Tangoe Funds New Innovation Using its Own Solution to Cut SaaS Costs $347K 

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“Dogfooding” is a thing these days, and indeed you could say that Tangoe eats its own dog food. But while most software developers use their internal operations to test and control the quality of their product, Tangoe took a different approach. CIO Mark Troller implemented the Tangoe One Cloud Expense Management solution to make room in the IT budget for more digital innovation, and it was a success. He reduced IT costs by $347,000, and the savings continue to roll in funding more competitive advantages for the company.  

Funding Innovation through IT Cost Savings 

It’s easy to assume that companies fund their digital innovation strategies with a stockpile of cash earmarked for IT, but Troller tells a different story.     

“No one hands you a bucket of money for digital transformation,” he explained. “The only way to fund it is to go digging in the numbers and start removing costs inside your own IT budget.”   

That’s exactly what Troller had been doing manually. He evaluated existing IT tools and expenses to stretch his budget so he could make more financial room for investments in emerging technologies. But his manual process was revolutionized when he and his team installed the Tangoe One Cloud solution to gain visibility into all SaaS applications running inside Tangoe’s own IT environment.  

Troller knew he spent about $8.5 million every year on SaaS and maintained about 70-75 applications, but the actual numbers were double and triple what he expected. The solution quickly revealed that Tangoe had just over 250 applications and was spending $11 million on SaaS.   

“It was a humbling surprise,” Troller said. “I was aware of our largest SaaS costs, but it was eye opening to see how and where all the smaller costs added up. I wish I had implemented our solution earlier — it would have made funding our innovation much easier.” 

Here’s a look at some of the results helping Tangoe fund innovation for years to come: 

  • Simple implementation: There wasn’t a lot to configure — we already own access to all our data, so it was only a matter of analyzing it 
  • Immediate insights: Within 24 to 72 hours, Troller had a significant volume of identified cost savings to start exploiting 
  • A new perspective on Shadow IT: Troller gained an aggregate view into both sanctioned and unsanctioned applications including the tools employees were paying for on their personal credit cards and then expensing to the company for reimbursement 
  • Savings and security insights: Now Troller can see where Tangoe spends on SaaS, so he knows where there is room for us to negotiate better deals and strengthen security    
  • Lean SaaS usage: IT can more clearly spot unused application licenses needing reallocation 
  • Less redundancy, less waste: A consolidation effort reduced redundant applications and standardized the company’s apps using Microsoft Teams and Office365  
  • Automation equals productivity: With faster, more efficient IT financial management processes, Tangle reduced through attrition one IT Financial Analyst position 
  • Total IT savings thus far: $347,000 in cost savings across both headcount and technology 

Confidence is One of the Biggest Benefits 

The best part is confidence. When Troller speaks with his peers, he knows he is giving them an accurate representation of the company’s complete technology footprint.  

“We all want to be transparent, but we can only be transparent about what we know,” he said. “When I couldn’t see all our spending, I wasn’t living up to my promise to be transparent. Now, I really can be.”   

Don’t miss the complete case study.