In 2015, 83% of US firms with 100-999 employees were using SaaS. By 2019, this figure reached 98%. In other words, there were only 2% of US mid-market businesses without any SaaS services in use last year.
With SaaS apps–since you’re not sourcing hardware or keeping systems running yourself–your MSP needs to continue providing clients with value they’re willing to pay a premium for.
As we’ve argued before, MSPs should focus on mitigating the security and financial risks associated with SaaS applications.
Put another way, virtually all software applications are moving to the cloud, making their technical management less problematic but still leaving your clients with their administration.
If you’re intrigued, we’ll cover how you can systematize a SaaS administration service offering.
Decide What MSP SaaS Services You Want to Offer
MSP SaaS services aim to help your clients manage what can quickly become dozens of subscriptions and renewal cycles, each with its own set of users and compliance issues.
In other words, as companies acquire more tools, tool management itself becomes a necessary task that requires the right process. These SaaS services can be broken down into the following five areas:
- SaaS administration: Setting up and configuring apps.
- SaaS integrations: Connecting SaaS apps to support business processes.
- SaaS audits: Generate insights and actionable data.
- SaaS support: Resolve SaaS app access and user issues.
- SaaS migration: From on-premise or between different SaaS apps
We recommend choosing the services that matter most to your target customers.
If you’re not sure what those are, then consider the broader benefits of the above SaaS management services and go from there:
- Mitigation of security and compliance issues (SaaS administration, SaaS audits, SaaS support)
- Reduction of costs through better license management (SaaS administration, SaaS audits, SaaS support)
- Reduce data protection problems (SaaS administration, SaaS audits, SaaS support)
- Increased productivity and employee efficiency (SaaS audits, SaaS integrations)
Decide on Your People, Technology, and Workflows
To systematize your SaaS admin processes, you’ll need to get the right people, technology, and workflows in place. Here’s a little more about each key element.
People
SaaSOps professionals are responsible for your clients’ full software journey, from budgeting and approval to leaver/joiner processes, risk management and compliance, employee enablement, and administration automation.
While it’s still a fledgling job title, it helps people recognize the SaaS world’s challenges as much as they do those associated with computer networking and hardware.
You’ll want to earmark existing technicians who can handle this new service.
Tools
You’ll need a couple of different tools to systematize your SaaSOps processes.
For one, you need a way to manage your customer data, i.e., a CRM. You’ll also want to track your clients’ usage of these SaaS services using a helpdesk app–ensuring you know how much time it takes your team to manage common issues and tasks.
System management helps you track access to your clients’ SaaS apps. It also helps enforce the security policies you set for your team since you’re now accessing platforms with your clients’ customer data.
Here’s a comprehensive graphic that lists all the tools you need.
Create Automated Workflows
The final step here is to create automated workflows where possible.
While SaaS applications typically have native management consoles, the depth of their capabilities often doesn’t completely meet a company’s requirements.
These limitations include insufficient reporting, coarse IT permissions, and burdensome administrative tasks that require significant manual effort.
SaaS management platforms like Augmentt can help by embedding complex administrative scripts and processes into a single-click workflow.
For example, you can fully automate complex IT admin processes, secure and control user activity, and prevent unauthorized data access across your client’s SaaS application stack.
As a result, the automation afforded by SaaS scripting gives time back to your technicians so they can concentrate on helping grow your MSP practice by delivering more customized value to your clients.
Learn More About Systematizing SaaS Admin Processes
If you’re eager to learn more about how your MSP can systematically offer the above SaaS services, we recommend you sign up for the Augmentt Academy. You’ll gain all the knowledge you need to provide SaaSOp services to your clients confidently.
