Building a Continuous Software Discovery Program

Point-in-time spreadsheets fail because SaaS adoption is continuous. Trials start on Fridays; teams merge; acquisitions add new stacks. A sustainable discovery program treats inventory as a living system with clear owners and rhythms.

Core components

Data integration — Ingest spend, identity, and optional endpoint or network signals into one system of record. Classification — Tag applications by function, data class, and business criticality. Workflow — Route net-new findings to security, procurement, or business reviewers based on policy.

Cadence that works

Weekly: automated diff of new vendors or OAuth grants. Monthly: reconciliation of top spend accounts against inventory. Quarterly: executive review of duplicate tools and renewal pipeline. Annually: architecture alignment for major platform choices (e.g., collaboration, CRM).

Metrics leadership cares about

• Count and percentage of unmanaged vs. managed applications.

• Estimated duplicate or redundant spend uncovered.

• Mean time to classify and assign owner for a new discovery.

• Critical findings remediated within SLA.

When discovery is continuous, “shadow” shrinks naturally because the formal process keeps up with how teams actually work supported by platforms that automate the heavy lifting.