SaaS sprawl and abandoned apps: what IAM teams are missing

TL;DR: Rising SaaS spend and unmanaged app usage create hidden costs and governance gaps as organisations lose visibility into licenses, renewals, duplicate tools, and abandoned access, according to Zluri and Gartner. The identity problem is not just overspend: app lifecycle control across people, subscriptions, and access ownership is now a security requirement.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Zluri: Vendor Management How CFOs can Leverage SMPs to Optimize SaaS Spending?

By the numbers:

• 20.4% in 2022 compared to 2021., in 2022 compared to 2021.
• In 2021 the end-users spent $410.9 billion, and in 2022 the numbers reached $494.7 billion.
• The users are expected to spend nearly $600 billion by 2023.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should teams reduce SaaS overspend without losing control of access?

A: Start with a reconciled inventory of subscriptions, active users, and business owners.

Q: Why do abandoned SaaS apps create both cost and security risk?

A: Abandoned apps keep consuming budget through renewals while their linked accounts, permissions, and data access may remain active.

Q: What do security teams get wrong about duplicate SaaS tools?

A: They often treat duplicates as a finance issue and ignore the identity impact.

Practitioner guidance

• Reconcile licenses against live accounts Build a monthly process that compares purchased subscriptions with active users, recent usage, and business owner confirmation so unused licenses can be removed before renewal.
• Assign an owner to every SaaS application Require a named business and IT owner for each app so renewal, access review, and termination decisions have a clear accountable party.
• Link offboarding to subscription termination Make app retirement part of employee exit and project closure workflows so abandoned accounts, linked data access, and renewals are closed together.

What's in the full article

Zluri's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Concrete examples of how the SaaS management platform surfaces unused licenses and duplicate applications.
• The article's walkthrough of renewal calendar and contract visibility for month-by-month spending oversight.
• Practical examples of downgrading subscriptions to lower tiers based on actual app usage patterns.
• The offboarding scenario showing how abandoned apps can keep renewing after an employee leaves.

👉 Read Zluri's analysis of SaaS spending controls for CFOs and IT teams →

SaaS sprawl and abandoned apps: what IAM teams are missing?

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