I hear it a lot actually… Cloud IT engineers and IT financial analysts tell me their company has invested in a tool that is supposed to help with cloud expense management, but it really doesn’t do what they need it to do.
Low-hanging fruit is the source of the problem.
Their existing cloud service provider makes it all too easy to purchase add-on tools marketed as “total solutions” that are supposed to cut IaaS costs and “handle cost optimization from start to finish.” But the reality is the market is flooded with lots of native cloud optimization tools and point solutions that ultimately end in disappointment:
- Manual tasks needed to execute a FinOps cloud cost optimization strategy still rob IT and financial staff of their precious time.
- Stakeholders wonder why getting the reports they need to make smarter cloud purchasing decisions remains so difficult.
- Tensions between IT and finance teams run high, because point solutions lack broad visibility and can’t bridge needs in ways that cultivate cost accountability.
There’s a Very Real Cost of Doing Nothing
Despite the direct and indirect cost of indecisiveness, some aren’t motivated to fix the problem. The consequences are this: Tool limitations result in only a small amount of savings, lost productivity, and a FinOps program that falls short of full maturity – never really growing stronger, smarter, and more streamlined over time.
The Price of Indecision: Cutting Your Savings Off at the Knees
- Companies that fail to leverage AI in their FinOps programs will save less than 10% on cloud when those that use AI save more than 20%, according to a study by CIO.com.
- Companies that accelerate their FinOps progression can more quickly move cost optimization efforts beyond the cloud, gaining governance over their mobile and telecom costs too. Studies show organizations can save more than $10.5M on average when they govern costs across their IT environment.
- Tangoe’s years of experience shows IaaS invoice processing and chargebacks typically take companies 5 days every month, when the right tool can reduce that time to 5 minutes. Read the full story.
Cloud Expense Management: How to Evaluate Your Existing Tool
The first step in solving this problem is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your existing tool, understanding if it’s built to support your specific business goals and IT environment. Use this checklist as a measuring stick to understand how advanced your IaaS optimization solution really is.
Here’s a quick comparison of key capabilities.
| Features & Capabilities | Point Solution: Cloud Management Software | Tangoe One Cloud Expense Management Solution |
| Cloud Usage Data Analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Cloud Rate Optimization | Yes | Yes |
| Cloud Usage Optimization | Yes | Yes |
| Works with 4 Major CSPs | No | Yes |
| Works with Public and Private Clouds | No | Yes |
| Cloud Invoice Processing | No | Yes |
| Cloud Cost Allocation | No | Yes |
| Bill Pay Services | No | Yes |
| Integration with Financial Systems & Generates General Ledger Files | No | Yes |
| Budget vs. Actual Comparisons | No | Yes |
| Contract Management | No | Yes |
But don’t stop at IaaS…
SaaS & UCaaS Optimization: Look for these Capabilities
Don’t forget to evaluate your existing tool’s ability to optimize cloud software and communications applications, including the ability to reveal unsanctioned applications running on the corporate network, unused software subscriptions, or even redundant tools that leave room for savings through vendor consolidation.
The most powerful tools can see not just how many Microsoft 365® licenses employees have but also which sub-product tools they use and don’t use. This way IT leaders know whether employees are assigned an E3 or E5 license type, if they use Outlook® for email, and can see how many OneDrive® folders they have. With these deeper insights, applications can be optimized without negatively impacting employee productivity.
SaaS security tools aren’t enough! Security platforms including cloud access security brokers (CASBs) and security access service edge (SASE) solutions are built to identify visits to SaaS provider websites, but they won’t be able to:
- Track app usage in depth,
- Manage and automate license entitlements, or
- Optimize costs through financial reporting.
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is another visibility issue that your SaaS management solution should help with. UCaaS providers commonly charge fees when clients exceed their allotted data or service package, which is common, but their invoices often lack detailed breakdowns showing you the root cause of the overage and thus the source of any additional fees. Pre-built capabilities in advanced UCaaS expense management platforms mean you don’t need to manually correlate multiple sources of data to pinpoint issues and resolve them.
Building Your Business Case: Tangoe has Your Back
At Tangoe, we’ll help you explore the capabilities of your current tool(s), defining strengths and weaknesses to help you build your business case. You’ll get professional advice on how to make improvements in cost governance through financial discipline, process automation, technology upgrades, and by adding managed services from a cloud expense management service like Tangoe’s.
One research firm enjoyed this free consultation from Tangoe, taking it one step further with a 30-day proof of concept. The test run gave them full confidence before making the switch to Tangoe One Cloud expense management for SaaS. In the end, they had a proven solution in place just as their existing contract expired, making it easy to turn their proof of concept into a permanent solution as they made the formal transition to Tangoe. Read the full client case study.
3 Things You’ll Love about Tangoe One Cloud
- You’ll get rapid implementation and cloud usage insights in 24-48 hours after installation, which means you get results almost immediately and save money sooner.
- Speed of switching solutions – Tangoe doesn’t leave all the transition leg work to you. We wrap our solutions with a menu of managed services helping you inventory your assets, collect invoices and expense information, and build a centralized system for cloud services management.
- Need help with more than just cloud cost management? Tangoe’s advisory services go the distance with digital transformation strategy workshops that span everything from network connectivity and topography planning to proactively sidestepping problems with cloud migration plans and execution support.
Ready to evaluate your native tool or point solution? Talk to Tangoe today.