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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.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Zluri: SaaS Management SaaS Spend Management: How Zluri Helps IT Leaders Deal with Budget Cuts?
By the numbers:
- According to Gartner's report, end-user spending has reached $482 billion in 2022 and will exceed 45% by 2026.
- 254 SaaS apps, that, on average, a company uses 254 SaaS apps, but the average app engagement over 60 days was 45%.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should organisations reduce SaaS spend without losing business capability?
A: Start with application discovery, then validate which tools are actually used, which are duplicated, and which renewals are automatic.
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 is the most reliable way to spot SaaS spend waste in a large organisation?
A: Look for gaps between purchased licences, active users, and feature adoption, then compare those figures across departments.
Practitioner guidance
- Build a single SaaS inventory from multiple signals Combine SSO, finance, API, endpoint, and browser telemetry so app ownership and usage are verified from more than one source.
- Rightsize licences on observed usage, not procurement history Use 60-day engagement, active-user counts, and feature consumption to reduce overbuying and downgrade unused tiers before renewal.
- Assign named renewal owners for every material subscription Give each high-value contract one accountable owner who can review usage, approve cancellation, and negotiate terms before auto-renewal triggers.
What's in the full article
Zluri's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The vendor's discovery methods and how they combine SSO, finance, APIs, desktop agents, and browser extensions.
- The renewal calendar behaviour, including alert timing for contracts and payments before auto-renewal.
- The MoEngage example showing how centralised visibility translated into reported savings over six months.
- The department-level spend comparisons and contract overcharge checks used to find budget leakage.
👉 Read Zluri's analysis of SaaS spend management and renewal waste →
SaaS sprawl and auto-renewals: what IAM teams miss?
Explore further
12/06/2026 10:33 am
SaaS spend leakage is an identity governance problem disguised as procurement waste. The article shows that app discovery, licence ownership, and user usage are all part of the same control surface. When those records are split across finance, IT, and line-of-business buyers, organisations lose the ability to connect access to value. The practitioner conclusion is that SaaS cost control belongs in the identity operating model, not only in procurement.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- 91.6% of secrets remain valid five days after the targeted organisation is notified, showing a critical gap in remediation procedures.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who should be accountable for cancelling unused SaaS tools before renewal?
A: A named business owner should be accountable, with IT or IAM providing usage evidence and procurement enforcing the contractual deadline. If accountability sits only in finance or only in the business unit, renewal risk usually persists because no one owns the decision end to end.
👉 Read our full editorial: SaaS sprawl and renewal leaks are driving avoidable spend waste
