SaaS Alerts, a cybersecurity company delivering an automated software as a service (SaaS) security platform designed to detect and stop unauthorized activity in customer SaaS applications, now enables managed service providers (MSPs) to extend SaaS application protection beyond core solutions.
Called App Wizard, the latest update to the SaaS Alerts platform allows MSPs to integrate SaaS Alerts with any SaaS business application having a viable application program interface (API). This enhancement strengthens the cybersecurity postures of customers by allowing MSPs to provide the same degree of monitoring and alerting for these applications as they do for core SaaS business applications.
The term “viable APIs” refers to SaaS business applications that expose an API interface and reference documentation for their customers that wish to interact directly with application data. The SaaS product must also log specific security information which can be used by SaaS Alerts to correlate user account behavior within the SaaS Alerts security, orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform.
“MSPs have consistently asked for the ability to oversee more than just fundamental SaaS business applications since our initial launch,” said Jim Lippie, CEO of SaaS Alerts. “The introduction of App Wizard responds to our customers’ needs and fills a void in the cybersecurity market. We are now the only channel-centric platform that can identify unauthorized actions in almost any SaaS application.”
Before introducing this feature, MSPs using SaaS Alerts were limited to monitoring core SaaS business applications such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and Dropbox, in addition to certain RMM and IT documentation platforms.
App Wizard also presents MSPs with a new revenue opportunity.
With App Wizard, MSPs can now highlight to their customers the importance of monitoring applications like ServiceNow or SmartSheets by emphasizing that no other service can match their ability to track user behavior within such applications — from who is logging in, where they are logging in from, and what they’re viewing, to what data they’re extracting. This level of detail and oversight is invaluable and provides a level of protection against cyberthreats that hasn’t been available until now.
“Consider you have a hundred customers, each using at least one third-party application beyond Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace that meets the viable API criteria,” Lippie said. “Let’s say you charge $200 per customer, per additional monitored application. That’s an additional $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Annually, this amounts to $240,000 in added annual recurring revenue, all from this new capability alone without adding a single additional customer.”
Before the introduction of this new feature, MSPs utilizing SaaS Alerts were already boosting their monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by $2 to $6 per user each month, achieving up to a 91 percent gross margin. The ability to protect more apps allows MSPs to further increase their MRR.
But … there’s a caveat concerning viable APIs.
Unfortunately, a considerable amount of work remains regarding APIs for SaaS products. Many of them are not viable, posing challenges for MSPs in providing comprehensive protection to their customers.
To tackle this problem, SaaS Alerts is launching “I want my SaaS alerts,” an industry-wide campaign to encourage the software community-at-large to start including security log data in their APIs to strengthen the security postures of businesses worldwide.
Here are the details of the “I want my SaaS alerts” campaign:
- Launch the petition on December 4.
- Collect signatures from 2,500 MSPs, representing an estimated 250,000 small businesses
- Gather enough signatures by March 8, the end of Right of Boom, a cybersecurity event purpose-built for MSPs.
- Present the petition to some of the world’s leading software corporations.
“Without a strong commitment from the software developer community, MSPs will continue to struggle with properly defending their customers against constantly evolving IT threats,” Lippie said. “We are actively bringing our concerns to the forefront and exerting pressure on software companies to act responsibly, not just for MSPs, but also for the more than 333 million small businesses across the globe. By coming together for this cause, MSPs can make a difference worldwide.”
