Ausgangslage

The company had grown rapidly over the past three years, leading to an uncontrolled increase in the software tools deployed. Over 40 different SaaS licenses were in use, often with overlapping functions in project management, CRM, and data analytics.

The IT department struggled with fragmented data sources and high licensing costs. Meanwhile, the compliance team found that managing data protection policies (GDPR/CCPA) across the multitude of vendors was extremely labor-intensive. There was a lack of central oversight regarding the actual usage of the tools.

Umsetzung

We began with a complete inventory of all existing software licenses. Within four weeks, we identified redundancies and underutilized tools. The focus was on consolidating five core areas: project management, customer relationship management, communication platforms, data analytics, and document management.

Die wichtigsten Schritte im Projekt:

  • Analysis & Mapping: Creation of a heatmap to assess the usage intensity of all tools.
  • Standardization: Selection of Microsoft 365 as the central platform for communication and documents.
  • Migration: Transfer of project data to Jira and CRM data to Salesforce.
  • Automation: Setup of workflows to automatically cancel unused licenses.

The migration was carried out in three phases over a period of two months to avoid disrupting ongoing operations.

Ergebnis

Upon project completion, the company used only 12 SaaS tools instead of 40. Annual software costs were significantly reduced by eliminating redundancies and negotiating volume discounts.

Die wichtigsten Kennzahlen nach sechs Monaten:

  • 35% reduction in annual SaaS spending.
  • 50% less time spent by the IT team on manual license management.
  • 100 % Abdeckung der Compliance-Anforderungen durch zentrale Datenhaltung.
  • 20% higher employee productivity due to simplified workflows.

The IT department was able to refocus on strategic projects instead of spending time maintaining outdated interfaces.

Learnings

Success was based on the clear definition of responsibilities between IT and business departments. Without the active involvement of the business units, the migration of data to the new systems would not have run smoothly.

A key point was the introduction of a regular review process for new software requests. This prevents the problem of tool proliferation from recurring in the future. Companies should not view SaaS implementations as isolated decisions, but as part of a holistic IT portfolio management strategy.

Results

  • -35 % – Jährliche SaaS-Kosten
  • 40 zu 12 – Reduktion der Softwaretools
  • +20 % – Mitarbeiterproduktivität
  • 100 % – Compliance-Abdeckung