Our Guest: Ben Pippenger is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Zylo, a SaaS management platform that helps businesses gain full visibility into their software usage, optimize licensing, and streamline renewals.

Episode Topics:

Overview of Zylo’s SaaS Management Index annual report, which covers $40 billion of SaaS spend
The AI adoption surge in software spend - 75 percent increase in spending.
The Rising of SaaS Costs - increased by 9.3 percent year over year.
The shift from traditional seat-based pricing to usage and value-based models.
Ben’s takes on the decline of multi-year SaaS contracts in recent data.
Ben’s insight to IT’s shrinking influence over SaaS.
Increasing SaaS waste - $21 million annually on unused software licenses.
Strategies to manage and reduce rising SaaS costs effectively.
What are some hidden costs of long-tail SaaS purchases?
Ben shares vendor negotiation tactics and cost-saving strategies to optimize software investments.

Resources:
https://zylo.com/reports/2025-saas-management-index/

https://zylo.com/

https://www.saasletter.com/p/zylo-saas-management-index-2025

About Cloud Radio by Cloud Ratings:

Made for "full stack" cloud + SaaS operators, Cloud Radio is a SaaS podcast covers all aspects of the business of software.

Our host - Matt Harney - is active on Twitter @saasletter and writes "SaaSletter", an investing-oriented SaaS newsletter on Substack.

https://cloudradio.cloudratings.com/

https://twitter.com/SaaSletter

https://www.saasletter.com/

About Cloud Ratings:

Cloud Ratings is a customer outcomes-focused, data-driven software research analyst firm. We exist to allow organizations to make more confident, lower-risk software purchasing decisions.

Our Cloud Ratings Category Reports combine user reviews with verified vendor data to impartially identify leading software products. Recent report examples include: Board Management Software, Account-Based Marketing Software, Cap Table + Equity Management Software, Lead Routing Software, and Sales Training + Onboarding Software.

Built upon investigative customer interviews, our True ROI Reports quantify and provide 3rd party validation of a software product’s business value.

https://cloudratings.com/

Ben Pippenger - Zylo - 2025 Zylo SaaS Management Index