5 License Utilization Insights that Reveal Wasted SaaS Spend

If you’re an SMB or a large enterprise trying to cut down on unnecessary SaaS & AI app costs this year, one of the smartest ways to start is tracking your company’s license utilization insights.

By understanding these license utilization metrics using our SaaS & AI app management software, CloudFuze Manage, your IT & finance teams gain transparent visibility into your company’s SaaS & AI app spend, enabling them to eliminate SaaS & AI app license waste and maximize their app subscription ROI.

This blog post discusses the five license utilization insights and how they help you cut hidden SaaS & AI app spend.

What Are License Utilization Insights and How Do They Reveal SaaS Spend?

License utilization insights show you how many licenses you’ve purchased versus how many users are actively using them.

For example, when your company’s license usage analytics reveal that a large number of your employees aren’t logging into a particular app and accessing its key features, it’s a sign that your finance team is paying for far more license capacity than your company actually needs.

SMBs and large enterprises can analyze these license utilization insights (license cost per user, idle license seats, & overlapping licenses) and identify how much SaaS & AI app spend is wasted on idle or overlapping licenses.

5 Key License Utilization Insights to Track Wasted SaaS & AI Spend

The 5 important license utilization insights that reveal SaaS & AI license waste instantly are:

1. Inactive user accounts (users who haven’t logged in to a specific app for 30–90 days)
2. Low usage employee accounts assigned premium or advanced-tier licenses.
3. Duplicate or overlapping licenses present within different teams in an organization.
4. Orphaned user accounts resulting from forgotten deprovisioning of former employees.
5. Under-utilized license capacity that is auto-renewed across different applications.

By utilizing these license utilization patterns, organizations can right-size their SaaS & AI app licenses through subscription downgrades, license seat reallocations, and app consolidation.

Challenges Involved in Tracking License Utilization Insights Manually

Tracking SaaS & AI app license utilization is harder than it seems because each SaaS & AI platform defines user activity differently. Most often, manual license tracking results in scattered and error-prone license utilization data.

Other drawbacks include:

• Fragmented app admin consoles complicate license tracking for IT teams.
• Employee usage definitions vary across different tools, which IT admins can’t track
• Lack of real-time visibility into SaaS & AI app usage data at the user level.
• Rising shadow IT activities resulting from SaaS & AI sprawl pose security risks for the company.
• Unused app licenses accumulate without an automatic license tracking tool, raising an organization’s yearly SaaS & AI app spending by up to 30%.

Best Practices for Tracking License Utilization Insights

To control your annual costs and improve SaaS & AI app cost optimization, adopt these best practices:

1. Automate your company’s license tracking with our SaaS & AI app management platform, CloudFuze Manage.
2. Monitor employees’ app usage and align SaaS & AI app license tiers with employees’ behaviour.
3. Use our platform’s automated employee onboarding feature to revoke ex-employees’ user access instantly.
4. Make sure to audit your SaaS & AI stack quarterly to protect your company against any security & compliance issues.

These practices help SMBs and large enterprises take control of their SaaS & AI app subscription management and prevent overspending on unused licenses.

How Can You Track These 5 License Utilization Insights in CloudFuze Manage’s Dashboard?

Our SaaS & AI app license management platform, CloudFuze Manage, gives you a centralized view of all your SaaS & AI apps, their license usage, user activity, and cost trends.

Instead of switching between multiple app admin consoles, you’ll get all the license utilization data in one unified dashboard.

The step-by-step process to track the 5 license utilization insights with our platform is as follows:

Step 1: Identify Active vs. Inactive App Users

IT admins can quickly review active and inactive users of a specific application, enabling them to identify unused SaaS & AI App licenses immediately.

Step 2: Analyze Feature-Level App Utilization

With our Chrome browser extension, CloudFuze Manage Extension, IT teams can review their employees’ browser activity and determine whether the employees are engaging with premium or advanced app features.

This helps IT admins assess which apps they truly need to license at the higher tier.

Step 3: Detect Shadow IT Activities & Overlapping Apps

Organizations can check for shadow IT within their teams and find overlapping apps effortlessly using our tool.

Step 4: Evaluate Cost Per User & Gain Cost-Saving Insights

Our platform shows license costs at the user level and provides recommendations to reduce costs on unused licenses.

Step 5: Enable Automated User Offboarding

IT Teams can save hours with our automated offboarding workflows, which instantly revoke departing employees’ user access without switching between multiple SaaS & AI app admin consoles.

Additionally, our automated renewal tracking & notification features alert organizations before automatic renewals or billing cycles roll over. This prior renewal notification gives IT teams ample time to decide whether to downgrade or cancel the subscription plan.

How Does Manual License Tracking Differ from CloudFuze Manage’s License Tracking?

Here’s a table comparing manual license tracking with CloudFuze Manage’s license tracking:

These differences clearly state our platform, CloudFuze Manage, is far superior to other license tracking strategies.

Stop Paying for Unused Licenses with CloudFuze Manage

By tracking these 5 license utilization insights, companies can immediately identify where their SaaS and AI app spending is being wasted.

With our SaaS & AI app management platform, CloudFuze Manage, organizations can gain clear visibility into inactive SaaS & AI app users, duplicate app licenses, and underutilized license capacity.

Interested in discovering how automated license tracking works on CloudFuze Manage? Book your free product walkthrough now!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where can I find dashboards for visualizing SaaS license usage and cost trends?

You can use our SaaS & AI app management platform, CloudFuze Manage, to visualize software license usage analytics and SaaS spend trends with savings insights in a single, unified dashboard.

2. Can I integrate CloudFuze Manage with existing financial software?

Yes, you can connect our platform, CloudFuze Manage, with popular financial software like QuickBooks, Bill.com, and more.

3. How do you automate SaaS license provisioning and deprovisioning to control costs?

You can use our platform, CloudFuze Manage, which supports user automation workflows, so you can instantly assign app licenses to new hires and revoke them during offboarding, preventing wasted SaaS spend.