Why cloud-based services are costing your business more than you think

When was the last time you asked yourself a very important question: Do you know what your business is spending month after month?

We look at our credit card statements and expenses religiously, but are we really taking stock of the details? You might be surprised what you’d find if you had insight into each individual line item.

We certainly were.

SaaSTrax is an automated subscription-tracking platform designed to help businesses save money. It’s also the newest member of a family of technology companies, so when our backend technology was up and running, our first test was on ourselves.

We ran the SaaSTrax system on one of our sister companies. It analyzed what SaaS (software as a service) platforms we were using, who in our organization was using them and how much we were paying month over month. We figured the initial report would provide insight; instead, it found a serious problem.

Every month, our organization had been paying for an online meeting platform no one was using. We’d signed up months before, then switched to a different service. But somewhere over the course of that switch, we never turned off the first subscription. Our losses for that one worthless expense totaled more than $1,000.

So, how does something like that happen?

It’s easy to assume it’s a matter of someone, somewhere just not paying attention — a weak cog in the accounting engine of an organization. But our research shows it’s not that simple. There are several factors at play that make this an ongoing and costly problem for businesses of all sizes:

First, cloud-based applications are essential in today’s business world, and we’ve got more recurring payments on our books than ever before.
There are likely multiple people within your organization armed with buying power. While you’re signing up for one service, they’re paying for another — duplicating efforts and costs.
Monthly subscription costs are often low compared to other large expenses. It’s easy to overlook $100 a month; but that $100 adds up, fast.
Many SaaS platforms charge per user, and many times, the number of users a company pays for and the number of employees actually using the system differ substantially.
No matter what the size of your organization, going over expenses line by line is time-consuming and inefficient. As a result, most businesses just don’t do it.

We built SaaSTrax because we understood the problem, and we recognized the potential for technology to solve it. Now, we’ve seen it work — with our own business and with our clients.

Every dollar matters when you’re building, running and growing a business. Our job is to ensure you don’t waste any of your budget on unused software licenses.

Want to see what we could do for your business? Sign up for a free demo today!