SHI's SaaS Cost Optimization service finds up to $5.5M in wasted app spend for global retailer

SHI's SaaS Optimization service delivers $5.5M in potential cost savings and unparalleled insights for a global retailer.

Challenge:

This global retailer had long believed they had a good handle on their SaaS application management, with $80M annual spend on 220 known applications.

But when an internal audit raised questions about shadow IT, their assumptions shattered. Now there were questions about up to 70 additional applications.

Unsure how to unravel the mess, they turned to SHI for help understanding what they were paying for – and what they were actually using.

Solution:

SHI delivered a proof of concept for our SaaS Cost Optimization service, showcasing environmental insights and potential areas for cost savings. By integrating this service with industry-leading platform Zylo under our ITAM Select Vendor Program, we’re able to offer a holistic view of the customer’s SaaS environment, including comprehensive application analysis and optimization recommendations.

SHI adhered to core ITAM best practices (people, process, and platform) to ensure we delivered a comprehensive, efficient, and cost-effective approach for the customer.

Outcome:

In just three months, SHI identified that the customer’s true annual ITAM spend was $262M – nearly 3.3x the $80M they’d previously assumed!

Additionally, our service technicians unearthed 498 SaaS applications, more than double the number of previously known and suspected applications combined. This discovery shed a fluorescent light on the company's sprawling – and often unnoticed – SaaS environment.

With this complete picture now available, we determined the customer’s usage rate across the SaaS environment was just 28%. This shockingly low usage rate, with redundancy data available down to the specific user level, highlighted significant optimization and cost savings areas.

SHI identified over $5.5M in potential savings, including:

• $1.6M – application license management with direct platform integrations
• $1.9M – price benchmarking, application consolidation, and a reduction in shadow IT.
• $2M – 156 applications set to auto-renew over the next six months.

These rapid hidden cost discoveries underline the value and potential savings SHI's SaaS Cost Optimization service can bring to businesses.