Tracking User Activity
You bought the latest SaaS applications for your organization. Is anyone using them? How often are they using them? SaaS Management helps you track SaaS license usage and spend over time and by location.
The following subsections describe how to track user activity and application spend.
Tracking All SaaS Users
Important:The Administer SaaS role or the Manage SaaS applications & users role is required to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.
The All SaaS Users page tracks user activity at the organizational level. The number of assigned licenses, never active licenses, inactive licenses, and annual spend are tracked for every user. Never active licenses with no usage and inactive licenses with very low usage may provide opportunities for reassigning licenses to more active users.
To identify users application usage within the All SaaS Users page:
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From the Organization menu, click All SaaS Users. The All SaaS Users page opens. |
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At the organizational or department level: |
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Select the Department or Location filter. |
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Click the Show Filters button and filter the Employee Status column for never active and inactive users. |
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Click the Export CSV button to export the filtered results as a CSV file to share with your organization’s contacts with the Administer SaaS or Manage SaaS applications & users role to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. |
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At the individual user level, click a user’s Email link to open the user details page, which identifies: |
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How often applications are used (Activity (Last 90 Days)) |
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Specific applications used (Applications) |
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How much applications are used (Utilization Graph (Last 60 Days)). |
Tracking Managed SaaS Application Users
Important:The Administer SaaS role or the Manage SaaS applications & users role is required to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.
The managed SaaS application’s Users Tab tracks user activity such as the number of assigned licenses, license activities, never active licenses, and inactive licenses. Never active licenses with no usage and inactive licenses with very low usage may provide opportunities for reassigning licenses to more active users.
To identify users’ application usage within the Users tab:
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From the SaaS menu, click Managed SaaS Applications. The Managed SaaS Applications page opens. |
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Click the appropriate SaaS application instance link, which opens the application’s Overview tab by default. |
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Click the Users tab, which opens the Users tab table. |
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At the organizational level: |
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Filter the Activity Status column for never active and inactive users. |
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Click the export icon to export the filtered results as a CSV file to share with your organization’s contacts with the Administer SaaS or Manage SaaS applications & users role to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. |
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At the individual user level: |
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Click a user’s Email link to open a user’s slideout that includes Last Activity and Activity Count information. |
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Click the View more user details link in the user’s slideout to drill through to the Organization > All SaaS Users page, which identifies: |
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How often applications are used (Activity (Last 90 Days)) |
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Specific applications used (Applications) |
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How much applications are used (Utilization Graph (Last 60 Days)). |
Tracking Underutilized SaaS Accounts
Important:The Administer SaaS role or the Manage SaaS applications & users role is required to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.
The Underutilized SaaS Accounts feature in SaaS Management tracks Inactive and Never Active users across all SaaS applications.
To track underutilized SaaS accounts:
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From the SaaS menu, click Underutilized SaaS Accounts. The Underutilized Accounts page opens. |
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Click the Show Filters button to display this page’s column filters. |
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The Days Since Last Activity column displays Never Active for never active users. For Inactive users, you can filter this column for the appropriate inactivity date range. Inactive and never active users can also be filtered by the Application, Department, or Location columns. |
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Click the Export CSV button to export the filtered results as a CSV to share with your organization’s contacts with the Administer SaaS or Manage SaaS applications & users role to deactivate the licenses of never active users or follow up with inactive users. |
Tracking Suspicious SaaS Activities
To track Suspicious SaaS Activities, see Securing SaaS User Accounts.
Tracking Organization SaaS Usage
From the SaaS menu, click Organization SaaS Usage. This page provides two bar charts. Annual Spend by Group tracks the top 10 highest groups’ annual spend and how much of that spend represents active, inactive, and never active users. The higher the annual spend amount for Active users, the higher the rate of return on your SaaS purchase. The Active Percent by Group chart tracks the top 10 groups in terms of percent Active users. Groups with high annual spend and high application inactivity may provide opportunities for further investigation.
Select the Department or Location filter above the Organization SaaS Usage table to filter your organization’s SaaS usage by Group Name, number of Applications, number of Active Employees, and Annual Spend.
Tracking SaaS License Usage
From the SaaS menu, click SaaS License Usage. This page provides two bar charts. Annual Application Spend tracks the top 10 most expensive applications for your organization. You may identify opportunities to decrease an application’s annual spend based on usage as shown in the Applications by Utilization chart. This chart tracks the top 10 most used applications by user activity (Active, Inactive, or Never Active). The SaaS License Usage table breaks down application Annual Spend by Licenses Allowed, Assigned Users, Active Users, % Active Users, and Per User Cost. Applications with a high Per User Cost and low % Active Users provide a low rate of return on your SaaS purchase.
Tracking Application Activity by License Type for License Differentiation
SaaS Management offers a license differentiation feature that enables you to narrow your SaaS license usage and spend to a specific license type. You can view, filter, and export the managed SaaS application’s license types in the Activity Tab and the Users Tab. The exported license type information can be used to negotiate or customize contracts to be rightsized for your organization.
License Differentiation Resources
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The Application Task Tracking chart lists the SaaS applications that offer the SaaS Management License Differentiation feature. |
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The annual spend for paid SaaS application accounts displayed in the All SaaS Licenses, SaaS License Usage, and Managed SaaS Applications pages is based on the license cost details entered in the License Details tab. To calculate the potential savings per license type in the SaaS application’s License Details tab, see Entering License Details for License Differentiation. |
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Perform the following tasks In the Activity tab to help manage SaaS spend: |
Searching for Underutilized Licenses by User
Complete the following steps to search for underutilized licenses from inactive and never active users in the Activity tab.
To search for underutilized licenses by user in the Activity tab:
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From the SaaS menu, click Managed SaaS Applications. The Managed SaaS Applications page opens. |
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On the Managed SaaS Applications page, select the appropriate managed SaaS application’s instance link. The instance’s Overview tab opens by default. |
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Click the Activity tab, which opens the Activity tab table. |
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Click the Show Filters button. |
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Select Never from the Activity column filter to display a list of never active users, which may provide opportunities to deactivate user licenses. |
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Select Inactive from the Activity column filter to display a list of Inactive users, which can be further filtered by Last Activity and the number of activities recorded in the last 30 days for the user (Activities (30 Days)). This list of Inactive users may also provide opportunities for Identifying Users Who Can Have Their License Types Downgraded. |
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Click the Export CSV button to export your findings to a CSV file. |
Identifying Users Who Can Have Their License Types Downgraded
Important:The Administer SaaS role or the Manage SaaS applications & users role is required to downgrade a user’s license type. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.
You can reduce SaaS spend by identifying and downgrading users who have never used the features of a more expense license type. The following steps explain how to identify users who can have their license types downgraded.
Tip:Complete the following steps to identify users who can have their more expensive Microsoft 365 E-type subscription downgraded to a less expensive Microsoft 365 F-type subscription.
To identify users who can have their license types downgraded:
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From the SaaS menu, click Managed SaaS Applications. The Managed SaaS Applications page opens. |
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Click the appropriate SaaS application instance link, which opens the application’s Overview tab by default. |
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Click the Activity tab, which opens the Activity tab table. |
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Click the Show Filters button. |
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Select Never from the Activity column filter. |
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In the search box above the License Type column results, enter the name of the more expensive license type and press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon. |
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Click the Export CSV button to export your findings to a CSV file. |
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Send the CSV file to your organization’s contact with the Administer SaaS or Manage SaaS application & users role who can downgrade a user’s license for cost savings. |