| The accelerated deployment of cloud-based SaaS products by enterprises can be attributed to many factors-the spread of the global epidemic, outdated software and hardware, and even simple equipment failures in the enterprise data center. |
But soon-if not yet, your first bill will also arrive. If you are new to cloud services and do not have proper SaaS cost management control measures, then this bill may be shocking.
IT staff may not see cost as a problem, but as a matter of financial processing, but SaaS bills may grow to the point that even senior managers are paying attention. Ultimately, the IT department will have to explain these new costs-who, what, why, etc. This is just the beginning.
Most cloud services are billed monthly, which means these cost conversations will continue. Maybe you are lucky and your usage drops, so your bills are reduced. However, if your usage increases and your bills also increase, then monthly conversations with senior managers will become more troublesome.
Although there are things you can do to avoid rapid or unplanned cloud migration, it is important to remember that the initial impact has already occurred. There is no way to start again, but if you follow these SaaS cost management techniques, you can avoid triggering budget alerts within the enterprise.
Cut service
One of the simplest questions to ask first is: "Do I need this service?"
This may sound like a strange beginning. But in a crisis, people will buy or subscribe to things that they don’t always fully understand or even don’t need. This is similar to what I call the "gym" example.
You joined the gym with good wishes, but in the end, the number of times you went to the gym did not meet your expectations. So why continue to pay for this? This challenge is usually more political than a technical challenge, but it is still the conversation you need to have.
Please find out whether the service is actually in use and how many people are using it. The usual situation is that when cloud services are only used by a few people or have a small impact on business results, there is no need to pay a high price for them.
Integrate cloud services
Many companies have overlapping tools and services, so the next SaaS cost management technique is related to potential integration. If you are sure that you really need cloud resources, you need to decide which cloud service to choose.
This is the main problem of using SaaS cloud services. A common example of this problem is video conferencing services. Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams are the most popular SaaS-based video conferencing applications. The question here is not the function or cost provided by each service; the question is which services you may need or have already used in the enterprise. The HR department wants to use Zoom, the engineering department wants to use Teams, and the accounting department wants to use Google. This is definitely an IT nightmare.
Ideally, this decision will depend on research, security and compliance requirements, functional requirements, import/export capabilities, and many other factors. In fact, you might use any service that is already in use and deployed.
Now, choosing multiple services may not be able to enjoy volume discounts, or lose opportunities for standardization, not to mention the support nightmare. Integrating services is like an impossible task. If you try to do it all at once, you will face failure, and it will most likely appear in a public manner. No one wants to make users angry with IT.
Like our previous techniques, cloud integration will require communication skills. Please take the time to understand why people use a particular service. Work with them to get them to accept the idea of switching to other tools.
This is not easy or fast work. It is difficult for people to give up new tools that may be better than their existing tools, but be honest in these situations. Please state the cost; there is no reason to hide it in the IT budget alone. People will understand that excessive billing can have a real impact on the company and its employees.
Although this is not perfect and it takes time, it prevents IT from being treated as a "bad guy" when removing services that people want. This will not shift the responsibility to others; IT simply lists the impact of the decision and works with users to understand the impact.
Now, the more cloud services, the harder it is to achieve this goal. Please look for a service champion. These people will be the focus of introducing new services. They will enable you to start from the source and run through the entire team.
Monitoring service
If the service cannot be removed due to use or deployment, the focus shifts to control and monitoring.
New tools and services may require new monitoring tools and alerts to ensure proper service levels. These monitoring services may require payment, not only for tools, but also for agents on different systems. That may not be what you want to hear, but you can't ignore it. This is part of the ecosystem, and IT must treat it as a supported system.
If you want management to accept, please check the usage. If possible, use this data to support your argument for reducing usage, and ultimately reduce costs. Of course, this may also be counterproductive. If the cloud service in question is actually in use, the cost can be justified. That may not be the answer you want, but at least you know the truth.
Remember, these services are not unfamiliar for malicious purposes. This is done so that people can continue to work, and IT and management should acknowledge this. At the same time, these services need to be controlled, and you can't let shadow IT have a negative impact.
But you can't ignore the positive effects of these services or remove their potential negative effects. IT departments need to understand all aspects of SaaS resources, from end users to managers to operations teams and service desks, and everyone in between. Everyone participates in this process. The IT department must become both a traffic policeman and a diplomat in order to find the ideal middle ground that best suits all parties.