Compared to old-school, on-premise software, SaaS applications are lighter on the wallet, easier to scale, and instantly accessible. They’ve revolutionized the world of business software by turning enterprise-grade tools into something any business can afford to use.
But not every license is a good investment. Some gather digital dust on employees’ workstations, while others cause conflicts with other applications. And some SaaS solutions simply don’t make sense anymore because the company structure has changed.
This is why a license audit is necessary, at least once a year. For greater efficiency, all departments must be involved, including HR (even if they’re not the most tech-savvy). In today’s piece, we’ll focus on the contributions HR can have to a company-wide SaaS licenses audit.
SaaS License Audit Is a Team Effort
Optimizing software licenses and subscriptions is one of the most common IT cost reduction strategies, but it has to be a team effort. One department can’t make the decision for the rest of the company.
So, if you want to ensure you have the best software for your business’s needs, do not drop the decision onto the IT department. Bring the other departments into the mix, especially HR, Finance (for spend and budgeting), and Legal (for contract terms).
HR’s focus is on the people side:
- Verifying that active employees have the licenses they need (compliance).
- Identifying employees who have licenses they don’t use (cost savings).
- Confirming that licenses are revoked immediately upon termination or role change (cost savings & security/compliance).
People Data Reconciliation
The central role of HR in the SaaS license audit is to provide a centralized, definitive, and trusted repository for employee status and roles. This will become the single source of truth for this data and will ensure everyone across all departments makes decisions based on the same, reliable facts.
The HR team must export a list of all active employees, their departments, and their current job roles/titles from the HR Information System (HRIS). Then cross-reference the active employee list with the list of currently assigned SaaS users. Any user accounts associated with terminated employees must be identified for immediate de-provisioning. This is critical for both cost reclamation and security compliance.
Lastly, highlight employees who have recently changed roles or departments. A user moving from “Marketing” to “Finance” likely needs a change in their license (e.g., losing access to a marketing suite but gaining access to a finance tool). HR data is key to triggering these adjustments.
People data reconciliation is essential in modern big companies that use dozens of SaaS applications (CRM, HRIS, Financials, Project Management) because data can become scattered and contradictory.
When you have a single, reliable, and accurate database, it’s easier to enforce security policies and regulatory compliance (such as GDPR or HIPAA) because all sensitive data is managed in a central, controlled location.
Audit for Cost Efficiency and Compliance
HR data also helps identify unnecessary spend, often called shelfware (purchased but unused software).
HR professionals will work with department managers to define which applications are mandatory for each role (e.g., Salespeople need CRM licenses; Designers need specific creative software).
Once this step is completed, they’ll compare the total number of purchased licenses to the number of active employees in the roles that require them. If you bought 50 Premium licenses for a department with only 40 employees, you have 10 potential license seats to reclaim or downgrade.
For compliance, they’ll check whether the total seat count respects the contract’s stipulations in an employee-based license. They’ll also ensure that the number of assigned users does not exceed the contract’s specified limit. These steps prevent major fines in a vendor audit.
Lastly, it’s HR’s responsibility to immediately revoke user access upon employee termination. Failure to do so is a major compliance and security risk, and an unnecessary expense (since the company is still paying for that user’s license).
Wrap Up
As you can see, there’s a lot the HR department can do to ensure proper and compliant SaaS license use within the company. To keep things going in the right direction, educate employees, especially managers, on the company’s SaaS usage policy, the risks of Shadow IT (using unapproved apps), and the need to notify HR/IT when licenses are no longer needed.
