With the rise in the usage of SaaS (Software as a Service) apps, one of the biggest challenges companies face is keeping up with their tech stacks. It becomes difficult to keep track of how much money is being spent on these tools, whether their features overlap with other tools the organization uses, to what extent they might represent security or compliance liabilities, and who has access to each one.
Thankfully, SaaS management tools can help take some of the administrative strain off your plate.
In this article, we’ll step through three of the best SaaS management platforms out there – Cleanshelf vs Blissfully vs Torii – to help you decide which one is right for your company.
Why You Need a SaaS Management Platform
According to studies conducted by BetterCloud, 73% of organizations believe that nearly all of their applications will be SaaS by 2020.
Managing all of these SaaS applications for an organization can be a daunting task. Specifically, this includes tasks involving:
- User onboarding and offboarding.
- Managing access permissions.
- Renewing and assigning software licenses.
- Gathering data into SaaS usage.
As an IT manager, you need to have a clear understanding of what apps your organization uses, who uses them, what sensitive information gets shared with these products, and how much is spent on the apps to be able to make informed decisions.
Cleanshelf vs Blissfully vs Torii
For those unfamiliar, SaaS management is all about achieving visibility early, gaining insight into key metrics, and using the information to make better decisions that benefit all of the users within an organization.
Put simply, as your company’s software infrastructure grows, you’ll need to take a better approach when it comes to SaaS management. One way to get started with a step in the right direction is by using a SaaS management platform.
To better manage your company’s tech stack, you need a SaaS management platform that gives you better visibility, improves your workflow, and automates day to day processes.
With this in mind, in this section, we’ll compare the key features on offer with Cleanshelf, Blissfully and Torii, to help you decide which platform is right for you.
Visibility
One of the standout features on offer with SaaS management platforms is that they increase visibility into your organization’s usage of SaaS applications.
With Cleanshelf, you’re able to identify SaaS applications with active licenses that aren’t in use. The tool helps you cut back on SaaS spending by identifying unused software licenses and subscription plans.
For each application, you can track the type of subscription you signed up for, when it’s scheduled to renew, monthly active users, user satisfaction score, and anticipated monthly (or yearly) spend. The dashboard also gives you a graph view to get insight into application usage over a period of time.
Blissfully is a SaaS management platform that helps the IT department identify which apps are being used in the company, who’s using them, and how much the company spends on them. In addition to this, it lets you view your SaaS subscriptions and company-wide invoices.
What’s more is that the tool lets you filter results by app, team, or employee making it easier to get the information you need to make decisions.
Torii automatically discovers and maps out all of the SaaS applications your company uses, making it easy for you to see which ones are in heavy rotation, who’s using which application, and how much is spent on each application.
You’re able to view all of this information (and more) in a neat dashboard that gives you a quick overview in addition to data regarding users, billing, expenses, and integrations. The tool focuses on delivering a visually appealing user experience complete with reports, graphs and charts.
Workflow
Once you’ve achieved visibility into your organization’s tech stack, you need to be able to make sense of all of the information you collect. Identifying SaaS application usage, optimization opportunities, and detecting unusual activity is all part of SaaS management.
At the time of this writing, Cleanshelf doesn’t offer any workflow management features.
With Blissfully, you’re able to create and track workflows for key business processes. The tool comes with built-in templates to help you get started. In addition to this, you’re also able to create custom workflows.
Blissfully also lets you keep an audit trail that automatically logs workflows and tasks as they happen – like a CRM for your stack. This makes it easy to see a detailed timeline view of when tasks were completed and in which order.
Many times, employees and team members will purchase licenses or sign up for subscription plans that are similar in terms of functionality to applications the company is already using. Where Torii shines is by making it easy for IT managers to identify application overlaps and better manage software subscriptions.
Similarly, you’re able to create custom workflows that make it easy to keep track of various business processes. For example, you might consider creating a workflow for onboarding or offboarding users, control the applications specific employees can access, or see similar applications that are in use.
Automation
There are a number of SaaS management-related tasks that can be automated to save you time. For example, you can schedule automatic application renewals, upgrades, or access changes.
Cleanshelf doesn’t support automation.
Out of the box, Blissfully comes with a handful of automation actions that you can add to your workflows.
These include automatically provisioning products, alerting users to provision additional products, taking backups, revoking account access, and terminating accounts.
Torii lets you automate day to day tasks that take much of the heavy-lifting out of SaaS management. For example, you’re able to set alerts and notifications for when SaaS applications need to be renewed or automatically assign product owners to applications for more accountability.
You’re also able to automate workflows – such as your onboarding and offboarding processes – to minimize risk and save time. With Torii, you’re able to automate various day to day tasks by combining triggers with a list of supported actions.
Conclusion
Your organization may already have hundreds of SaaS applications in its tech stack, which means that you’ll need a SaaS management platform to help you keep track of costs, manage permissions and get insight into app usage.
- If you’re looking for a finance-focused SaaS management tool that gives you increased visibility and not much else, then we recommend going with Cleanshelf. Although the tool doesn’t give you the option to create workflows or automate tasks, it’s a great option for CFOs or the finance department.
- However, if you’re primarily using G Suite and are looking for a tool that gives you better visibility along with workflows and automation capabilities, go for Blissfully.
- And if you’re in the market for an all-around SaaS management platform that gives you increased visibility through a robust dashboard, the ability to create custom workflows, and options for automating day to day tasks using triggers and actions, then we recommend going with Torii.
Between Cleanshelf, Blissfully and Torii, which SaaS management platform are you leaning towards and why? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
