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Whatever business you’re in, proactively managing your SaaS subscriptions is important for your bottom line. This means dealing with SaaS renewals ahead of time before you're billed and it becomes another sunk cost.
So, what should you consider before renewing a SaaS subscription? We’ve put together a four-step guide to help you get on top of your SaaS renewals.
Knowledge is power. To create an effective SaaS renewal strategy, you’ll need an accurate list of every SaaS tool your organisation uses. Don’t forget apps that individual teams or staff members may have purchased.
The objective here is to come to grips with your organization’s current SaaS investment. This is also the first step towards uncovering opportunities to enhance or reclaim value from SaaS subscriptions that are obsolete, underutilised or unused.
Getting a complete picture of all SaaS subscriptions can be arduous work. That’s why many companies turn to SaaS management platforms such as Hudled. You can track and manage your SaaS subscriptions seamless with our advanced platform.
Once you have an accurate inventory of your SaaS subscriptions, you can start checking the renewal windows. Begin by reading invoices to find the renewal dates. Next, get in touch with each and every account rep for your various SaaS tools to confirm you have identified the renewal windows correctly.
Bear in mind that some SaaS subscriptions have an auto-renewal clause. Auto-renewal clauses are a bit sneaky. They state that you must notify the SaaS vendor by a certain date if you don’t want the contract to auto-renew. Auto-renewal clauses usually come into effect either during the renewal period or when it ends. You should always double-check the terms of the auto-renewal clause with the account rep for the software.
Now that you know what SaaS tools you have and when the renewal windows are, you can evaluate the software and see where you can reduce your SaaS costs. Ideally, start chronologically with the soonest renewal first.
Ask the users of the SaaS tools for their insight. Is their experience with the software good or bad? Would they like to change anything about it? How could the software be better? Also, find out who negotiated the contract and whether they were satisfied with the outcome. Was there a way to reduce this SaaS cost?
Dig deeper by examining the usage patterns of your SaaS tools. You can get this information from reports, expense records and app dashboards. You may find that your organisation underutilizes its software. Alternatively, users may be exceeding usage limits and racking up overage charges. Comparing the number of licenses against the number of users. Having accurate information about usage will give you more leverage during the renewal process. By evaluating your software usage, you can manage your SaaS subscriptions and reduce your SaaS costs significantly.
At this point, you can start reducing your SaaS costat your organisation. You’ll be equipped to manage your SaaS subscriptions, consolidate certain tools and get rid of unused or underutilised software. Above all, you can start negotiating SaaS renewals under more cost-effective terms.
As your company scales, keeping track of SaaS renewals will become more and more challenging. Investing in a quality SaaS management platform will save you time, money and give you back control.
Hudled’s SaaS intelligence platform gives you greater visibility of all renewals in your software stack. Sign up for Hudled’s free 14-day trial to discover how your startup could soon be on its way to having a proactive SaaS renewals strategy.