. Important information may not be protected due to insufficient data integrity or security threats, especially when accessed by multiple users in a cloud environment. Complex access rights settings are required to comply with regulatory requirements, and spreadsheets do not effectively support this.

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2. Inefficiency in collaboration and information sharing

The management method using spreadsheets makes collaboration between different departments inconvenient. Related departments such as IT, HR, and management support must cooperate to efficiently manage SaaS assets, but the method of sending and receiving spreadsheet files makes it difficult to keep data up to date, and confusion is likely to occur. Real-time data and rapid information sharing are important in SaaS management, and spreadsheets do not meet this, reducing the reliability of asset management.

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Furthermore, what is more important to enterprises in the long term than managing and tracking SaaS spending is strengthening the ability to advantageously lead license renewal negotiations through real-time data and insights. Don't limit your SaaS management tasks to simply tracking SaaS usage. By gaining visibility into SaaS usage, new policies or alternatives can be proposed based on data. You can work smarter!

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3. The growing challenge of managing SaaS applications

As the variety and usage of SaaS gradually increased, the task of entering and updating all data one by one became cumbersome. Manual entry is prone to errors, and it is difficult to manage data in real time, making it difficult to accurately understand SaaS usage or costs. As a result, license management is inefficient, and unnecessary costs are also spent because unused or duplicate SaaS subscriptions cannot be identified. Because of this, many companies are making SaaS management a top priority. 2023 IDC SaaS Path StudyAccording to the report, 67% of companies with 1,000 or more employees said they have adopted a SaaS management platform.

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What is SMP (SaaS Management Platform)?

A SaaS management platform is a software solution that helps companies effectively manage and optimize SaaS applications. Businesses can efficiently improve business operations by utilizing a variety of cloud-based services, but management complexity is growing as the number of SaaS they use increases. SMP is a tool developed to address these issues, and can comprehensively manage various aspects of SaaS assets, such as usage, costs, security, and compliance.

SMP collects and analyzes data in real time to provide a visual representation of an enterprise's SaaS environment, and automates license management, user access control, and cost optimization. This allows IT and finance teams to reduce redundant subscriptions and efficiently maintain only the services they need. It also provides the functionality needed to establish access rights for each application and protect sensitive information for security and compliance purposes.

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SMP is an essential tool to help enterprises operate SaaS environments more efficiently and securely, and provides superior performance and work efficiency compared to traditional management methods such as spreadsheets.

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Reasons to switch to SMP: 4 key benefits of SaaS management platforms

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1. Real-time SaaS usage monitoring and automated cost management

SaaS management platforms can track each application's usage and costs in real time, greatly reducing unnecessary expenses. Although accurate real-time cost management is difficult with spreadsheets, usage data and subscription information can be automatically collected and analyzed through SaaS management platforms. For example, you can detect applications with few users and suggest ways to reduce costs, or reduce inefficient expenses by immediately identifying unused licenses. These automated features help companies achieve data-driven budget management and optimization. Additionally, managers can easily grasp the real-time status of specific applications and make immediate decisions, improving the efficiency of budget operations.

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2. License deduplication and optimization

SaaS management platforms can reduce duplicate subscriptions by automatically detecting duplicate applications that provide the same functionality. This reduces unnecessary budget expenditure, and companies can build a financially efficient SaaS portfolio by maintaining only the services they need. Furthermore, by systematically analyzing SaaS usage by employee and department, it is possible to allocate licenses according to needs, and optimize subscriptions by detecting software that is infrequently used. This can reduce inefficiencies that can occur as subscription situations become more complex, and also prevent errors that may occur when IT departments manually manage licenses.

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3. Enhanced security and compliance management

SaaS management platforms secure data in line with security and compliance requirements, and unlike spreadsheets, access rights can be fine-grained. This allows departments and users to control access to SaaS applications and meet security requirements for protecting sensitive information. For example, you can set specific departments to have access to specific software and manage it in real time to improve audit preparedness. The SaaS management platform automatically reflects security regulations and compliance policies, and continuously monitors compliance status. This helps maintain data integrity and respond quickly to internal and external audits, greatly reducing security and legal compliance risks.

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4. Efficient reporting and integrated financial management

The SaaS management platform supports more efficient collaboration between enterprise IT, finance, and accounting departments through real-time report generation and financial integration capabilities. While spreadsheets take time to prepare reports that reflect the latest information, SaaS management platforms can generate automatically updated reports with just a few clicks, saving time. Additionally, data can be shared in real time with finance and accounting departments to resolve information discrepancies between departments and enhance collaboration. This speeds up decision-making and supports companies in strategic asset management. Data-based integrated management becomes possible, and each department can grasp the budget execution status more quickly and accurately, enabling efficient asset management.

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At the end

A SaaS management platform (SMP) is an essential tool for modern enterprises, supporting efficient and organized SaaS management. It overcomes the limitations of traditional methods such as spreadsheets, and enables real-time data analysis, automated cost control, enhanced security and compliance management, and efficient collaboration between departments. These benefits help companies optimize their SaaS environment, reduce costs, and manage assets efficiently.

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In conclusion, SMP plays an essential role in helping companies make better decisions and stay competitive in the face of an increase in the number of SaaS applications. Now, through SMP, companies can achieve more effective asset management and lay the foundation for business growth and innovation. Adopting a SaaS management platform isn't just a choice; it's part of a future-oriented business strategy, and it's an essential element for every business to consider.

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Megazone popsis a solution that allows you to manage various SaaS services used in the form of subscriptions within an enterprise in one place. Through Megazone Pops, you can manage SaaS with separate subscriptions for each department in one place, and establish effective SaaS usage policies and plans by identifying active users for each SaaS. In particular, administrators can authorize employees to access only the SaaS they need, and apply security regulations to SaaS used without permission.

Major domestic financial companies have secured visibility by managing projects on a workspace basis by automatically provisioning development environments and creating accounts through Megazone Pops. The result Save time by 50% and cost by 30% or moreI was able to do it.

Don't limit SaaS management to spreadsheets anymore, make it smart with SMP!

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👉 Request a Megazone Pops demo