Why Savvy Businesses are Centralizing Their SaaS Management

The surge in cloud adoption is transforming how businesses operate, with SaaS applications becoming the essential engine behind modern workflows. But as organizations embrace an increasing number of SaaS tools, the complexity of managing contracts, vendors, security, and costs can quickly spiral out of control. Without a centralized system, companies risk wasting money on unused licenses, falling prey to shadow IT, and exposing themselves to serious security threats. That’s why mastering SaaS lifecycle management isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s critical for staying efficient, secure, and ahead in today’s fast-paced digital world.

In this blog, we explore these evolving challenges in SaaS management and highlight how advisors can empower customers to maximize their SaaS investments, streamline workflows, and unlock new revenue opportunities. You’ll also discover real-world success stories and practical strategies to help you build or expand your SaaS advisory practice.

The key market trends shaping B2B SaaS procurement and management

SaaS business adoption is at an all-time high. 95% of organizations have implemented SaaS solutions in their operations, and the average organization utilizes 275 SaaS products, with six new apps being adopted by companies every month. That’s 72 new apps per year, and this proliferation will only increase as 75 percent of companies plan to increase their spending this year. By the end of 2025, 85% of all business applications are expected to be SaaS-based.

Though SaaS has unleashed unlimited possibilities for growth and efficiency, its rapid adoption in the absence of a comprehensive lifecycle management approach has introduced a number of challenges. Handling contracts, maintaining relationships, and managing subscriptions with numerous vendors is labor-intensive and time-consuming, often exceeding available IT resources. The vast array of available solutions can be overwhelming, and many companies lack the expertise to select, integrate, and manage the ideal mix of products. IT teams are also under pressure to cut costs, maximize efficiency, and drive growth, all while managing limited resources within increasingly tight budgets.

The high cost of poor SaaS management

Despite SaaS being a powerhouse for innovation and productivity, hidden inefficiencies and security vulnerabilities are silently eroding company budgets and creating avoidable risks.

Companies overspend on software by at least 15% today through poor management of SaaS tools, licences, and instances. Gartner estimates that by 2027, that overexpenditure will increase to 25% or more for businesses that fail to achieve centralized visibility for their SaaS lifecycles.

Blind spots are causing avoidable costs and risks

A number of SaaS management blind spots are causing those spiralling costs.

Unused software

Poor SaaS tracking is a major issue, with the average company using only 49% of their SaaS licenses, the other 51% becoming shelfware (tools that are being paid for but not used). This leads to an annual loss of $8.3M, and that doesn’t include the potential security vulnerabilities and decreased productivity this lack of oversight incurs.

Unnecessary late fees

Managing multiple vendors adds another layer of complexity and wasted budget, with 41% of buyers reporting late fees due to challenges in juggling renewal dates and billing cycles.

Unprotected entry points

Security is another significant concern. Only 23% of SaaS apps are accessed through single sign-on (SSO), leaving the remaining 77% as potentially unprotected entry points vulnerable to data breaches and attacks.

Wasted IT help desk resources

When organizations have no centralized single sign-on (SSO) access, up to 50% of IT help desk calls are for password resets, at an average cost of $70 each time. In contrast, implementing SSO can result in a 60% reduction in IT support tickets, a significant time and cost saving.

The threat of shadow IT

Most companies are surprised to learn that IT controls only about 30% of their total SaaS spend, with departments like marketing, sales, and HR independently buying tools on their own. Up to 60% of SaaS applications go unnoticed by central IT departments, accounting for a third of the IT stack.

This unmonitored and unsanctioned software use—referred to as shadow IT—poses a significant threat to organizations, complicating governance and leading to potential security and compliance issues. Without centralized visibility, organizations are 5X more susceptible to cybersecurity incidents. The main issue isn't the volume of SaaS use but the insufficient visibility and control over it.

In today’s economic climate, that kind of waste isn’t sustainable. All these issues—security vulnerabilities, operational inefficiencies, and wasted resources—stem from the same root cause: a lack of centralized SaaS management.

Effective SaaS management is crucial in reducing these unnecessary costs and maximizing the value of technology investments. This means shifting from a reactive, manual approach to holistic, proactive SaaS management.

The SaaS opportunity for advisors

With the increasing reliance on cloud software, the SaaS market is projected to skyrocket at a compound annual growth rate of 20% by 2032 and 75% of companies plan to increase their investment in 2025. As an advisor you’re uniquely positioned to capitalize on this growth by guiding your customers, helping them purchase the right solutions, optimize their SaaS portfolios, and ensuring they maximize their SaaS investments.

