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Govern SaaS applications

Learn how to govern your SaaS applications in SaaS.

SaaS discovery is about finding what you have; to get visibility of applications, subscriptions, and users in your SaaS estate. Governance of your SaaS applications is about finding unknown SaaS use in your IT estate, controlling secure access and use, ensuring compliance, and rationalizing your SaaS portfolio.

Prerequisites​

Information in SaaS is based on discovery, data consolidation, and information that you add. To be able to govern your SaaS applications, you must fulfillll some prerequisites:

  • Collect information about your SaaS estate through discovery sources. For more information, see Get started with SaaS and SaaS discovery.

  • Collect user activity for SaaS applications, since it is crucial for understanding your SaaS usage. Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud also require activity collection from devices for the subscriptions to be optimized. For more information, see ​User activity.

  • Mark applications that are discovered in your SaaS estate as approved or not approved for use. For more information, see ​Edit applications. Applications discovered through SaaS connectors are automatically marked as approved and the selection cannot be changed.

If you have applications that cannot be discovered through any source, you can add them manually. For more information, see ​Manage SaaS applications​.

Find your most used applications​

Find your most used SaaS applications based on number of active users.

  1. Go to Applications.

  2. View the chart Application usage (top 5) for the applications that have the highest number of active users.

  3. In the table, view the column Total users for the exact number of users active in, or entitled to, respective applications.

  4. Select an application, and on the Users tab, view all users connected to the application and their activity in the columns Status and Last active.

Find unknown application use​

Find unknown SaaS application use in your IT estate, to take control over shadow IT application use and ensure security and compliance.

  1. Go to Applications.

  2. Select the indicator Not approved to filter the table on applications that are not marked as approved, but that have user activity.

  3. Go through the list.

  4. Select an application, and on the Users tab, view all users that have activity in the application.

  5. Take action, for example, by discontinuing the use of the application, or by purchasing a subscription for it.

Repeat this procedure for all applications where you find unknown use.

Find use of unapproved applications​

Find use of unapproved SaaS applications, so that you can take action and ensure secure use of SaaS applications in your organization.

  1. Go to Applications.

  2. Select the indicator Not approved to filter the table on applications that are not marked as approved but that have user activity.

  3. Select an application, and on the Users tab, view all users that have activity in the unapproved application.

  4. Take action, for example, by discontinuing the use of the application or by approving it.

    To learn how to mark an application as approved for use, see ​Edit applications.

Repeat this procedure for all unapproved applications.

Find applications without a subscription​

Find SaaS applications in your IT estate that are not connected to a subscription, to ensure compliance.

  1. Go to Applications.

  2. Select an application, and on the Subscriptions tab, if the table is empty, you do not have any subscriptions connected to the application.

  3. Add a SaaS connector for the vendor of the application to collect the subscription or add it manually. For more information, see SaaS connectors and Add subscriptions manually​.

Repeat this procedure for all applications without a subscription.

Rationalize your applications​

Find SaaS applications in your IT estate with overlapping functionalities, to be able to rationalize your application portfolio and optimize subscription costs.

  1. Go to Applications.

  2. View the chart Application categories (top 5) for the application categories that are most common in your SaaS estate.

  3. In the table:

    1. Filter the column Category to find if you have applications with overlapping functionality within each category that can be rationalized.
    2. The column Total users shows how many users are connected to each application.

  4. Select an application, and on the Users tab, view the user activity in the columns Status and Last active.

  5. Compare the activity level between overlapping applications to decide if there is a rationalization opportunity to move users over to the same application.

  6. Cancel any subscriptions that you do not need anymore for the applications that you discontinue in your organization.

Repeat this procedure for all the relevant application categories.

tip

You can also go to a single application, and on the Overview tab, view the table Applications in the same category.

Find all applications in a product family​

View your applications on product family level for an overview of the services from the same vendor.

  1. Go to Subscriptions.

  2. In the table, in the Family column, select the family link.

  3. Use the information on the tab Applications, for example, to find the number of users in respective applications.

  4. Select an application, and on the Users tab, view the user activity in the columns Status and Last active.