Whether you’re working with off-the-shelf packages, custom-made solutions, or subscription-based services – or a mixture of the three – it is essential to assess your software assets and ensure they’re still functioning optimally, and are still contributing to the growth and success of the business.

Because if this isn’t the case, you’re not only spending more than you should, but you’re also potentially compromising your competitive positioning against organizations who manage their software estate more effectively.

As clouds continue to gather on the economic horizon, efficiencies in managing software can increasingly correlate to improved business performance, and help organizations weather the storm more effectively.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Whatever you choose to call it – audit, optimization, tweak, or assessment,– keep in mind the goal isn’t to create a multi-week project that diverts attention and valuable resources away from other business priorities. Rather, it should be a simple, repeatable process that helps you answer a number of simple, admittedly high-level questions, such as:

• Are we getting an appropriate return from our investments in software?
• If not, what obstacles are standing in our way?
• Are end-users satisfied and are they able to use their tools productively?
• How are all these issues affecting organizational success?

Knowing the answers can significantly help senior leadership make better information technology investments in the coming year – which can benefit every facet of your IT shop by ensuring resources aren’t wasted on software that isn’t driving value.

These answers can help IT improve the way it sells its services across the organization – and reinforce the value proposition of technology investments. It can also help the organization to reshape investments across the tech spectrum – software, hardware, services, training, and the other less obvious budget line items.

To accomplish this, consider the following:

1 – Look into licensing

Aligning the number of licenses with head count sounds like an easy thing to do, yet too many organizations fail to properly manage their licensing. They often overbuy, likely out of fear of being caught short of usable licenses – thus triggering an audit – or they fail to plan, then stock up on licenses on an ad hoc basis as changing headcounts and varying ongoing business needs dictate.

This tactical, reactive approach to software procurement prevents the organization from taking advantage of contracted, scaled, cost-optimized acquisition. Lack of visibility into existing licensing terms can also trigger unnecessary acquisition, maintenance, and even training costs. In some cases, organizations may end up paying again for services that were already incorporated into a pre-existing contract.

2 – Dig into usage

Just because a software package, app, or platform is deployed – internally or externally – doesn’t necessarily mean it’s being used in a consistent manner. Organizations would do well to review current software titles in the context of business value.

Ask the IT professionals responsible for all platforms to document why these apps are needed, and what value they deliver to the business, clients, vendors, and other stakeholders. If no one can speak to this value proposition, then ask why it continues to justify a budget line item.

3 – Examine fields and features

One of the most significant unplanned costs of software deployment revolves around how well – or not – it fits with current and planned organizational needs. Out-of-the-box solutions often include certain features that end-users will never use. Similarly, other features required by the business may not be included in the baseline solution.

End-users can help here: talk to them and ask them to rate their satisfaction with the tools they use. Are they filling out all fields and screens? Or are there features they have to skip over? Are there other features that they wish they had? This is an ideal time to hear from them about how effectively their software is supporting their ability to perform within their role. This goes for custom solutions too, as your business grows and changes, so do your user’s needs.

4 – Look externally, too

As a continuation of the previous conversation, it also helps to look outside the organization, because software support touches external stakeholders as well whether that’s clients, prospects, vendors, business partners, or even government agencies. 

Dig into the analytics of web-based software, for example, to identify areas where usage falls off, or visitors fail to engage with the appropriate resources. Reach out to key stakeholders and ask them what works for them, what doesn’t, and what they’d change if they had the power.

5 – Refine the budget

Software-related expenses aren’t always uniquely identifiable within the broader context of technology investment. They should be, though, because code often represents the most adjustable and adaptable element of overall IT infrastructure.

As you embark on your 2023 IT roadmap, greater visibility into software-related spend can help solidify your budget plans and communicate your needs more effectively to the C-level executives who approve the budget. If your IT fiscal plan doesn’t have specific line items for software, now is the ideal time to change the way you track these critical expenses.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Here at STEP Software, we work closely with our clients to unlock the potential of their software to drive their businesses forward. And as we look at our own investments in the software-based tools we use to support our own business, we’re learning how universal these best practices are.

We’re also learning how a few small changes in managing the software environment can drive major returns in fairly short order. If you’d like to learn more, reach out to us anytime. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Traditionally, IT staff have been expected to possess highly technical skills because workers needed to be able to manage and configure on-premises software and servers. However, since cloud-based servers require less technical expertise, IT departments need fewer computer science graduates with programming and database management skills. Instead, technology workers need more proficient in business analytics and savvy decision-making skills. As more companies transition to SaaS, it becomes more about creating business processes based on what the technology can effectively support, as opposed to customization, because that’s how it’s always been done. Therefore, IT departments will likely hire an increasing number of business graduates – and fewer computer science grads – in the future.

FINDING AND FIXING MORE CYBERSECURITY VULNERABILITIES

While SaaS tools offer more flexible capabilities for your organization, they also present additional cybersecurity threats and challenges. For example, using cloud-based servers provides hackers and data thieves with another way to access your network. Furthermore, you have to consider how your SaaS vendors and technology partners are dealing with potential cyber threats. Even if your network is secure, malicious actors could exploit security holes in a vendor’s network. It only takes one slip up to create a huge data breach and headache for your business. That’s why you need to communicate with your technology partners on the issue of cybersecurity to ensure that they are doing everything they can to protect your company’s data.

GREATER FOCUS ON INTEGRATION AND SPECIALIZATION

IT capabilities used to focus on supporting all-in-one software solutions used by most organizations. However, the adoption of cloud-based technology solutions means that software products are becoming more specialized. For instance, each sub-specialty within your organization has a SaaS solution – which makes things much more fragmented than before. That means your IT department will have to be more adept at integrating and consolidating data across different sources. Furthermore, your technology department will have to identify the platforms and enterprise architecture needed for all of your SaaS solutions to co-exist together. Basically, IT capabilities are becoming more vertical because of the cloud.

CONFRONTING “CITIZEN INNOVATION”

Finally, another major challenge facing IT departments is that many staff take it upon themselves to sign up for SaaS services – especially low-cost ones – without consulting managers. That means your department can end up paying for duplicate services because multiple teams have signed up for them. For example, one social media team could be scheduling posts with Buffer while another team is scheduling posts with Hootsuite. Workgroups could also end up paying for multiple Slack accounts when they don’t need to. That means technology managers are often forced into playing the role of a referee when it comes to determining which solutions teams need to use, as well as what your organization is willing to pay for. One way to solve that problem is by making sure your IT department has a close relationship with all of the other departments within your business. That way, you will have a better chance of getting everyone on board with using a designated SaaS tool for a specific need.

In short, SaaS is creating an entire cultural and organizational shift in technology departments to support the inevitable changes brought about by it. However, all of these changes stem from the fact that IT has become a critical component of the business: one that touches each department. While SaaS allows organizations to become more efficient, leverage data better, and lower costs, its return on investment is dependent on whether IT departments can enthusiastically embrace the changes that are needed to support it.

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