Zero-touch access management & SaaS optimization helps Flipdish scale

Flipdish is a leading provider of end-to-end technology for independent restaurants, giving them the tools to build direct relationships with their customers, create effortless ordering processes, streamline everyday ops and grow profits.

Flipdish experienced tremendous growth since its inception in 2015, reaching unicorn status in 2022. Manual SaaS management processes were struggling to keep up with the pace of change. To get better visibility and control of SaaS licenses and spending, while ensuring teams have all the tools they need to work and collaborate effectively, Flipdish deployed Trelica’s SaaS management platform.

Unicorns need IT maturity to sustain growth

As a dynamic and fast-growing company, Flipdish operates entirely on cloud-based platforms and apps, which provided flexibility in how technology was utilized and replaced as the business scaled. However, this cloud-native approach also brought significant IT management challenges.

“We were tracking apps manually in a spreadsheet, logging details like the software owner, licenses entitlement and our best guess of utilization,” says Leon Weavers, Head of IT at Flipdish. “But we were growing so fast that we couldn’t keep pace with all the new apps people were adopting.”

Another key challenge was effective access management. “Provisioning and deprovisioning of licenses was manual, which was time-consuming and inefficient. Without clear visibility of who was using what, there was also risk that leavers retained access to apps,” says Leon.

Combining Okta with a SaaS management platform

The Flipdish IT team deployed Okta for identity management and to control access to key apps. But Okta only covered a subset of apps – typically those the IT team already had reasonable control over – so the discovery and securing of hundreds of other apps remained a challenge. “Okta was a good first step for us, but we still had limited visibility of our SaaS estate,” says Leon.

"Without a comprehensive inventory of apps in use and the licenses we were paying for we were struggling to execute on our IT strategy."

Leon Weavers, Head of IT

To fill these gaps and get truly meaningful insights about SaaS utilization and spending, Flipdish explored a number of SaaS management platforms to use alongside Okta. “It was clear that Trelica offered the right functionality to complement our investment in Okta, and all at a competitive price point,” says Leon. “The Trelica team worked closely with us to understand our business and to ensure we succeeded with their product.”

Discovering Nearly 1,000 SaaS apps in use

Within minutes of connecting their systems to Trelica, Flipdish was able to see that employees were accessing hundreds of different apps. “We were a bit shocked to see how many apps people were using, but achieving this comprehensive view of the environment was a critical first step in our quest to manage our software better.”

Trelica was connected to Flipdish’s financial management platform to further enrich the SaaS inventory with clarity on where purchases had been made, by whom, and whether they were expensed or invoiced.

"Deep insight into SaaS usage and spend within minutes of deploying Trelica meant we could take action to increase efficiency immediately."

Leon Weavers, Head of IT

Converting SaaS discovery insights into cost savings

Flipdish has leveraged insights from Trelica to consolidate its applications and reduce overall SaaS expenses by 35%.
The first way Flipdish reduced SaaS spending was to identify application duplication, where multiple applications were being used to meet similar business needs, such as project management. “By removing duplicate apps, we have consolidated our environment from around 1,000 apps to just 160.”

Secondly, Flipdish has been able to identify underutilized licenses assigned to inactive users.

"Trelica automations identify inactive users and eliminate overprovisioning, helping us reduce our SaaS spending significantly."

Leon Weavers, Head of IT

A zero-touch approach to SaaS access management

Flipdish’s objective was to drive users to approved tools in a controlled, auditable way, and all with the least possible manual intervention from a small IT team. Onboarding automation ensures employees are given access to ‘birthright’ apps as they join the business, but many other applications need managing more flexibly on an ‘as needed’ basis.

The Flipdish IT team rolled out Trelica’s “App Hub” to give employees a readily available, searchable catalog of approved SaaS apps. “Employees can use Trelica to make access requests that are forwarded to their manager automatically for approval,” says Leon. “This ‘zero-touch’ approach is saving a huge amount of time for the IT team.”

To round out the employee lifecycle, Flipdish is also using Trelica to automate deprovisioning for employees leaving the company. “An average employee uses 40 to 50 apps. Trelica workflows ensure that these accounts are deactivated and licenses are reclaimed when someone leaves,” says Leon. “This not only saves us time, but also maximizes security.”

Scaling IT operations with no additional resources

With full visibility of the SaaS estate, a consolidated app environment, and automated workflows for access management, the IT team can now do far more with the same resources.

“We continue to grow rapidly, which is great news for the company, but it also means serving more users every day,” says Leon.

"Trelica provides the insights and tools we need to provision, manage, support and deprovision software quickly and reliably – which means we can scale up our activities without growing our team."

Leon Weavers, Head of IT

Planning an even brighter, more automated future

Flipdish is now working with Trelica to take its SaaS management capabilities to the next level. Leon says: “We’re not happy to just stand still. We’re now looking at automations that grant temporary access to apps, to make license management leaner and access control even more compliant.”

The pursuit of zero-touch IT support doesn’t stop with software. Trelica’s MDM connectors give a clear picture of hardware assets and the employees they’re assigned to as well. “Extending existing Trelica workflows to our hardware estate will ensure that employees have the hardware tools they need, and that these assets are reclaimed from leavers – all in one platform, and all with one set of workflows.”

“We already have a solid foundation for automated provisioning and deprovisioning at scale, so this is really the icing on the cake for us,” concludes Leon.