How IT leaders can manage SaaS sprawl in modern enterprises

Today’s enterprise SaaS landscape is complex.

SaaS tools are undoubtedly essential to running operations efficiently, but the rampant proliferation of tools leads to what’s now commonly referred to as the ‘SaaS sprawl’.

With too many applications, organizations need more data, better employee experiences, and overall operational inefficiencies.

Gartner reports that the per-employee SaaS spend averages at $1,370, and most organizations are only aware of 40% of their SaaS applications”

In this article, we examine the problems enterprises face with having too many SaaS tools and how IT leaders can help optimize the organizational tech stack.

Challenges posed by SaaS sprawl

The fragmented tools landscape severely challenges employees, service teams, and businesses.

1. Constant context switching for employees

Asana reported that, on average, employees switch between 13 different tools approximately 30 times daily. This constant toggling between apps to retrieve information fragments their workflow, significantly lowering workplace productivity.

According to McKinsey, employees spend 20% of their time looking for documents or tracking down colleagues. This fragmented search results in information being scattered across various platforms, wasting time and frustration.

The SaaS sprawl exacerbates this issue by requiring employees to juggle between multiple tools, none of which are seamlessly integrated, leaving them overwhelmed by unnecessary complexity.‍

2. Operational inefficiency for support teams

SaaS sprawl is equally burdensome for IT, security, and support teams. It creates operational inefficiencies that lead to time-consuming, repetitive tasks. IT support staff often struggle to resolve simple issues like password resets or basic troubleshooting requests across disconnected systems, resulting in long wait times and poor user experience.

There needs to be more visibility across teams, but fragmented knowledge bases lead to gaps in resolution and delays. These inefficiencies also stem from broken admin interfaces, with teams forced to rely on multiple unintegrated tools to complete tasks.

This not only prolongs issue resolution but also increases agents' cognitive load, making it difficult for them to streamline their operations and maintain performance.

3. Higher cost of ownership for businesses

The proliferation of SaaS tools comes at a steep price for businesses. Maintaining licenses, integrations, and workflows across numerous platforms drives up the total cost of ownership (TCO).

“Many large firms will have been hit by 2023’s unprecedented series of inflation-driven price increases. With SaaS costs rising 25-30% suddenly from many vendors, it’s more important to identify license waste and application sprawl,” says the Gartner Magic Quadrant report quoted above.  

This ‘sprawl’ increases the complexity and expense of managing software assets and the time spent manually tracking software licenses.

In addition to the direct financial cost, interoperability between these tools leads to efficient workflows, with separate AI assistants, workflow automation platforms, and ITSM systems requiring maintenance.

These silos ultimately compound operational costs and reduce overall return on investment (ROI), making SaaS sprawl not just a productivity issue but also a significant financial drain for businesses.

How AI-powered service delivery hubs can control the repercussions of SaaS sprawl

So, what’s the solution to these challenges? Many of these tools, individually, help with specific use cases, and you can’t eliminate them.

That is why integrating these point tools with a service delivery hub is a strong contender. Imagine this: Your provisioning tool, access management software, CRM, and the AI assistants for each of these tools–all talking to one another and unifying in one powerful, centralized hub. It’s like owning a single employee record on one platform with inputs from multiple sources, your individual SaaS tools.

Let’s see what a hub like this could mean for your enterprise.

1. Drastically simplifies end-user interactions

An AI-powered service delivery hub simplifies end-user interactions by eliminating the need for clunky, outdated portals and siloed applications.

Instead of employees having to switch between multiple platforms to retrieve information, AI assistants—powered by large language models (LLMs)—can contextually understand queries and pull data from various apps without requiring users to leave their primary workspace.

For instance, a sales team member needing a lead status no longer has to log into Salesforce; they can simply ask an AI assistant, like Atomicwork's Atom, to retrieve the information. This consolidation minimizes app switching, streamlining user interactions and boosting productivity across teams.

2. Multiplied agent productivity gains

‍AI automation leads to significant productivity gains for support teams. It handles repetitive tasks, freeing agents to focus on more complex issues.

For instance, Seattle-based leading safety gloves distributor Ammex Corp implemented Atomicwork’s AI-powered platform, automating repetitive tasks and enhancing agent productivity.

With AI-driven ticket deflection, their IT team saw an immediate 20% deflection rate. By refining documentation based on employee interactions with our intelligent assistant Atom, they raised it to 65% and aim for 80% across the board by year-end.

Ammex has significantly reduced resolution times, improving efficiency and user satisfaction across their organization.

This example highlights that the AI assistant can learn from agent interactions and provide intelligent workflow suggestions, enabling faster resolution times. It can summarize complex queries, automatically categorize tickets, and even pre-fill responses based on historical data.

Moreover, AI can access a system of records, such as identifying the requester’s department when a Salesforce access request is made and granting permissions without manual intervention. This ability to learn and adapt ensures agents spend less time on mundane tasks and more on delivering high-quality support, enhancing overall productivity.

3. Reduced TCO and Better ROI

Implementing a unified AI-powered service delivery hub reduces the total cost of ownership by consolidating various functionalities, such as AI assistants, workflow automation, and ITSM, into a single platform.

Businesses no longer need to invest in multiple standalone solutions, which cuts down on software licensing costs and maintenance expenses. The platform’s ability to learn and automate tasks across different departments leads to better ROI as workflows become more efficient and teams collaborate seamlessly.

Unlike traditional setups, where an additional AI layer might be needed, a fully integrated AI service delivery hub has enterprise-grade AI baked into every feature, eliminating redundancies. This holistic approach transforms service management and delivers tangible financial benefits by reducing operational costs and enhancing the effectiveness of service delivery.

Embrace modern service management to tackle tools sprawl

Atomicwork transforms IT service management (ITSM) by shifting from a ticket-centric to a context-centric approach, helping enterprises become more productive and efficient.

Instead of forcing employees to navigate multiple tools and portals, Atomicwork’s smart assistant, Atom, is present on popular platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, delivering services where employees already spend their time. Thus, Atomicwork left shifts support and eliminates the need for constant context-switching.

With its AI-driven platform, Atomicwork integrates and centralizes access to various records systems such as HR, CRM, and IT. This breaks down silos of information across departments, providing a single source of truth. Entire onboarding journeys for new hires can be automated with Atomicwork, which has built-in request, asset, and incident management capabilities.

By centralizing IT services into a single service delivery hub, modern service management platforms like Atomicwork ensure seamless workflow automation and access to all enterprise tools. This helps control the growing complexity of SaaS sprawl and drives greater value to businesses.