Application and License Management With Deel IT: Complete Guide

Businesses today use an incredible number of digital tools. When handled manually, IT and line managers can sink too many hours into managing subscriptions, access, tiers, and payments. Not only that, but waste is almost inevitable. Your organization can end up paying for more seats than are actually being used, or under-investing in tools used by teams on a regular basis.

Proper application and license management has historically been challenging as the number of tools used by businesses increases. According to research, small businesses (<500 employees) use an average of 172 SaaS apps, with that number growing to 664 for large enterprises.

Thankfully, SaaS management tools are also on the rise, helping you streamline your software management and reducing hours of rote work to just a few clicks. In this guide, we’ll go through what efficient application and license management looks like, and how to handle it easily with Deel IT.

What is application and license management?

Application and license management (sometimes referred to as SaaS management) is the process of managing and optimizing the acquisition, deployment, usage, and renewal of applications within an organization.

Put simply, application management aims to ensure that:

• Leaders have a full understanding of their tool stack
• Tools are accessed by the right people (those who need and use them)
• Organizations are not overpaying for unnecessary accounts/licenses
• Teams avoid using duplicate, outdated, or underused tools
• The risk of non-compliance through outdated/expired licences is reduced

For example, one team may be using ChatGPT Plus while another uses Gemini AI Pro. Both licences offer enough seats to give everyone access, but budget is wasted on paying for both. Effective application management would catch this, and teams could then decide which tool to continue using.

Why is it important for modern teams?

Application management does much more than save money and support financial planning. It improves security by reducing shadow IT and ensuring only approved, compliant apps are used. As even non-tech workers become increasingly tech-savvy, you risk employees using their own tools if their stack doesn’t meet their needs. This compromises data security, introduces compliance risks, and can disrupt workflows.

Speaking of compliance risks, license management is critical for meeting legal requirements by keeping them up to date. If continued use of tools outside the terms of a licence agreement is caught by the provider (commonly during audits), you could face fines or even legal action.

It’s not just IT who should be concerned with how applications and licences are managed. A clean, well-managed tech stack makes day-to-day work smoother, reducing tool fatigue for every worker and keeping productivity high.

Application and license management with Deel IT: How does it work?

There are many ways to manage software, but Deel IT in that it integrates license management into onboarding, role changes, and offboarding. When connected with Deel HR (or your own HRIS tool), application access is automatically updated whenever a person joins, leaves, or changes positions within the organization. This saves time for IT, ensures tools are used efficiently, and ensures employees have access to the tools they need to stay productive.

As an application and license management tool, Deel IT includes:

• Centralized license tracking: View all employee apps, entitlements, and usage across regions in a single dashboard
• Automated provisioning and revocation: Licenses are assigned and removed automatically when employees join, switch roles, or exit
• Audit-ready compliance: Detailed logs of app access, license assignments, and removals support software license audits and compliance checks
• Global app management: Manage SaaS and desktop applications for employees in 130+ countries, with device and access control built in
• Secure offboarding: Reclaim licenses alongside device recovery and certified data erasure, preventing wasted spend or compliance risk

These key capabilities tackle the main challenges associated with application management, whilst strengthening HR-IT workflows and winning back time for both teams.

Application and license management with Deel IT: A step-by-step guide

Deel IT is designed to be as user-friendly as it is powerful, and our team is available 24/7 to support you and overcome any blockers.

Step 1: Setting up Access Management

If you are using Deel HR already, setup will be smoother, and you’ll save time on integrating Deel IT with your employee data. Simply contact us through the Deel platform when you’re logged into your account, and we’ll take you through everything you need to get started.

Deel IT also integrates with other employee data platforms (for example, through Workday), fitting seamlessly into your existing tech stack. Book your 30-minute demo to get introduced to the Deel platform and to discuss your IT needs.

Once you have access, ensure that your employee data is fully integrated. If you’re using Deel HR, this will be automatic. Otherwise, navigate to the Apps page within Deel IT, and select your HRIS tool from the list of native integrations (BambooHR, HiBob, Personio, Okta, SAP SuccessFactors, Merge.dev, Workday, or SFT). Follow the provider-specific integrations steps, as these will vary depending on the app.

