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How Do I Budget SaaS Technology And Recruitment?

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With SaaS solutions being more important to both startup businesses and mature companies than ever before in the digital age, budgeting SaaS tech and recruitment is an essential task for everyone – no matter what the industry. Long gone are the times when businesses would make single purchases in regards to their much-needed software platforms, with today’s cloud-based solutions being accessed by monthly subscriptions that need to be budgeted for.

It’s fair to say that scaling companies simply can’t do without SaaS products if they want to achieve their business goals and stay at the top of their game, and the advantages of this growing technology are vast, with systems being flexible and easy to implement. But it’s not just the cost of the SaaS products themselves that a company needs to consider if they want to be successful; in order to function you need to be able to invest deeply in both technology AND the people who are going to use it. In other words; your budget for SaaS recruitment is equally vital, and needs to take into consideration factors such as staff, management, operational costs and overheads. Luckily, you don’t have to be a SaaS budgeting egghead in order to fulfil your SaaS recruitment needs – and it’s a good job, as you’re likely far too busy managing and improving your businesses products and services in order to continue delivering to your target audience, to suddenly become a SaaS budgeting expert.

Abika’s top tips for SaaS recruitment and technology budgeting and business growth

  1. Create An Accurate Inventory

It’s highly likely that your business has already joined the SaaS revolution, and you’re probably already using some of the most popular SaaS platforms available for your communications, customer service and accounting. In order to create an effective budget for these SaaS subscriptions make sure that you have an accurate inventory of the tools that you are currently paying for.

It might be tempting to organise your SaaS product inventory by using a simple Excel spreadsheet – an idiot-proof method for most inventory-type tasks. However, a more effective process would be to use a tool that will allow access across all of our company’s departments, which will ensure that your data stays secure and will prevent information from being lost or miscounted during updates.

When you create your SaaS product inventory it’s important to include as much information as possible about each individual product, including any contract details such as terms and conditions, the number of users for each tool, and exactly how many licences you’re paying for on any given platform. Also, make a note of how often each SaaS tool is being used. This will help you to weed out any tools that are being underused – no point hanging onto (and paying for!) SaaS products that you simply aren’t utilising.

Collating all of this information will give you a clear idea of just how much your company is spending on SaaS, allowing you to see at a glance which tools you’re maximising and are delivering value, and which aren’t giving you a return on your investment. Having this inventory also means that you can figure out whether or not you need more licences, whether the tools are valuable to your team, and whether or not your chucking money down the drain by investing in technology that isn’t living up to expectations.

  1. Make Sure You Are Properly Assigning SaaS Tools

If you don’t already have a system in place for this, now is the time to create one – proper SaaS organisation is key for budgeting. It will help you to identify any redundant apps you’re currently using, which unused licences are being paid for, and how many departments are able to access features that they don’t actually want or need.

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Uncovering waste is going to be incredibly valuable when it comes to putting together an accurate and reasonable budget for your SaaS subscriptions.

  1. Set Your SaaS Subscription Budget

Now that that’s all sorted you should be left with a clear idea of just how much money your business is spending on software, and now you can move forward with the SaaS budgeting process. The foundation of your budgeting process is going to involve creating an overview of your current year spending, tool by tool. Depending on the individual product, you could be being charged per user, per feature, or on a pay-as-you-go basis. Once you’ve identified what it is that drives the monthly cost, you’ll be able to see if the cost changes throughout the year or not. Then you can optimise your SaaS spending by looking at the number of users and what features are absolutely vital to them within each tool, and calculate your ideal spend based on those needs.

You can clear space within your SaaS budget by looking at which platforms are redundant or going unused, and therefore are no longer worth investing in. Clearing a SaaS product is going to leave you with more budget space for those SaaS products that you actually need. This doesn’t mean you should look at cost alone and simply get rid of the ‘expensive ones’ – you should always prioritise function over cost. If a certain tool or platform is providing your business with real value, it’s going to pay for itself over time.

  1. Consider Your SaaS Options

Just because you have a great existing relationship with your SaaS providers, it doesn’t mean you have to subscribe to them forever – especially if the number no longer fit. The SaaS industry is huge and continuing to grow, so there are plenty of options out there to suit all budgets.

In an ideal world you want to be taking care of your tech investments before focusing on your recruitment spend, as it will allow your business to grow and you to hire more people. But your SaaS recruitment budget can be a more difficult beast to tame, as it will depend more on what you want rather than what you already have.

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For example:

  • The number of employees or applicants you require
  • The type of industry you are hiring from and for
  • Your hiring timeline
  • The cost per hire you need to adhere to in order to be profitable
  • Your budget constraints when it comes to your overheads and external costs

Hiring new talent is expensive, so it’s essential that you build a recruitment budget in order to control costs. There are a lot of variables involved, such as the size of your company, your finances, and the number of hires you need – and there’s no such thing as an ‘ideal’ SaaS recruitment budget.

SaaS recruitment tips include:

  1. Look At Your Past Recruitment Costs

When it comes to your recruitment budget, it’s a good idea to take a look at your previous recruitment budgets and strategies, looking at the way you have attracted SaaS talent in the past, and the costs associated with advertising and background screening. Identify your most successful strategies and allocate your finances to those – if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, and as time is money, there’s no point ploughing more of yours into coming up with new (potentially expensive) hiring strategies if you already have some implemented that are working for you.

  1. Asses Your Yearly Hirings

There are always going to be times for any business when you’re suddenly going to need new hires – either due to losing current employees for whatever reason, or because of a sudden growth spurt. However, it’s worth assessing at the beginning of each year what positions are going to become available and estimate the total number of new hires your business is going to need. This way you’ll be able to estimate the cost of hiring for the entire year, allowing you to create a yearly budget for SaaS recruitment.

  1. Look At Ways To Reduce SaaS Recruitment Costs

Even with a great recruitment strategy in place, you still want to be looking at ways to keep your SaaS recruitment budget as low as possible. Keep those costs down by maximising your online presence to ensure that you are attracting quality talent, and if your budget is low utilise social media to get word out that you are hiring. Look at implementing an employee referral programme – there is a huge pool of untapped SaaS talent out there that is made up of the friends, family and acquaintances of the talent you have already hired, and consider employing those who have the knowledge and the skills, but perhaps not loads of experience – they will cost less to hire and will be easier to mould into your way of doing things with some in-house training.