LeanIX’s SaaS Management Survey Reveals Cost Reduction as the Main Goal of IT Optimization

BONN, Germany and BOSTON, January 12, 2023 – LeanIX, a leading platform enabling continuous transformation of corporate and product IT, today announced the findings of its annual SaaS Management Survey. The report reveals that companies struggle to manage their SaaS landscape due to a lack of relevant data on SaaS applications, with only about 40% of businesses tracking comprehensive SaaS information. Given that SaaS makes up a significant portion of today’s application portfolios, rationalization efforts will most likely fail unless organizations improve their ability to collect and act on SaaS data.

The survey looked at how companies currently maintain an overview of their IT landscape, how they pursue application rationalization, where SaaS sits in terms of overall software spend, the future of SaaS adoption, concerns related to SaaS and the importance of organizational collaboration in SaaS management.

Key findings from the report include:

• Eighty percent of companies actively optimize or are planning on optimizing their application portfolios.
• Application rationalization has become a greater priority than in the past, with 75% of respondents reporting a stronger focus in this area compared to last year.
• Thirty percent of organizations already spend more than half of their software budget on SaaS. Close to 40% estimate that SaaS currently accounts for 25-50% of their company's software expenditure.
• Respondents indicated two main areas for concern about SaaS: Security and compliance and cost.
  o    Two-thirds of respondents expressed concern around security risks, possible data breaches, and/or noncompliance of vendors and applications. o    Fifty-seven percent of respondents expressed concern around wasted spending and hidden or untracked costs.
• Eighty-nine percent of companies said there are at least three departments involved in SaaS management, with IT/Software asset management teams taking the lead.

“The survey indicates that SaaS solutions are an integral part of enterprise tech stacks today, but responsibility for SaaS management in the enterprise is still up for grabs,” said André Christ, CEO and co-Founder of LeanIX. “Operational efficiency, especially given the current economic situation, is in every organization’s best interest. Redundant applications and underutilized SaaS licenses lead to wasted IT spend. To truly optimize their operations, bring down costs and increasing profitability businesses today need to adopt a consistent, systematic approach to tracking and managing their SaaS application landscape.”

Survey Methodology

From August through October 2022, LeanIX conducted an online survey of 112 IT professionals across Europe, the U.S. and other regions, most of whom hold leadership roles in global companies across a variety of industries. Seventy-five percent of the respondents work in IT/software asset management, enterprise architecture management and procurement.

About LeanIX

LeanIX's Continuous Transformation Platform® is trusted by Corporate IT and Product IT to achieve comprehensive visibility and superior governance. Global customers organize, plan and manage IT landscapes with LeanIX's automated and data-driven approach. Offering Enterprise Architecture, SaaS Management, and Value Stream Management, LeanIX helps organizations make sound decisions and accelerate transformation journeys. LeanIX has hundreds of customers globally, including Adidas, Atlassian, Bosch, Dropbox, Santander and Workday. The company is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, with subsidiaries in the United States (Boston), Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Slovenia (Ljubljana) and other offices around the world.