It’s no surprise that SaaS took off during 2020. SaaS, software as a service, is a cloud-based service where instead of downloading software and updates to your desktop or business network, you access an application via a browser. This includes apps such as Slack, Hubspot, Salesforce, Google Apps and even Desktop.com.
Since the pandemic, businesses around the world have begun to leverage SaaS platforms and shift from the traditional office desk to a more remote environment. As people begin to change their work habits, they’ve begun to realize the importance and simplicity of SaaS applications. Employees can easily connect and collaborate with their team remotely, remain engaged in meetings and work, and have access to all the necessary tools they need. It’s becoming so popular that businesses are adopting SaaS apps at an astonishing rate. By 2021, 73% of organizations will be using all or mostly SaaS solutions.
Due to the sudden increase in SaaS consumption, IT organizations are discovering that managing and securing SaaS environments at a large scale can be a difficult and time-consuming process. So what does this mean for the future of SaaS and IT’s involvement in the process?
Managing your SaaS apps can be hard to do, especially when you don’t have the right tools to keep all of your web based resources and assets organized. With Desktop.com, users can share and utilize all of their necessary apps and links in one collaborative hub, making it easier to manage all of the tools you need.
To start, we need to understand IT’s current relationship with businesses using SaaS.
For several years now, software and infrastructure has advanced and combined so that businesses and employees can more easily perform their duties. Part of that advancement is due to SaaS apps. The role of SaaS in the process has allowed companies to onboard employees quicker, provide tools for home-office work, and the relatively low cost has been an attractive feature to companies.
This growing shift to collaborative, at-home work has given many IT departments new work to integrate SaaS management into the workplace. With that, IT is now focusing on making sure employees can access the proper apps through their network and get teams the necessary tools they need.
Using SaaS has given businesses a whole new path to work operations. While on the surface this seems like a clear and harmless path, IT is learning that SaaS comes with its own disadvantages when managing the increasing need for collaborative tools.
SaaS has been both a blessing and a curse for a lot of IT organizations and departments. While SaaS has given businesses a more flexible work environment, the use of these apps comes with its own set of security risks that are time-consuming to manage.
One of these risks is what’s known as “shadow IT”. Shadow IT is when employees use unsanctioned SaaS apps for their work. As companies grow and improve their job performance, employees tend to utilize other apps to improve their work performance that the company hasn’t officially brought in. 50% of money spent on software happens outside of official IT budgets. Since these apps were not secured by IT first, they tend to come with a lot more security risks for the company. IT may make routine inspections to attempt to find some of these unsanctioned apps, but ultimately it’s up to the employees to bring these apps to IT so that they can secure them for use within the whole company.
If your business is using too many apps, it might be time to switch over to Desktop.com. With its quick-import function, you can easily put all your apps and bookmarks into one organized and shareable place, allowing you to organize and remove any unnecessary tools so that your company can save money and work efficiently.
The use of a lot of SaaS apps, unsanctioned or not, has also forced IT teams to spend more time on offboarding employees. Offboarding an employee on average can take up to 7.12 hours across all SaaS apps. While SaaS is a massive help to businesses, when an employee leaves, IT organizations must go through all used apps by that individual and secure any files or information and remove the person from their network. As we continue to use more and more of these apps, this process takes longer and longer, making it difficult for IT to perform their other necessary duties.
So is there a way where we can continue to use SaaS apps while also giving IT less work? There is one solution that seems to be rising: SaaSOps!
SaaSOps, or SaaS operations, refers to the operational processes of how software as a service is discovered, purchased, managed and cancelled in a business. This method is becoming adopted by more and more IT organizations because of its automated tools, cutting down on a lot of time-consuming tasks.
As SaaS app environments become more complex with each year, routine IT inspections become more vulnerable to mistakes that would cause security risks. With the current system in place, IT won’t be able to keep up with security measures while businesses take advantage of collaboration hubs. That’s why SaaSOps is receiving massive amounts of support from IT organizations as it provides the tools and methods to quickly solve a lot of IT’s problems.
SaaSOps gives IT organizations a platform to discover, manage, and secure SaaS apps at a larger scale with centralized and automated tools. IT can receive alerts to high-risk resource sharing and can more easily educate users on security policies and how to safely use SaaS apps. SaaSOps platforms don’t just benefit IT either. By maximizing SaaS performance, an SaaSOps platform can improve employee productivity and engagement, which in turn helps companies produce more revenue.
IT continues to get behind the idea of SaaSOps more and more with each challenge it is able to help solve. Through automated operations, IT is able to reduce friction, improve collaboration, and even create better employee experiences without having to sacrifice more of their time. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.
SaaS has proven to be the next big step towards our working infrastructure. We’re at a critical point now where we must decide if we want to continue the growth of SaaS, or fall back to our normal routine. Here at Desktop.com, we welcome this push towards a more sustainable SaaS environment. As demand for collaborative apps and IT support increases, SaaSOps has proven to be a necessary and practical solution for our current challenges. With this new and rising tool at our disposal, we’ll be able to secure the future of remote work.
Collaboration and flexibility have always been the cornerstone of an effective team, which is why we created the Desktop.com service in the first place. By signing up for a pro account, you’ll have access to several features that will help drive your team to its full potential. With access to a unified hub, chat and video conferencing, and app integration, your team will be prepared to work together.
