The SaaS Renewal Nobody Owned
A media company has 2,400 employees and 61 SaaS subscriptions discovered from expense data and SSO logs. Three overlapping project-management tools are in use. One collaboration platform renews in 45 days at 1,800 seats, but SSO shows 1,120 unique active users in the last 90 days and 240 accounts belong to leavers whose identities are disabled but whose licences were never reclaimed. A department-level manager signed the original order and insists the seat count is 'about right' because headcount is growing. No one holds a complete inventory of SaaS contracts, and two tools were purchased on corporate cards with no contract on file.
1. How should the SAM lead build a defensible position for the collaboration platform renewal?
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Start from usage evidence, not from the manager's estimate.
Build the position:
- Reclaim the 240 leaver licences immediately. That is uncontroversial, recoverable value, and it establishes credibility for the harder conversation.
- Establish true active usage: 1,120 unique users in 90 days against 1,800 seats. Segment by department and by intensity so growth arguments can be tested rather than dismissed.
- Distinguish 'active' from 'entitled but occasional'. Some users may need access monthly; a tiered or flexible model may fit better than a flat 1,800.
- Model the renewal at 1,200-1,300 seats with a growth buffer, and quantify the saving against the current run rate.
Handle the stakeholder: the manager's 'about right' is a headcount argument, not a usage argument. Bring the usage data to them privately first, ask what growth they expect and over what period, and agree a buffer. Going around them creates an enemy who will re-buy seats later.
Judgement: reclaiming leavers is free money and should never wait for a negotiation. The seat-count argument should be won with data the manager helped validate.
2. What should be done about the 61 subscriptions, the three overlapping tools, and the card purchases?
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This is a governance gap, not a one-off renewal problem. Address it in layers.
Immediate (0-30 days):
- Consolidate the 61 subscriptions into a single register: owner, cost, renewal date, contract location, user count, criticality.
- For the two card purchases, find the terms of service and billing owner; card spend often means no negotiated terms, auto-renewal and no data-protection clauses. Decide whether to formalise or exit.
- For the three project-management tools, run a usage comparison and pick a standard. Overlap is usually a symptom of teams buying around a slow IT process.
Structural (30-90 days):
- Introduce a procurement gate: no new SaaS without registration and an assigned owner.
- Require SSO for all business SaaS so usage and leavers are visible automatically.
- Automate leaver reclamation from the HR/identity feed rather than relying on manual checks.
- Set a renewal calendar with alerts at 90, 60 and 30 days so no renewal is auto-charged by default.
Judgement being tested: the exam wants you to see that 61 subscriptions discovered reactively is the finding. The renewal is the symptom; the absence of an intake and reclamation process is the disease.