How Do I Choose a SaaS Management Platform?

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, selecting the best SaaS management platform is crucial. It’s not just about the actual subscriptions; it’s about optimizing your entire tech stack. A top-notch SaaS management platform provides clear insights, enhances efficiency, identifies cost-savings opportunities, ensures compliance, and relieves your IT team of manual, repetitive tasks. Here at Lumos, we’re excited to show you how a comprehensive SaaS management solution can transform your tech stack into a lean, mean, cost-savings machine!

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What Is a SaaS Management Platform?

A SaaS management platform (SMP) is a comprehensive tool designed to optimize Software as a Service (SaaS) applications within a business. An SMP like Lumos provides a single source of truth for managing all SaaS subscriptions, ensuring the efficient use of these resources.

What Are the Benefits of an SMP?

Here at Lumos, our customers report a myriad of benefits, like:

• Reduction in Software Costs: The primary benefit of using a platform like Lumos is a significant decrease in your software spend. In fact, one Lumos customer saved $230k by implementing our solution!

• Enhanced Visibility and Discovery of Shadow IT: You’ll have complete visibility over your apps as well as the ability to identify and manage unauthorized software usage.

• Increased Security Posture: With Lumos, you can quickly and easily gain control of your access requests. You can make sure that only the people who need high-level access to sensitive data have it. One of our customers was able to eliminate manual work for their IT desk while easily managing access requests and access reviews, and reducing privileged access by 67%.

• Deep Usage Analytics and Software Spend Reporting: You’ll have detailed insights into license and usage data as well as the ability to run reports for demonstrating success to your leadership team.

• Automation Tools: With our automations, customers can leverage technology to automate license management, help desk support, self-service, and identity governance. Using Lumos, Chegg was able to automate 25% of their IT tickets and achieve a 99.6% reduction in TTR.

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How Do I Choose the Best SaaS Management Platform?

First, take stock of your current processes by asking the following questions:

• What is the SaaS selection process? How do you determine what types of SaaS applications to invest in and how many licenses to procure for each?
  
• How do you assess SaaS security? Do you perform routine SaaS risk assessments? Do you have a way to determine if employees are downloading SaaS tools on their own and compromising company data?
  
• How do you manage SaaS contracts? Do you know when renewals are? Are you performing routine checks to see if the number of licenses you’re paying for are actually needed?
  
• How do you evaluate a SaaS vendor? What functionalities are they providing? Are they a good partner?

You may be struggling to answer these questions—that’s ok! We’re here to help. After all, that’s what Lumos was built for: to be the best SaaS management platform out there. We can help you with:

• Selecting SaaS Tools: Lumos centralizes your vendor and user data, software spend, and contract information. You’ll have a birds eye view of your tech stack in order to make informed decisions—you can see which apps are being used, which aren’t, as well as identify gaps in your tech stack that need to be addressed.
  
  
• Assessing and Maintaining SaaS Security: With our platform, you’ll have visibility over all apps, including shining a light on shadow IT. For example, one way Lumos helps you uncover your true software spend is by monitoring employee emails for sign up notifications. Armed with the knowledge of where company data is being used, you can clean up your tech stack easily. Additionally, you can use our comprehensive user access tools—like automated access reviews, policy-based approval workflows, and self-service access requests—to ensure identity governance.
  
  
• Managing SaaS Contracts: Lumos simplifies contract management by pulling all the information into a centralized platform. Easily view your renewal dates, your current licenses, and your usage as well as generate detailed reports for analysis. With this data, you can confidently enter contract negotiations when the time comes.
  
  
• Evaluating SaaS Vendors: With Lumos, you’ll have deep usage and license analytics through our connectors and API. This information will help you thoroughly evaluate each vendor relationship.

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Gain Control of Your SaaS Spend With Lumos

Make the most of every software contract with Lumos. Our comprehensive solution for SaaS management puts you in the chair at Mission Control—confidently managing your tech stack, reducing costs, and enhancing your IT team’s productivity. You’ll have a single source of truth for vendor and usage data, as well as powerful access tools and self-service options.

Embrace the power of Lumos and start the countdown towards smarter, more efficient SaaS management today. To see how much of an impact Lumos could make for your company, check out our ROI calculator. If you’re ready to see Lumos in action, schedule a demo now.