ElectroNeek keeps on top of SaaS spend and compliance in a fast-paced start-up environment

Technology companies thrive on agility and innovation, but segment leaders like ElectroNeek sustain growth by navigating the scrappy start-up phase and maturing into scalable, sustainable operations.

ElectroNeek’s success as the leading RPA platform for IT and Managed Service Providers came hand-in-hand with a tripling of their workforce in just two years. For the ElectoNeek IT team, this rapid growth underscored the need to manage over 100 SaaS apps from a spend and compliance perspective. From supporting SOC 2 audits to communicating operational efficiency to investors, Trelica underpins ElectroNeek’s SaaS management program.

The pain of manually managing SaaS licenses

Oleg Lekuchev, Vice President of IT at ElectroNeek, says “In the past, I had a huge Excel file to track all of our SaaS applications. It’s fair to say that SaaS management was a headache.”

ElectroNeek also struggled to get visibility of who was using paid-for licenses, or if all the licenses available were being utilized. “With no granular view of who was using licenses, and how often, it was impossible to identify and retire unwanted licenses to optimize our SaaS spending”, Oleg says.

To increase visibility and manageability across the entire SaaS estate, and to report accurately on SaaS optimization and spending to internal stakeholders and investors, ElectroNeek needed to enhance and wherever possible automate its SaaS management processes.

Choosing Trelica for reliable, out-of-the-box integrations

After running several proofs-of-concept for well-known SaaS management platforms, ElectroNeek chose Trelica to upgrade its manual processes.

…we found the data to be accurate and trustworthy, and we get integrations for around 40% of our SaaS apps (which represent far more than 80% of total licenses), all out of the box.

Oleg Lekuchev, Vice President of IT

“Some solutions seemed unreliable in terms of app integrations, with errors popping up in key data such as users’ roles, the number of licenses for specific apps, and so on. With Trelica, we found the data to be accurate and trustworthy, and we get integrations for around 40% of our SaaS apps (which represent far more than 80% of total licenses), all out of the box.

For those apps without APIs (or those that only offered API access via premium plans), Oleg was able to manually track details in Trelica so he could maintain 100% visibility of what was in use. “We’re really happy with how it’s turned out and what we can do in Trelica,” he says.

Giving the IT team clear visibility of SaaS spend

ElectroNeek has gained new levels of visibility and control over shadow IT with Trelica – empowering the IT Team to play a supporting role as a technology advisor to the rest of the business. “It’s so easy to buy software licenses online now that we will never eliminate shadow IT altogether, and that’s not the aim anyway”, says Oleg. “But integration of Trelica with our finance systems means that transactions for SaaS licenses on corporate cards are flagged up, allowing us to track those costs more effectively and, where possible and appropriate, work with application owners to lower costs.

…SaaS licenses on corporate cards are flagged up, allowing us to track those costs more effectively and, where possible and appropriate, work with application owners to lower costs.

Oleg Lekuchev, Vice President of IT

Ready access to spend data also allows ElectroNeek to spot anomalies or unexpected increases in SaaS expenses. “I was able to see that the cost of an application had gone up 40% in the second year when the initial pricing offer expired and that accounted for the difference,” says Oleg. “That’s the kind of granular cost-control we get with Trelica, and it’s a huge asset to the business as we continue to grow rapidly.”

Demonstrating SaaS spend efficiency to internal stakeholders and investors

…reporting on SaaS spend is much faster, allowing me to report to investors and other stakeholders in a fraction of the time it previously took.

Oleg Lekuchev, Vice President of IT

SaaS licenses represent a significant operational cost to ElectroNeek, and transparency and assurance of value is critical for all stakeholders. “Trelica helps us to show investors that we are in complete control of our SaaS spending, and that in turn shows our maturity as an organization, which builds trust in our brand like nothing else,” says Oleg. “The process of reporting on SaaS spend is much faster, allowing me to report to investors and other stakeholders in a fraction of the time it previously took.”

Streamlining SOC 2 compliance

Achieving security compliance against SOC 2 or ISO27001 is a major milestone for any start-up. Implementing the necessary frameworks and controls to demonstrate compliance places a significant burden on small IT teams.

…the SOC 2 auditing process is much faster, easier, and less stressful for everyone involved.

Oleg Lekuchev, Vice President of IT

“Instead of presenting auditors lots of confusing, interrelated spreadsheets, we now use Trelica to quickly show exactly which people and roles have access to which systems and applications,” says Oleg. “With all of the rich data on our SaaS applications and users in one place, the SOC 2 auditing process is much faster, easier, and less stressful for everyone involved.”

Delivering big cost savings for the business

In addition to driving operational efficiencies and meeting compliance requirements, Trelica is also delivering direct SaaS cost savings for ElectroNeek. “If we see underused or unused licenses, we can check in with employees and see if they really need that particular software tool,” says Oleg. “If they don’t, we can retire it, and deliver the saving back to the business.”

Trelica’s app discovery features are also helping ElectroNeek fight SaaS ‘sprawl’ by identifying potentially overlapping app usage that can increase costs and create a compliance headache. “We can easily identify where we have different apps that perform the same or a similar function,” says Oleg. “In these cases, we can work with employees to transition them onto just one of the apps, and retire the others from our estate.”

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