Working with an advisor reduces buyer regret

Working with an advisor vs going full self-serve can make or break a company’s satisfaction with their SaaS portfolio. While 75% of B2B buyers would prefer to make self-serve purchases online, rep-free purchases are 1.65 times more likely to result in regret than channel-led purchases. On the other hand, advisor-assisted digital purchasing is 1.8 times more likely to result in a high-quality deal, underscoring the critical role advisors play in navigating complex procurement decisions and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Customers are ready to embrace centralized SaaS management

IT teams are increasingly aware of the chaos and inefficiencies associated with managing multiple SaaS tools manually. Centralized SaaS management is becoming a priority, as 88% of IT managers believe it enhances efficiency, reduces risk, and allows IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives. Nearly 50% of organizations using multiple SaaS tools are already moving towards centralized management, recognizing the immediate benefits of greater agility, lower risk, and optimized spending. This aligns with Gartner’s prediction that by 2027, businesses that fail to achieve centralized visibility for their SaaS lifecycles will be overspending for their cloud services by 25% or more.

Solve customer SaaS headaches with complete SaaS lifecycle management on one platform

AppDirect helps your customers find solutions faster and spend smarter through centralized SaaS management within the AppDirect Marketplace. Our platform allows you and your customers to manage the end-to-end of their SaaS subscriptions, helping them save time, save on costs, and maximizing their SaaS investments all in one place.

We empower you with expert guidance and professional services to help you address each customers’ challenges and implement tailored IT solutions. With over 5 million customers served and high satisfaction rates, AppDirect boasts a 96% first call resolution rate, and 93% customer satisfaction.

“Don’t be afraid to dive in. Start by asking simple but crucial questions like, ‘When are your renewals coming up?’ It’s those basic questions that many advisors aren’t asking but that can open the door to SaaS opportunities.”

—Bill Patchett, CEO, P2

Gain full visibility and control to drive smarter decisions

The AppDirect platform enables businesses to cut costs and save time with centralized management solutions, with full visibility and control over SaaS portfolios and tools for subscription management, workforce identity, and data management. Track application spend and usage in real time, identify savings opportunities, and optimize subscriptions. Import external apps into the platform for a unified view and make data-driven decisions with detailed reporting and insights.

Simplify procurement

Help customers make better procurement decisions by finding the appropriate software tools to meet their business needs and navigate fragmented marketplaces efficiently.

AppDirect simplifies the procurement process, offering vendor-agnostic recommendations and side-by-side comparisons of top solutions.

Our industry-leading SaaS catalog of 1,000+ services and 600+ providers offers an extensive suite of SaaS applications across the full tech stack. Here are just some of those providers:

• Collaboration and productivity—Dropbox, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoom, AO Docs

• Business applications—Adobe, Docusign, Intuit Quickbooks Online, Dropbox Sign, RSign, Rpost, Samsung VXT, Cisco Webex, Consensus

• IT management—Kaseya, SolarWinds, GoTo, Zendesk, JumpCloud, ServiceNow, TeamViewer, ScaleOps

• ERP—Microsoft Dynamics

• CRM—Copper CRM, Nimble, Zendesk

The breadth of SaaS solutions in the AppDirect catalog provides many opportunities to cross-sell complementary SaaS products, creating comprehensive solutions that deliver more value and drive revenue growth.

Streamline deployment and provisioning

AppDirect SaaS lifecycle management automates onboarding and offboarding processes, reducing manual efforts for the IT team. Admins can assign licenses and configure integrations quickly and error-free, ensuring employees have immediate access.

Optimize usage and spend management

With centralized invoice and subscription management, AppDirect ensures businesses only pay for what they need, optimizing SaaS spending, increasing efficiency, reducing redundancy, and avoiding overpayments.

• Centralized control—Renew licenses, manage user roles, and ensure data security

• Subscription management—Control and update subscriptions from one location

• Tool usage and engagement monitoring—Adjust licenses to prevent overspending, and align spending with actual value

• Invoice and billing management—Centralized view of all invoices

• Renewals and decommissioning—Review usage data and make informed decisions about renewing or retiring tools

Improve workforce identity management

Reduce IT costs and enhance efficiency with AppDirect's workforce identity management solutions. Automated onboarding, SSO, and user lifecycle management streamline processes and improve productivity. Implement identity and access management tools like SSO and MFA to boost security and productivity for remote employees.

• Onboarding and offboarding—Automated flows for quick provisioning

• Single-sign on and MFA—Central and secure access to applications

• User lifecycle management—Instant provisioning and license management

Optimize data management and extensibility

Drive smarter business decisions with insights into application spend and usage while extending existing management tools and systems. AppDirect's reporting and API integrations ensure seamless management of services.

• Reporting and insights—Visualize spend and usage for informed decisions.

• API integrations—Extend and integrate your existing tools and systems in a centralized location to automate procurement and management.

• Import applications—Benefit from interconnectivity even for externally purchased apps.

Operate securely

Simplify access management with single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication, ensuring secure logins across all apps. Automatically offboard employees to mitigate security risks.

Expert support from AppDirect

Procuring SaaS through AppDirect is about much more than licenses. It unlocks access to comprehensive, expert-led services and support from one central location—simplifying vendor relationships and maximizing technology investments.

