New research from Productiv reveals only 2% of tech leaders have complete visibility into SaaS application stack ROI

Study Finds Application Value Management (AVM) Is Critical for CIOs to Address New Post-Pandemic Responsibilities 

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 17, 2020 – Productiv, the leading enterprise SaaS Management Platform, today announced report findings that underscore the need for enterprises to gain greater visibility into their SaaS applications, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also outline how Application Value Management (AVM) will become invaluable for addressing new CIO challenges driven by the pandemic. AVM helps CIOs monitor and manage software applications’ contribution to company performance and productivity, making it a necessary mechanism for companies to get the most value from their software investments. 

The pandemic has resulted in the role of the CIO expanding to include new responsibilities throughout the organization. CIOs are under increased pressure to ensure their companies are getting adequate value and ROI from their SaaS application stack. According to Gartner, “by 2024, 25% of traditional large enterprise CIOs will be held accountable for digital business operational results, effectively becoming ‘COO by proxy.’” As CIOs increasingly take on responsibilities that extend beyond the realm of IT, they must have a better understanding of their organization’s SaaS application stack—and the value it demonstrates. This is why AVM solutions that provide real-time insights into application ROI will become a “must” for success. 

“Since the start of the pandemic, CIOs have been tasked with doing more with tighter budgets. Consequently, having a pulse on cloud software spending, and the ROI of one’s SaaS application stack, has become more important than ever,” said Apurva Davé, VP Marketing, Productiv. “AVM meets this need by providing measurable visibility into how SaaS applications are impacting business value. The technology is also empowering CIOs by accelerating time-to-value for digital initiatives. As we move into 2021, we can expect to see more companies making data-driven decisions regarding which applications to keep and which to nix.”

Key findings include: 

Outdated strategies still in place

The primary method respondents use to collect metrics on SaaS applications within their organizations is “manual tracking.” Most (58%) tech executives rely heavily on manual tracking through individual application dashboards.

New solutions are in high demand

Almost half of respondents (44%) say their organizations don’t have the tools to demonstrate the value of their SaaS applications, underscoring the pervasive need for AVM solutions. As a result of the challenge in tracking and understanding SaaS application value, 45% of executives are unable to clearly articulate IT’s value and contribution. 

Marked lack of visibility into ROI

Only 2% of tech executives surveyed have complete visibility into the ROI of their current application stack. However, 81% plan to improve their SaaS application visibility in order to optimize spending.

AVM poised as a top solution

The vast majority (88%) of respondents agree that AVM will help their business optimize ROI for SaaS applications. Specifically, AVM will enable these executives to measure ROI more accurately, align their business agility with IT productivity, and better communicate IT’s value.

Survey Methodology:

Pulse and Productiv surveyed 200 enterprise-level tech executives to better understand how they attribute value to their SaaS application stack, where the gaps are in measuring ROI, and how to properly implement an AVM system. Data from this report was collected from Oct. 27 through Nov. 17, 2020. 

To download the report in full, please visit: https://productiv.com/resources/6-ways-to-improve-roi-when-managing-saas-applications/

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