How Software Companies Cut SaaS Sprawl by Adopting Microsoft Teams
Similar to many software companies, does your organization’s SaaS stack look like this: Slack at the center, a dozen tools around it, and no single person who can tell you where all the company data actually lives?
To remediate this disorganized and ungoverned state, many software companies (including our customers) are consolidating into Microsoft 365 and adopting Microsoft Teams.
Interested in learning how this approach plays out and if it works for your company? Read all about it.
Key Takeaways:
What SaaS Sprawl Actually Looks Like in a Software Company
When Slack is the main messaging platform, software companies rely on various other tools. For example, when Slack is heavily used for internal communication, it is likely that external communication happens over email on a separate provider.
Similarly, attachments and files get scattered across one or more separate drives. Integrations multiply without oversight, and identity and access become inconsistent.
All of these problems get amplified and exposed when AI comes into the picture. When AI tools and agents sit on top of ungoverned data, sensitive information gets inadvertently exposed which, in turn, compromises security and compliance posture.
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Why Slack Sits at The Center of The Problem
This is not an argument that Slack is a bad product. For a lot of software companies, it is one of the best messaging and collaboration platforms out there. However, the flexibility and integration capabilities that make Slack useful are also the source of the SaaS sprawl problems.
With its open integration model, everything can be integrated easily. Its channel is structured in such a way that users can create their own workflows. As a result, Slack becomes the connective tissue of a fragmented SaaS stack.
How Microsoft 365 Consolidation Solves It
For many software companies facing these SaaS sprawl issues, one of the clear solutions is to consolidate into Microsoft 365 and adopt Microsoft Teams.
By choosing Teams as the main communication platform, software companies can enter a centralized ecosystem where communication, file storage, email, identity, compliance, and AI operate under a single governance layer.
Here’s how a strategic consolidation looks like:
How to Align the Migration With It
As we discussed in the above sections, if the goal is to move away from Slack and adopt Microsoft Teams and consolidate into Microsoft 365, the migration process has to align with it.
A lot of our customers with this exact goal have been moving off Slack and decommissioning it as part of consolidating everything into Microsoft 365. If this resonates with your organization, it is important to migrate all the important Slack channels, group messages, direct messages, attachments, and messaging features.
In our guide titled “Transfer Slack Chat to Teams for Microsoft 365 AI Readiness,” we have shared the steps and strategies to align Slack to Teams migration with SaaS sprawl remediation and AI readiness goals. Read it to gain actionable insights.
Want to See it in Practice?
Interested in seeing how this works in practice and how we have helped many of our customers achieve these types of goals? Contact us today for a professional demo or casual no-obligation discussion.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is my company’s SaaS stack so fragmented?
It is natural and common for SaaS tags to get fragmented, especially in software companies. Apps and integrations accumulate gradually, and permissions get disjointed over time. It is important to identify this fragmentation and plan for a consolidation journey, especially when the goal is to adopt AI securely.
2. How do software companies reduce SaaS sprawl with Microsoft 365?
Since Microsoft 365 is a unified ecosystem, everything lives inside a single governance layer, which, in turn, helps reduce SaaS sprawl risks. By consolidating into Microsoft 365, companies can fix the SaaS sprawl problem they have been facing over the years. Proper consolidation also helps close the AI readiness gap.
3. How to prepare for Microsoft Copilot adoption in a software company?
The best way to prepare for Microsoft Copilot adoption is to ensure that the data and permissions are well managed and governed. When data, access, and identity are properly governed, Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools and agents do not inadvertently surface sensitive information to unauthorized people.
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