Customer Profile
Submittable provides software for grant management, corporate social responsibility, employee giving, volunteering, and other social impact programs. Its customers use the platform to manage programs that connect people, funding, and community initiatives.
Challenges
Submittable had a clear mandate: reduce software spend by 15%. But IT lacked visibility across the company’s software environment. License management for core applications was handled manually, while application, contract, cost, usage, and renewal information remained disconnected.
This made it difficult to evaluate the true value of each tool. List price alone could not show whether an application was widely adopted, actively used, or delivering enough value to justify its cost. Without that context, the team could not confidently determine where to reduce spend without affecting the applications employees needed.
Submittable needed more than an application inventory or contract repository. It needed a software management strategy that connected complete, always-up-to-date data with the decisions and actions required to continuously optimize spend.
How Torii Helped
Torii gave Submittable the visibility and control to manage its software environment more strategically. IT could understand the value of its applications, prepare for renewals using actual business needs, and automate the work required to capture savings.
Connected cost with application value
By connecting spend with actual usage and adoption, Torii helped Submittable evaluate applications based on the value employees received, not simply their list price.
The team could compare purchased licenses and subscription tiers with actual utilization and expected demand. This showed where Submittable had more capacity than it needed, where a lower tier would be sufficient, and where strong adoption justified maintaining the investment.
Instead of making broad cuts, IT could target the applications and contracts where cost and business value were out of balance.
Made renewals proactive
Submittable moved most of its contracts into Torii, including contracts beyond its software portfolio. This gave the team one place to view contract terms, costs, ownership, renewal timing, and the application data needed to prepare for negotiations.
Automated notices now go to product owners, contract owners, and the CFO 90, 60, and 30 days before a renewal. Stakeholders have time to review actual usage, determine future requirements, and define the company’s position before vendor conversations begin.
“Torii helped us track the problem, identify where issues could be, and understand where we had leverage to get better contract value. It also helped us avoid those 30-day-or-less windows where you’re in a rush and can’t necessarily get the best deal.”
Adam Schlumbohm, Information Technology Operations Manager, Submittable
Turned opportunities into measurable savings
Torii helped Submittable move from identifying optimization opportunities to completing and measuring them. Automated workflows support license reclamation and other cost-saving actions without requiring IT to coordinate every step manually.
Cost-savings calculations quantify the value recovered, while visibility into pending actions shows the team what still needs attention and who is responsible. This prevents opportunities from stalling in spreadsheets or inboxes and makes optimization an ongoing management process.
Centralized software operations
As Submittable expanded its use of Torii, the platform became a central hub for more than cost optimization. Employees can request applications through Torii’s application catalog, while access permissions and multi-step approvals follow defined workflows.
This allowed Submittable to bring custom approval logic previously managed through separate tools such as Zapier into the same platform used for application data, contracts, onboarding, offboarding, and license management.
The Result
With Torii, Submittable saved $1 million and surpassed its goal of reducing software spend by 15%.
The team gained more than better visibility. Torii gave Submittable a repeatable strategy for understanding software value, planning for actual demand, preparing for renewals, and carrying optimization decisions through to measurable results.
What began as a need to reduce spend became a more proactive way to manage software across its lifecycle.
