How Support.com’s IT Team partners with the lines-of-business to optimize SaaS adoption and spend

Support.com – a leading provider of subscription-based tech support and BPO services – leverages Trelica to make SaaS management simpler, more effective and more democratic.

Andrew Latimer, CIO of Support.com, says: “It’s so easy to purchase SaaS apps now using a corporate credit card, and that leads to a lot of shadow IT. We’ve seen examples of three different departments buying the same app, and reporting the cost on three different expense reports. All in all, our IT spending used to be difficult to see, and even harder to manage.”

The Support.com IT team had a vision: to empower other teams across the business to share responsibility for managing their SaaS apps. But, to achieve this, the company needed a framework for bringing SaaS tools under management, and for empowering application owners (and budget holders) in the lines-of-business to update their own records, analyze their license utilization and spend, and renew contracts efficiently – all in one place.

Building a single view of all SAAS apps and licenses

Trelica connectors for NetSuite and Azure Active Directory enabled the analysis of spend and user activity data, helping Support.com automate SaaS discovery and build an initial app inventory in a matter of minutes.

This inventory was the foundation for a more sophisticated management and optimization framework for the SaaS portfolio. To create it, Support.com layered on information specific to their use of these apps, including statuses, business owners and financial information. Tess Sagmit, IT Director at Support.com, says: “Our Trelica inventory now includes all our licenses, contracts, invoices and other related documentation that we need for our management and optimization efforts.”

Empowering the lines-of-business to optimize SAAS management

With the inventory in place, it was time to engage with the rest of the business so responsibility for managing these applications could be shared. Trelica’s ‘self management’ features allow app owners to keep information about their apps up to date as renewals are completed or new licenses purchased. This approach saves time for the IT team and improves record keeping, but also offers great benefits for app owners, who are now empowered to manage their own SaaS spend and license utilization more effectively.

Every department now has a clear view of their SaaS licenses and spend in Trelica, and app owners can use this insight to make the best procurement decisions and get even more value from their budgets.

Andrew Latimer, CIO

Partnering for even better SAAS management

As Support.com explores new and more distributed ways to optimize SaaS management, Trelica is helping to ensure success every step of the way. As well as adding new ‘self management’ features to help the lines-of-business manage their own apps and spending, Trelica has created new app connectors to cover Support.com’s more specialized software tools.

“Trelica has been a great and responsive partner as we go on this new SaaS management journey together,” says Tess. “We’ve been able to achieve everything we set out to – and it’s partly thanks to Trelica’s flexibility and willingness to work with us.”  

Major cost savings to the business

“When we trialed Trelica, it became clear it would pay for itself very quickly, and that’s been the case,” says Andrew. “Apps are now managed efficiently, duplicated tools can be retired, and we don’t auto-renew licenses that are no longer needed,” he adds. “It all adds up to a big return on investment.”

It is also much easier for Andrew to report SaaS costs, and cost savings, to the rest of the leadership team and to other stakeholders. “I’m often asked for information about the cost of a particular app, or spending by department, and I can answer these questions much faster now, and with less effort,” he says. “We’re currently working with Trelica to make the reporting process even more automated and streamlined, so I’m excited about that,” he says.

Equally important is the fact that Trelica has dramatically reduced manual SaaS management and freed the team to focus on strategic work and optimization.

“Automated app discovery, combined with the ability to share responsibility for SaaS management with other teams, have eliminated lots of manual work, making us more efficient and more focused on our strategic IT objectives,” Tess concludes.