By Uri Haramati, CEO of Torii

As a result of the pandemic, businesses have had to adapt how they work. This has resulted in ripple effects across organizations - from new hybrid schedules to relying on SaaS tools that enable remote work. In this new era, so too has the role of IT changed.

IT has always been a critical function within any organization, responsible for infosecurity, software, hardware and more - all in an effort to make sure employees can work seamlessly and efficiently. Now, though, IT must keep this same mission while managing employees' spiraling cloud apps, ballooning SaaS costs, and more cybersecurity threats than ever before.

The distributed and decentralized nature of work makes navigating this shift no small feat.  To better meet the demands of this changing reality, IT must seek out solutions that not only enable complete visibility into siloed tech stacks and more collaboration across departments, but also more streamlined SaaS operations and better ROI on application investments. Distributed SaaS Management can help.

The shifting role of IT

In the past, IT was the central authority that had control and insight into everything that involved technology - from the computers an organization used down to the software that was installed on them. IT led a handful of decision-makers on what software was needed to enable operations and then installed it on the computers. They had full visibility into who was using what and for what purpose. They knew how much the software cost, how many seats they had and could easily track important items like contract renewals in an Excel spreadsheet. Life was relatively simple.

However, with the rise of the cloud, SaaS applications and remote work upended and complicated this controlled approach to managing the IT stack. With apps now easier than ever for anyone to test and acquire, employees are taking back much of the control that was historically in the hands of IT. And while this may be great from an innovation and job productivity  perspective, it leaves IT with headaches as they seek to minimize risks, onboard employees to apps, manage spend, and get a sense of just how many SaaS apps are being used throughout the organization - which could easily be over 125 different apps totaling $1,040 per employee annually, according to Gartner.

A new balance

The tug-of-war between employees and IT is nothing new. While IT has had control in the past, the scale is tipping toward giving autonomy to employees. And the truth of the matter is that while IT may be the experts in technology in general, employees and department leaders are the experts in knowing what tools they need to do their jobs. However, IT needs to maintain visibility and some control in order to keep the infrastructure and mission-critical apps up and running, budgets in check, and cybersecurity risk at a minimum.

A new balance needs to be struck - one in which IT transitions from being a central authority to a central enabler, connecting different threads throughout the organization and helping ensure everyone has the tools they want and need to work - without introducing risk into the company. The key to doing this lies in providing IT complete visibility and administrative capabilities - effectively making them the conductor of an orchestra made up of SaaS management stakeholders - which now include app owners, finance, procurement, and more. This can be achieved via Distributed SaaS Management.

Making SaaS management a distributed team sport

Every company has distributed SaaS ownership, whether they realize it or not. Any employee with a browser and an email can buy or acquire for free, and integrate SaaS into their environment. In fact, in most companies more than 50% of apps are acquired outside of IT, without IT's knowledge. This uncontrolled environment and lack of visibility and teamwork leaves departments fractured and siloed, using different tools to accomplish the same tasks, and IT teams in the dark.

However, this can all be rectified by adopting a Distributed SaaS Management approach: the ability for IT teams to centralize visibility into the company's entire tech stack, as well as every app's users, usage, costs, and risks, and to equip SaaS stakeholders with the insights and actions they need to do their part in managing cloud apps. This includes assigning app ownership to designated individuals; delegating and monitoring key tasks around onboarding, offboarding, renewals and license management; and driving cross-team actions and accountability.

Distributed SaaS Management is crucial as it enables role-based SaaS visibility into the tech stack for all stakeholders, promotes collaboration, and decreases wasted spend on apps and licenses. It serves as a solution for today's scattered app workplace that recognizes everyone's penchant for adding new apps.

SaaS management must be treated as a team sport where players have shared insight into critical data from a single source of truth (SSOT). With complete, reliable data available to all, cross-functional teams can work in lockstep to make the best decisions about how to optimize their return on SaaS investments. IT teams can use Distributed SaaS Management Platforms to remove bottlenecks and automate previously manual tasks, and equip stakeholders with the insights they need to make smart decisions and take the best actions.

With IT at the helm, Distributed SaaS Management makes it easy to keep a pulse on the entire tech stack even as it grows and changes, while accelerating efficiencies, reducing SaaS spend, and improving security.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Uri Haramati is co-founder and CEO of Torii, whose automated SaaS management platform helps modern IT drive businesses forward by making the best use of SaaS. A serial entrepreneur, Uri has founded several successful startups including Life on Air, the parent company behind popular apps such as Meerkat and Houseparty. He also started Skedook, an event discovery app. Uri is passionate about innovating technology that solves complex challenges and creates new opportunities.