Topic starter
12/06/2026 12:58 am
TL;DR: SaaS sprawl, low app engagement, and missed renewals are turning hybrid-work adoption into avoidable budget waste, according to Zluri, citing Gartner and a survey showing 254 apps per company with only 45% average engagement over 60 days. The governance issue is not just cost control but identity-linked visibility into who is using which apps, when renewals trigger, and where duplicate access footprints are inflating spend.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Zluri: “SaaS Spend Management: How Zluri Helps IT Leaders Deal with Budget Cuts?”.
Key questions
Q: How should teams stop SaaS apps from being renewed after the business no longer needs them?
A: Teams should require owner confirmation, usage evidence, and finance approval before every renewal.
Q: Why do unused SaaS licences keep creating cost even when teams stop using the app?
A: Because subscription renewals continue unless someone actively intervenes.
Q: What are the signs that SaaS app sprawl is becoming a control problem?
A: The main warning signs are unapproved apps appearing across teams, inconsistent access policies, and a growing gap between what employees use and what security can see.
Practitioner guidance
- Map every SaaS app to an accountable owner Require a named business and technical owner for each application so renewal, cancellation, and usage review decisions have a clear decision-maker.
- Join usage data to renewal calendars Combine active-user counts, feature usage, and contract dates in one workflow so teams can challenge renewals before auto-renewal triggers.
- Rightsize licences using engagement thresholds Set a review rule for seats that have low or no activity over a defined period and remove or downgrade them before the next renewal cycle.
Bottom line: SaaS sprawl becomes wasteful when organisations cannot connect applications to active users, owners, and renewal timing.
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This topic was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group
12/06/2026 10:33 am
SaaS spend waste is an identity governance failure before it is a finance problem: when organisations cannot connect applications to users, owners, and renewal points, they lose the control plane needed to govern lifecycle decisions. The article shows that duplicated tools and unused licences persist because the identity layer is missing from spend management. The practitioner conclusion is that SaaS optimisation must be treated as part of IAM and IGA, not as a standalone procurement clean-up.
A few things that frame the scale:
- The average enterprise SaaS platform connects to 42 or more third-party applications through OAuth tokens, API keys, webhooks and automation platforms.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Should organisations prioritise licence rightsizing or renewal controls first?
A: Renewal controls usually come first because they stop waste from continuing by default. Rightsizing is still important, but it has less value if contracts keep renewing before the business has a chance to act. The best sequence is to control renewal decisions, then refine licence allocation with better usage evidence.
👉 Read our full editorial: SaaS sprawl and renewal leaks are driving avoidable spend waste
This post was modified 4 days ago by NHI Mgmt Group