// SaaS Management
See what SaaS you actually run, use, and pay for
SaaS Management is the process of discovering, managing, and optimizing cloud applications across their entire lifecycle. The goal is to know which subscriptions exist, how they are really used, what they cost, and which ones should be renewed, consolidated, or retired.
Manage SaaS as part of your software estate, not beside it
SaaS enters the organization differently from traditional software. There is no installation, no package, and no deployment, so a new subscription can be live across a whole department without ever appearing in classic inventory. A corporate card and an email address are enough.
That is why SaaS gaps tend to grow quietly. Subscriptions renew automatically, licenses stay assigned after people change roles or leave, teams buy tools that overlap with what the company already owns, and AI services billed by usage make next year’s software budget harder to predict. The problem usually surfaces late: at renewal, during an audit, after an access review, or when finance asks why software spend moved.
Raynet One brings SaaS into the same data foundation as the rest of your technology estate. Subscriptions, users, contracts, and cost are consolidated alongside installed software and hardware, normalized into consistent product and vendor identity, and enriched with intelligence from the Raynet One Technology Catalog. Usage data then connects what you pay for to what people actually open.
The result is a SaaS portfolio you can govern: clearer cost control, fewer redundant tools, less shadow SaaS, and renewal conversations backed by evidence rather than estimates.
Reduce SaaS cost and risk with usage you can verify
Discover shadow SaaS
Identify unapproved SaaS applications early by combining discovery, identity, and expense data.
Reclaim unused subscriptions
Track usage to identify inactive licenses, duplicate subscriptions, and opportunities to reduce SaaS costs.
Govern access and offboarding
Keep SaaS access and licenses aligned with employee role changes and departures.
Negotiate renewals with evidence
Use accurate subscription, usage, cost, and contract data to negotiate better renewal terms.
SaaS Management
Managing SaaS well takes more than a list of subscriptions. Teams need to know which applications are in use, who uses them, which contracts and entitlements cover them, what they cost, and whether a cheaper or already licensed alternative exists.
Raynet One builds that picture from your own environment. Agent-based and agentless discovery, together with more than 200 connectors, collect SaaS, software, hardware, and cloud data from the systems you already run. Integrated ETL technology correlates, standardizes, validates, and reconciles those records, so the same application is recognized consistently no matter which source reported it.
Enrichment from the Raynet One Technology Catalog then adds standardized product names, vendors, editions, license models, and lifecycle information. This makes it possible to compare functionally identical applications, spot redundancy across teams, and assess whether a SaaS subscription duplicates something an existing agreement already covers.
Continuous monitoring keeps the picture current as subscriptions are added, users change, and contracts renew. Over- and under-licensing become visible while there is still time to act, and audit preparation draws on data that has been maintained all along rather than assembled under pressure.
Successful IT Asset & SaaS Management Begins with Transparency
As part of a holistic IT Asset Management (ITAM) project, METRO AG achieved complete transparency across its decentralized IT landscape – including SaaS applications, contracts, and licenses – using the Raynet Unified Data Platform and USU License Management. Today, this centralized and reliable data foundation serves as the basis for the sustainable and cost-efficient management and optimization of the entire hardware, software, and SaaS portfolio, as well as for compliance-ready audits and informed decision-making.
Customers who rely on Raynet technologies
One data foundation for SaaS and software
Most SaaS Management tools stop at the SaaS boundary. They report subscriptions, seats, and spend, but cannot relate any of it to the installed software and on-premises entitlements the same vendors also sell you. Raynet One manages both on one data foundation, which is what makes the following possible:
- Shared normalization: SaaS applications pass through the same Raynet One Technology Catalog enrichment as software and hardware, so vendors, products, editions, and license models are identified consistently across the whole estate.
- Cross-portfolio overlap: compare a SaaS subscription against entitlements you already hold on-premises and find duplicate functionality a SaaS-only tool has no way to see.
- Consumption-based spend: apply the same cost governance to AI services and usage-based billing as to traditional seat licenses.
- Data your stack can use: the enriched result feeds the SAM, ITSM, and CMDB tools you already run instead of replacing them.
That combination is what Forrester now tracks as its own category, SaaS & Software Asset Management (SSAM), and Raynet is included in its first report on it.
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Frequently asked questions about SaaS Management
What is SaaS Management?
SaaS Management refers to the process of discovering, managing, and optimizing cloud applications throughout their entire lifecycle. The goal is to create transparency, reduce costs, and ensure compliance.
What advantages does SaaS Management with Raynet One offer?
Raynet One provides a complete overview of all SaaS subscriptions, users, and contracts. Companies benefit from reduced expenses, enhanced IT security, and automated compliance management.
Who particularly benefits from SaaS Management?
SaaS Management is important for companies of all sizes that use multiple cloud applications. IT leaders, security teams, and compliance officers especially benefit, as it helps them avoid shadow IT and licensing risks.
How does SaaS Management help reduce costs?
By analyzing usage data, Raynet One identifies unused or duplicate SaaS licenses. This enables targeted reduction of subscriptions, sustainably lowering costs and increasing the ROI of SaaS investments.
How does SaaS Management support IT security?
SaaS Management ensures continuous transparency across all deployed SaaS applications. This prevents shadow IT, security gaps, and unauthorized access, while ensuring compliance with standards such as GDPR or SOC 2.
How quickly can SaaS Management be implemented with Raynet One?
With Raynet One, companies can obtain an initial meaningful overview of their SaaS portfolio within minutes. The solution is ready to use immediately, scalable, and seamlessly integrates into existing IT systems.
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