The Advisory Council

Expert Teleconference: Software-as-a-Service Portfolio Management Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 4:00 PM EDT New software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications seem to be popping-up everywhere. The plethora of new SaaS offerings is extremely tempting to business managers who are led to believe they can have a functioning business solution in a few days. Of course, the reality is quite different. Handled correctly within an IT framework, SaaS applications can significantly increase business agility and competitiveness. However, like any powerful tool, handled incorrectly they can be a ticking time bomb. Using a real-life case study of a company that had rogue SaaS applications putting the company at serious legal and business risk, we will explore how to bring governance and rigor to an enterprise SaaS portfolio. Hot issues to be addressed include: How can IT managers determine whether there is a “rogue application” problem in their enterprise? How can one assess the risks of shadow SaaS installations? What are the eight key risk factors of SaaS applications? How can one improve SaaS portfolio management and governance? Beth Cohen, TAC Thought Leader, has more than 20 years of experience building strong IT-delivery organizations from user and vendor perspectives. Having worked as a technologist for BBN, the company that literally invented the Internet, she not only understands where technology is today but where it’s heading in the future. Her specific expertise includes building scalable, robust IT architectures, operating systems, desktop support, process improvement, program management, IT/business alignment, security, and integration of networks, applications, and systems.

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