7. Optimize licenses and SaaS spend

Once you’ve decided which applications your organization will actively manage, the next challenge is ensuring you’re getting value from them. This can be easier said than done. Too often, usage data lives with IT while spend data sits with Finance, leaving neither team with a complete picture. The result is predictable: licenses being assigned “just in case,” contracts renewed by default, and budgets that don’t reflect how tools are actually being used.

1Password SaaS Manager brings SaaS discovery, usage insights, and contract data together so IT and Finance can operate from the same source of truth. By correlating who has access, how often they use it, and what you’re paying for, you can surface opportunities to sunset tools, reallocate seats, and rightsize contracts – all without impacting your team's productivity.

Reduce redundant apps

Redundant or duplicative apps can quickly drive up SaaS spend. Once you’ve taken inventory of the apps used within your organization, you might find Miro and Lucidchart being used for the same purpose, or multiple note-taking, collaboration, or scheduling tools scattered across different departments. Each app carries its own licensing model, access method, and security footprint.

This situation is all too common, and partly happens by design: many of these tools leverage collaborative features and freemium models that are designed to spread organically – one user signs up for a trial, invites a colleague, who then invites others. The productivity benefits are real, but these models often bypass centralized purchasing and IT controls, leaving organizations paying for overlapping tools without realizing it.

1Password SaaS Manager automatically categorizes apps, making it easy to spot tools that serve the same function. Usage data is surfaced alongside each app, helping you identify which tools are widely adopted, and which are only being used by a handful of people. This shared context helps IT and Finance teams assess where consolidation makes sense and where spend can be cut without impacting productivity. 

To validate decisions before taking action, you can also engage employees directly. Short surveys and in-context messages allow you to ask teams which tools they rely on and which ones they don’t, ensuring consolidation decisions are informed by real usage rather than assumptions. The goal isn’t to limit your employees but to make sure your organization isn’t paying twice for the same capability without realizing it.

Maximize the return on your SaaS investments with automations

Unused and underused licenses are one of the largest sources of wasted SaaS spend. It’s common for organizations to purchase licenses broadly during hiring or growth phases, only to find that many employees rarely use the tools they were assigned. In many cases, this stems from “license birthrighting,” where it’s easier to give everyone access up front than to define policies, manage access requests, or reclaim licenses later.

Manually identifying unused licenses across your SaaS stack is time-consuming and error-prone. By the time a report is pulled together, employee roles may have changed, users may have left, or access may already be out of date.

1Password SaaS Manager centralizes reliable usage metrics so you can quickly see:

• Who has logged in recently
• Which licenses are assigned but inactive
• Whether seat counts match actual demand

From there, you can move beyond reporting and take action. Optimization workflows let you define thresholds – such as no login in 60 or 90 days – and automatically engage users or their managers through Slack or Microsoft Teams to confirm whether access is still required. If access is no longer needed, the appropriate deprovisioning steps can be triggered automatically to remove the license. 

Where applications are managed through an identity provider, 1Password SaaS Manager can make changes through the correct control plane, ensuring license removals don’t conflict with SCIM or result in accounts being reprovisioned. This keeps access controls consistent while still allowing licenses to be reclaimed.

The result is an accurate, continuously updated view of what you’re paying for, with confidence that licenses reflect real usage, not historical assumptions. Whether you’re downgrading premium seats, reclaiming unused licenses, or preparing for an unexpected true-up mid-contract, you have the data to ensure you’re not overpaying.

Manage contracts and renewals proactively

License usage is only half of the problem. Historically, SaaS spend has been tracked in finance and procurement systems that lack visibility into how applications are actually used. Without usage data, it’s all too easy to auto-renew a subscription or contract because no one remembered the renewal date or to auto-renew a contract with the exact same number of seats.

1Password SaaS Manager closes this gap by combining contract and spend data with real usage insights. You can integrate directly with finance and procurement tools or upload contract details into SaaS Manager to centralize renewal dates, entitlements, seat counts, terms, and costs alongside adoption data.

To accelerate this process, 1Password SaaS Manager includes an AI-powered contract upload capability that extracts key details automatically, removing the need for manual data entry. This makes it easier to ensure contract data is complete and accurate from day one.

With everything in one place, renewal decisions become data-driven. If you’re paying for 500 seats but only 320 people have used the app in the last 90 days, that’s a negotiation opportunity. If several apps in the same category come up for renewal within the same quarter, it’s a clear signal to consolidate.

Automated renewal reminders ensure that contract owners, app owners, and relevant stakeholders never miss a renewal window. Notifications can be sent via email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams, and even account for notification windows, such as requiring action 30 days before a renewal date. This ensures the right people are alerted early enough to take action, whether that’s reducing seats, renegotiating terms, or retiring an app entirely.

Bringing it all together

License optimization and managing contract renewals isn’t a one-time project. New apps appear, teams change tools, and unused licenses accumulate quietly. 1Password SaaS Manager gives IT, Finance, and Procurement the visibility and automations needed to continuously keep SaaS costs under control while supporting the way your teams work. By identifying redundant products, reclaiming underutilized licenses, and managing renewals with real data, you can reduce waste, support compliance, and keep teams productive with the tools they actually use.