The Access Management tab is your main hub for application management. For it to be enabled, you just need three things:

1. Deel IT per-seat pricing switched on
2. JumpCloud connected
3. Identity Enhanced enabled

Once these are done, the Access Management tab will be live, and you’ll have one centralized view of applications across your workforce.

Step 2: Navigating Access Management

The Access Management tab is separated into two main zones:

1. Access groups: These are the bundles of apps designated to different worker groups. For example, marketing managers, software engineers, etc. They can also be grouped by location for more specific application management across borders. For example, ‘marketing US’ and ‘marketing EU.’
2. User list: This is your overview of employees registered with Deel IT, and where you can check user information and take specific user-related action items.

Step 3: Managing access groups

There are two different types of access groups: static and dynamic.

Static access groups are managed manually and are best suited for small teams or edge cases. You select a group of users and choose the apps to assign to them. While this is still more efficient than logging into each app and giving employees access one by one, the real power comes from automation.

Dynamic access groups are powered by HR data. Set up the group by identifying key characteristics such as location, role, and department. Then assign the appropriate tools. Once created, every employee who meets the requirements will automatically be assigned your chosen tools. This applies to existing employees and anyone new hires.

When someone leaves an access group, whether they change roles or leave the company, their access to tools in that group is automatically revoked. If their new role includes some of the same tools (for example, communication tools like Slack), those overlapping permissions stay in place and won’t be removed.

This zero-touch IT keeps disruption to a minimum and maintains productivity, all without taking a minute of the IT team’s time.

Step 4: Maintaining control with the user list

This is your quick-response toolkit, and where you can:

• Reset password
• Force Multi-Factor Authenication (MFA)
• Block access
• Disable account

This allows you to respond quickly in the event of device loss or theft, or other emergency edge cases.

Step 5: Managing app inventory

This is your single source of truth for your app suite, with security settings visible in one place. Here you can see a list of apps connected to your company and their status. Simply click on an app to see SAML settings, descriptions, and linked groups.

Step 6: Auditing and troubleshooting with the event log

The Event log is where you can see all of the actions taken by IT, including:

• Password resets
• MFA enforcement
• App assignment
• Group changes
• Automated actions
• Admin actions

This helps you maintain control, creates transparency, and provides you with an audit-ready log.

Case study: How Directional Pizza, the largest Pizza Hut franchise in the UK, scaled payroll

When Directional Pizza expanded into Europe as a new franchisee, it encountered fragmented payroll and HR operating systems after establishing itself as a new entity and acquiring portfolios of restaurants across the UK, Denmark, and Sweden.

For a franchise where revenue depends on fast hiring, onboarding, and training, every moment spent searching for a consolidated payroll and HR solution meant less time dedicated to setting up operations and serving customers. Finding a single, automated solution wasn’t just important—it was urgent.

By combining Deel HR and Deel IT, Directional Pizza was able not only to streamline HR and payroll across borders but easily provision, ship, and manage devices for its growing team.

Read more to discover how Deel helped Directional Pizza to save more than $100K in yearly HRIS costs, and how essential Deel IT was in helping them break into new markets.

Why trust Deel IT with your application management

Deel IT removes the biggest headaches from managing applications and licences, and boosts collaboration between HR and IT. That means fewer delays and nothing falling through the cracks.

Deel helps you:

Stop overspending: Licenses are provisioned and revoked automatically during onboarding, role changes, and offboarding. No more abandoned accounts, and no more unnecessary access.

Stay audit-ready: Detailed records of access combined with certified data erasure simplify compliance and audit preparation.

Manage apps and devices together: Keep as much control over your software as your hardware, with pre-configured devices shipped globally. One source of truth tells you who has access to what, and which endpoint devices they use them on.

Operate across regions: With logistics and IT support in 130+ countries, software and device access stay consistent worldwide.

Link IT and HR: App access aligns directly with hiring and exit workflows, cutting manual handoffs and missed steps. Better synchronicity and more time back for both teams.

Book your 30-minute Deel demo and see what efficient and headache-free application management looks like for the modern workplace.