Zuora optimizes SaaS spend with Trelica for 10x ROI

Zuora, a leading monetization platform provider for recurring revenue businesses, uses a large portfolio of SaaS apps to run its operations. To provide a clear view of licenses and optimize SaaS spending, the organization deployed Trelica’s SaaS management platform, achieving 10x ROI in the first six months.

Keeping tabs on SaaS spend and renewals

Zuora is a high-growth enterprise SaaS business. To empower its teams to succeed, the company invests in top technology tools, including a large number of SaaS apps.

The challenge for Zuora, as for all businesses, was to understand exactly which licenses were being purchased across the organization, and whether they were being utilized effectively. Zuora also needs to report on SaaS licenses, spend, and renewals to a number of different stakeholders – including IT, Procurement, and lines of business.

Trelica as a source of truth for SaaS licenses

Trelica’s out-of-the-box connector for Coupa, Zuora’s procurement system, gave the IT team efficient and timely access to critical SaaS purchasing data.

Historic SaaS-related Purchase Orders (POs) were captured in Trelica to provide a complete view of current license entitlements and renewals. Any new POs for renewals, ‘true-ups’ or entirely new licenses flow automatically into Trelica, ensuring license information remains up-to-date and reliable.

Trelica enabled the IT team to implement a comprehensive license inventory in just six weeks.

“With Trelica, we have clear oversight of all our SaaS licenses. We now have a single, central SaaS renewals calendar and automated reminders to app owners and other stakeholders.” notes Carol Atkins, Zuora’s Software License Asset Manager.

Optimizing SaaS spend without impacting productivity or business growth

Whilst enterprise SaaS tools underpin any high-growth technology company’s success, productivity apps such as video conferencing, file sharing and eSignature management can be expensive. Zuora wanted to automate the process of tracking utilization and ensure wasted licenses were being addressed. Analyzing usage data for dozens of apps required time-consuming, manual data gathering from several places.

From analyzing utilization data, through to engaging with end users, Trelica fully automates the process of identifying and addressing potentially wasted SaaS spend.

Carol Atkins, Software License Asset Manager

Trelica’s Okta integration provides continually refreshed data on login activity for all Okta-connected apps. Direct-to-app connections enrich the Okta-sourced data with high-quality information such as the licenses assigned to a user, the amount of data stored in a file sharing app, the number of video meetings hosted, and more.

Trelica workflows are utilized to engage with inactive users – which represented, in some cases, up to 20% of the user base. This has enabled the IT team to reclaim underused licenses. Slack notifications and emails share context and guidance for end users, cultivating a sense of IT and Business collaboration.

Optimizing SaaS licenses has saved a huge amount of money for the business – Trelica has delivered over 10x ROI in the first 6 months. This is a big win for our team, and the company as a whole.

Carol Atkins, Software License Asset Manager

Less document chasing and more planning

With real-time utilization insights and a continually refreshed SaaS license inventory available in Trelica, Zuora has reduced time spent on manual SaaS management tasks.

“I now spend less than 10% of my day doing routine SaaS management, which is impressive bearing in mind the number of apps we use. It means I can focus on strategic projects to retire duplicated apps, identify and remove unused licenses, and make other improvements that deliver real benefits to the business,” says Carol.

Significant SaaS spend reduction

With Trelica, Zuora has been able to ‘right size’ licensing for five key applications, including:

• Discovering that a fifth of video conferencing app users weren’t taking advantage of the paid features of their licenses, allowing hundreds of users to be downgraded to a free version of the software and delivering major cost savings.
• Identifying overlapping and redundant app usage, resulting in a push to reduce the number of licenses renewed for an enterprise file sharing app by over 50%.

Strategic wins for the IT team

The IT team is now able to deliver timely renewal reminders to app owners across the business, along with weekly reports to the C-suite on savings from SaaS optimization. This means IT is delivering even more value for the business as a strategic partner to the leadership team.

“With the native connectors and Trelica data quality reviews, we have reliable information that enables us to focus on key decisions, rather than validating data. Trelica is a trusted source of information for IT and Procurement and its automated license management processes have enabled us to reduce license counts or avoid purchasing additional licenses. We can now maximize the value from our SaaS purchases,” says Paul Heard, Zuora’s Chief Information Officer.

What's next?

With Trelica, Zuora continues to push the boundaries of what can be achieved with a strategic approach to managing its SaaS investments.

“We’ve optimized just five key apps so far, but that’s only the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll be targeting other licenses in the portfolio and multiplying our cost savings with Trelica for the long term,” says Carol.

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