• Tailored guidance—Expert evaluations and recommendations for customized solutions

• Simplified vendor management—Whether it’s Microsoft, add-on software, or services, let AppDirect manage all the vendor relationships under a single MSA, saving you time and effort.

AppDirect’s technical support services offer a comprehensive solution for businesses that require expert assistance without relying on an internal IT team. With end-to-end support for Google, Microsoft, and other cloud apps, our technical support services are designed to ensure businesses maintain smooth operations while focusing on growth. Benefits include: fast problem resolution, increased productivity, expert cloud guidance, full SaaS lifecycle support, and premium support options. For an in-depth look, read our blog about AppDirect IT support and help desk solutions.

Unified lifecycle management across your tech stack

AppDirect’s SaaS lifecycle management solution is an integral part of a broader unified lifecycle management approach that empowers advisors to offer customers a complete and streamlined technology management solution.

Cloud lifecycle management—Comprehensive lifecycle management for software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS).

Hardware and logistics lifecycle management—End-to-end lifecycle management, from procurement and employee onboarding to asset retrieval and redeployment—offered in conjunction with Firstbase.

Network and mobility lifecycle management—A powerful suite of network and mobility spend managed services offered by our partner vCom that handle everything from planning and procurement to operations and expense management.

AI lifecycle management–Streamlined management of purpose-built AI agents trained on custom data, including updating large language models (LLMs), automating data updates, and monitoring performance to ensure ongoing optimization and alignment with evolving business goals.

Navigating the shift to SaaS—Insights from Bill Patchett, P2 CEO

During the AppDirect May 2025 State of the Union webinar, AppDirect’s Rick Duran sat down with Bill Patchett of P2, who shared the company's successful transition from traditional telecom services to a focus on SaaS and managed services, a shift driven by price compression in voice and data and the growing potential of SaaS subscriptions.

To advisors hesitant about making a similar move, Bill’s advice is clear: “Don’t be afraid to dive in. Start by asking simple but crucial questions like, ‘When are your renewals coming up?’ It’s those basic questions that many advisors aren’t asking but can open the door to SaaS opportunities.”

“Don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick a half a dozen products and become true experts, rather than chasing too many options at once.”

—Bill Patchett, CEO, P2

Bill also emphasized the power of focus, recommending advisors to “pick a half a dozen products and become true experts,” rather than chasing too many options at once. He noted that Microsoft and Google SaaS offerings are often the easiest starting points due to their ubiquity and faster commission cycles.

Bill cited a compelling example where probing into a customer’s Microsoft and Google licenses enabled P2 to double the account’s potential annual revenue, from $250,000 to $500,000. He summed up this strategy with a practical mindset: “Start small—don’t try to boil the ocean. Find an area of software that sparks passion within your team and begin there, supported by product sales specialists and engineers ready to help you grow.”

Beyond just selling software, Bill reminded advisors that SaaS success strengthens client relationships: “It’s about deepening your relationship with your clients and becoming a trusted advisor across their technology needs.”

More real world advisor SaaS success stories

BronxWorks, a Bronx-based non-profit, improved its SaaS management and IT infrastructure by using the AppDirect Marketplace, resulting in time savings and better decision-making across its 150+ community programs. Read the full Bronxworks case study for an in-depth look.

Comport overcame portfolio diversification challenges and streamlined sales by partnering with AppDirect’s unified, pre-integrated marketplace. This helped Comport secure a $40,000+ deal, and empowered customer self-service and advisor flexibility, driving significant deal wins and improved client retention. Read the full Comport case study for more details.

How to get better at Selling SaaS

Read our accompanying blog, 2025 Insights: How to Sell B2B SaaS—10 Strategies for Success, for ways to maximize your SaaS sales with proven strategies for leveraging partners, optimizing customer experience, and driving revenue. You'll also learn how launching your own marketplace and adopting horizontal scaling can help you reach wider audiences and unlock new revenue streams. 

Next steps: Training and resources to get you started

We offer extensive training and resources to help you turn your next customer conversation into a closed-won SaaS opportunity.

SaaS training: Maximize your SaaS ROI through central management

Boost your SaaS sales in just one hour with our targeted training. Learn how to become a trusted advisor across the entire SaaS lifecycle, position cloud solutions effectively, streamline procurement using AppDirect’s Marketplace, optimize subscription spend, and unlock new revenue with centralized SaaS management.

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SaaS customer marketing toolkit

Our SaaS marketing toolkit has all the resources you need to start your customer conversation about SaaS, including data sheets, sales guide, SaaS and cloud vendor reference guide, and Google and Microsoft resources.

Access your SaaS marketing toolkit

Want more support? Contact your Channel Manager and sync up with a dedicated Product Sales Specialist and close your next opportunity.

Enhance your customers’ onboarding experience

Set your customers up for success with live onboarding sessions designed to help them — and you — unlock the full value of the AppDirect Marketplace.

Whether you have a new customer or are helping an existing one optimize their SaaS portfolio management using the marketplace, our experts will guide them through key features and best practices.

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