According to the 2020 SaaS trends report, SaaS waste increases by 80% yearly. At the same time, abandoned subscriptions are increasing by as much as 100%. The question becomes inevitably: What is the cause of SaaS waste and what to do about it?
SaaS waste – Software as a Service being bought but not used
There are many simple explanations why companies today waste large parts of their budget on unused SaaS products: The availability and need for SaaS products are increasing as a usual explanation for the problem. But to claim that waste would increase just because the need for SaaS products increases is not valid.
Suppose you want to run a successful and sustainable company. In that case, the ambition must always be to work as cost-effectively as possible without spending money on SaaS waste.
According to the 2020 SaaS trends report, the average company wastes around $135,000 annually on SaaS tools they don’t need or use.
The cause of SaaS waste
Not surprisingly, companies waste money on unused SaaS and other cloud services, given that subscription-based models are relatively new. Far from all, companies have yet to grasp the extent of its consequences.
Between 2018 and 2020, the average company’s total expenses on subscription services increased by 50%.
A valid reason for the increasing SaaS waste is that companies do not have insight into their subscription services and costs. Therefore, they are unaware that they waste large sums of money every month. In Blissfully’s report, we find statistics that indicate that companies have many more digital services than they ever could have imagined.
Companies use 2-3 times more digital services than they think.
It’s easy to blame SaaS waste because your company is in an expansive or changing phase. Still, we should never accept wasted expenses as an inevitable consequence – If you can avoid waste, you should avoid waste.
How to stop SaaS waste
As the need to purchase digital subscription services for companies has increased, a need to manage and organize companies’ subscription services and recurring costs has also occurred. Sorting your regular expenses and subscription services in an Excel file is not enough these days.
The time has come for companies to analyse their digital subscription services and ensure an overall strategy on which services are used – by whom and for what tasks. Today, several companies offer SaaS management tools that make it possible to organize, analyze, and get a complete overview of your companies’ digital services, their use, and what they cost.
Substly helps small and medium-sized companies get a complete overview of their digital services, who use them, and what they cost.
