SaaS Whispers

Jeffrey Tefertiller has been a leader in IT service management for 25 years. In his experience, he's led an ITSM company, worked in-house leading process initiatives, and owns an ITSM consulting practice. In addition, he has written six books so far––everything about ITSM practices. He is a seasoned IT professional who has successfully led geographically diverse teams, large and small. Jeffrey is a strong believer in using analytics and metrics to measure success and opportunities for improvement.Jefferey spoke to us about the importance of the SaaS governance process and elaborated the best practices to implement to have a successful SaaS Governance. He also added the need to have SaaS management platforms in this SaaSified world. Finally, he highlighted the effectiveness of SaaS management platforms and how valuable they can be for organizations. 

With over 30 years of IT experience, Howard Miller is the current CIO at UCLA Anderson School of Management. His previous roles included acting CIO and CISO at the Columbia Business School and the IT Director of Life Technologies. Having started as an entry-level programmer, Howard has been through it all and has made it to the top of the IT rung. Howard has expertise in the design, development, and deployment of strategy and policy and has succeeded in building business processes from scratch.In this episode, Howard talks about the importance of SaaS governance and its implementation in organizations, along with some day-to-day examples. 

Jim Hussey, who started his career in journalism and research, shifted paths and became the leader of a Fortune 500 technology vendor management organization. He has vast experience in software asset management, telecom expense management, IT first line of defense, third-party risk management, and IT sourced services. Meanwhile, he has also written some fantastic books - The Survival Guide To SaaS Optimization and The SAM leader survival, which were the greatest hit among the IT heads. He has been instrumental in developing the policies and controls for the software and worked closely with his IT sourcing partner and Chief Procurement Officer to develop a detailed workflow on how software is approved for use.Jim spoke to us about how prevalent SaaS has become and the difficulty of managing SaaS without an automated management system. He also shared few words on how helpful SaaS was during the pandemic. Finally, he reiterated the importance of having SaaS governance and the downsides of not having a platform to monitor SaaS stack.

Sethu Meenakshisundaram and Chaithanya Yambari are the co-founders of Zluri, the SaaS management platform. Zluri is their second venture, before which they were a part of the founding team at Knolskape and helped it scale across 30 countries. Sethu is one of the cofounders of Zluri, the SaaS management for IT teams. He leads revenue operations and customer success as part of his role. He's passionate about quizzing, board games, and photography. His retirement plan is to operate a board game bistro in one of the touristy spots of Southeast Asia.Chaithanya is also one of the co-founders of Zluri and leads the tech team. An avid tech enthusiast, he is often found testing various softwares and smart devices or attending conferences to update his knowledge and expertise. When not exuding his passion for technology, Chaithanya has traveled to over 28 countries across the globe already. Being professionally trained in baking, he spends his weekends trying to dabble a new recipe.Both of them speak on why the idea of starting up arose and their experience of building Zluri. They speak about various challenges that rapid SaaS adoption can put forth and share their learnings on managing 32 million SaaS usage transactions through Zluri.Visit us at www.zluri.com to see how we can help you get started with managing your SaaS.

Jeremy L. Boerger started his career in the Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) industry, helping businesses build and rehabilitate successful software and hardware asset management practices. His strong knowledge in the field made him author the book “Rethinking Information Technology Asset Management” which iterates on best standards for ITAM teams. He goes around the globe to speak on ITAM at various conventions and symposiums. He founded Borger Consulting LLC in 2016 to help businesses realize the potential of fully functioning ITAM and SAM programs.Jeremy speaks about his Y2K experience and the struggles he dealt with on-prem software. He also speaks about Shadow IT, the advantages and challenges of the cloud, and how ITAM has helped organizations break through the challenges. Visit us at www.zluri.com to see how we can help you get started with managing your SaaS.

David Foxen, who has been in the field of SAM since the age of 18, is the founder of SAM Beast Consulting Ltd, which focuses on helping customers implement and mature successful IT Asset Management functions. He has successfully implemented IT Asset Management, Software Asset Management, and Hardware Asset Management for many organizations. He is also an ITAM content creator for the ITAM academy, which focuses on creating content related to ITAM, SAM, and software licensing. He has helped companies save a lot of money through contract negotiations, internal audits, and optimizing existing assets.David speaks about his passion for ITAM and SAM and how he developed an interest in the industry. He also talks about the changes ITAM has undergone in the last 12 years of his career. He also highlights how the SaaS landscape has made our lives easier and gives valuable insights into managing SaaS applications.Visit us at www.zluri.com to see how we can help you get started with managing your SaaS.

Aravind R is a versatile and seasoned IT professional with more than 25 years of industry experience. He currently heads IT for a business unit of a major multinational that has got 60K employees and $35B in revenue. He has played a significant role in taking key IT initiatives from building & managing ERPs to Transformation & Data-Driven strategies in his career. Aravind speaks to us about how SaaS has changed the software procurement process, its advantages, and challenges that he has experienced so far. He also shares his valuable insights on the latest and best practices to manage SaaS and derive the most from these applications.Visit us at www.zluri.com to see how we can help you get started with managing your SaaS.