Controlling costs and optimizing your subscription setup starts with understanding how your SaaS tools are being used. Sastrify provides complete visibility into key details like total spend, tool owners, renewal dates, and usage frequency for each tool in your SaaS stack.


With Usage Analytics, Sastrify takes this a step further—allowing you to monitor usage levels over time, identify underutilized licenses, and make data-driven decisions to optimize costs. View real-time insights directly within the Sastrify platform to ensure your SaaS investments align with actual business needs.

IN THIS ARTICLE

How Sastrify Collects Usage Data



Sastrify provides multiple integration options to track and centralize SaaS license usage and utilization. These integrations ensure comprehensive visibility into your organization's software usage patterns:


1. SSO Usage Integrations

  • If you connect to any of the SSO usage integrations based on what your company is using (e.g., Google, Okta, or Microsoft), Sastrify retrieves usage data for all SaaS products accessed via Single Sign-On (SSO) logins.
  • Displays the total number of licenses in a card format (see below), as well as name, email, and last login date in a tabular format.


2. Direct connection usage integrations (API-Based)

  • Sastrify connects directly to SaaS tools (currently supported for six tools) to provide detailed, tool-specific insights.
  • Displays total users vs. active users as a graph as well as name, email, last login date, and last active date in a table.



To set up a direct connection usage integration with a SaaS tool, you must have that tool in your active tool stack within Sastrify. The list of SaaS tools available for integration in your Sastrify account is determined by the tools already present in your stack. For example, if you only have HubSpot and Salesforce in your stack, those will be the only two tools displayed as options for direct integration.


3. Sastrify Chrome Browser Extension

  • Sastrify offers a Chrome extension that can be installed company-wide by admins, seamlessly integrating into employees' browsers. This extension tracks SaaS access and usage patterns but only when employees interact with SaaS applications using their company email. For a browser extension setup guide, refer to this guide. 
  • Displays total users vs. active users as a graph as well as name, email, usage frequency, and last active date as a table.


Notes:

  • Once enabled, the integration will sync data twice a week to ensure that data remains current.
  • Multiple sources can be activated simultaneously and are not mutually exclusive.
  • Since different sources provide slightly varied usage insights, activating multiple sources will complement each other, giving you a more comprehensive and accurate view of your SaaS usage.

  • If multiple sources (Google, Microsoft, direct integrations, browser extension) are connected, user data is merged into a single row per user per subscription, using their email as the unique identifier. This ensures that all available data is consolidated and duplications are avoided.

How to set up and use Usage Analytics


This section only applies to SSO usage integrations and direct connection usage integrations. For setting up the Sastrify Browser Extension, please refer to this dedicated guide.




Usage Analytics can be accessed from Integrations > Usage Analytics.


To set up a new usage analytics integration:

  1. Click the "Connect" button on any of the SSO provider or SaaS tool options.
  2. A specific setup page will open with specific information depending on your selection.
  3. For SSO usage integrations: Enable Discovery via SSO Integration (see this article for more information) and enable the "Enable usage analytics tracking" toggle. Click "Connect" to finalize the setup.


  4. For direct connection usage integrations:  Provide the necessary information, which may vary by tool, such as API key, access token, or specific privileges/permissions.
    The setup page (like the one below) will provide all the information you need, including the connection guide for each tool to help you through the process. Click "Connect" to finalize the setup.



It's important to note that users setting up the usage analytics integration must have administrative (admin role) permissions to both the selected tools/providers and to Sastrify, as certain permissions must be granted for the integration to work properly.



Now that you have completed the setup, it's time to see the results!


A summary of the usage data will be displayed on the Details page of each tool, under the "Usage" tab. For example, to view Asana usage analytics, simply navigate to the Asana subscription page. The same process applies to other tools, such as HubSpot, Zoom, and more.



The summary includes:

  1. The top-level usage information along with the number of active users vs. total number of users or a snapshot of the number of total users that have logged in to a specific tool (depending on the source, see above)
  2. The graph showing the movement of usage levels (only direct integrations and browser extensions).
  3. The complete user list and its usage-related information.
  4. The export feature allowing you to get the .csv report of the usage analytics.




Asked Permissions for Usage Analytics


To effectively set up direct integration with usage analytics tools like Slack or HubSpot, Sastrify requires specific permissions for the technical setup to function correctly.


We need both admin and user data permissions to identify "active users" within your company's subscription setup. These permissions are crucial for displaying accurate usage data without disrupting your internal operations or communications.


Sastrify is committed to upholding the utmost privacy and security standards. We never read, modify, write, or update any messages within your SaaS environments. Your privacy is a top priority for us, and we take every measure to ensure the confidentiality and security of your information. Please read this article to learn more about our security and privacy standards.

Tool-Specific Requirements & Permissions

For Microsoft

To set up and configure usage analytics integration for Microsoft, you need the following roles:


For Slack 

To connect Slack for usage analytics, there are a number of specific requirements: 

  • Admin privileges: you must be an admin within your Slack workspace to grant Sastrify the necessary permissions to collect usage data. 
  • Pro Plan or higher: Usage analytics via the API is available to Pro Plan users and above, including Enterprise plans. Unfortunately, the free plan does not provide the necessary information through the API, so an upgrade may be required to access this feature. 


For Asana

To connect Asana for usage analytics, your Asana subscription must be on an enterprise plan.


For HubSpot

Please make sure to add the following permissions: 

  • "crm.objects.owners.read"
  • "account-info.security.read"


For Zoom

Required Permissions: User and Permission Management / View "Users"


If you have any further questions or encounter any issues during the integration process, please reach out to our support team for assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions


Please refer to the Usage Analytics FAQ page for a complete list of frequently asked questions.