Enterprise IT teams are burdened with the task of managing the steady stream of requests from every department for new and innovative applications to carry out their work. As an enterprise expands through new acquisitions, mergers, and evolving initiatives, the burden grows. Over time, this can lead to clutter and a poorly visualized application landscape that eats up IT resources and fails to meet business goals. It is essential to clearly understand what applications and systems are present throughout the enterprise and how they deliver on core initiatives.

The Woes of a Messy Application Landscape

Digital transformation has unleashed a deluge of new capabilities and products, as well as shifts in business operations. The contributing factors of the pandemic and the mass migration to a remote workforce have compounded the managerial tasks of an already busy IT department. Without complete clarity into the dynamics of the application landscape, an enterprise will suffer from waste, risk, slow performance, and lost opportunities. The clutter of a poorly visualized app landscape leads to many problems:

■ Unmanageable complexity

■ Too siloed and disconnected

■ Application function similarity overlap

■ Outdated, inefficient apps

■ High IT costs and resource waste

■ Slow, poor performance, and decreased agility

■ Risks related to shadow IT

■ Lack of business value clarity and promotion of initiatives

How can IT resolve these issues and gain complete insight in order to rationalize its application portfolio? The answer lies in some heavy housekeeping through well-executed application portfolio management that enables clear visualization of all enterprise apps, systems, and capabilities.

Application Portfolio Management Restores Landscape Vitality

So, what is the value of Application Portfolio Management? Proper portfolio management will organize a clear mapping of all apps in use throughout the enterprise; on-premises, remote, and in clouds. This will enable IT to identify, monitor, and manage the application life cycle. IT can analyze and rationalize applications according to cost and capabilities in context with business objectives.

Effective Application Portfolio Management benefits:

■ Reduces costs, complexity, redundancy by removing overlaps in functionality and outdated apps

■ Evaluates value and maximizes efficiencies

■ Links applications to business processes and IT capabilities

■ Provides an overview of how people, capabilities, and applications interconnect

■ Eliminates shadow IT and excessive data hubs

■ Aids IT in app rationalization and governance

Trying to locate and accurately map out all enterprise application software, systems, data hubs, and functionalities would be a monumental task for IT managers without the right tools. Fortunately, flexible Application Portfolio Management software is available that will accelerate and streamline the process, to free IT resources and increase value.

Application Portfolio Management Software is an IT Essential

Application rationalization by IT managers is an essential component of the IT governance process. Traditionally, apps have been rationalized by cost and risk factors. But enterprises need to look beyond those parameters to consider if capabilities are meeting and optimizing business objectives. Application Portfolio Management software can enable IT with insight into the where, when, and why an app is performing the way it is. The right Application Portfolio Management software fit for an enterprise will ensure that critical applications are going to meet expectations. It will empower IT to continuously assess performance, availability, and the user experience.

Flexible Application Portfolio Management Software Can Deliver Game-Changing Benefits

■ Improve the quality of your apps and cut waste- Application Portfolio Management software maps out the complete landscape, so IT can focus on retaining only the better performing applications. Through greater visibility, an enterprise can gain complete knowledge of available IT technology and systems. IT can easily check new app requests against the existing landscape. Through the collection of important data metrics, problems and errors are quickly identified for rapid mitigation.

■ Increase flexibility and productivity– Visibility into all the functionalities that exist within the digital landscape streamlines management. Business teams are enabled with a clear understanding of available capabilities and IT can respond to employee needs with speed and flexibility.

■ Safeguard compliance- Application Portfolio Management software captures data to provide information for IT audits or certifications that may be required by government entities and regulatory bodies. It provides insight into where data is stored and what security requirements are applied across the entire application landscape. All pertinent data can be displayed for the purpose of audits, which helps comply with GDPR and others.

■ IT app rationalization support– IT leaders will see greater flexibility, adaptability, and scalability within a streamlined application landscape. IT can support applications that focus on business initiatives, balancing the cost and value of all existing apps, and constantly monitoring and adjusting in real-time. As a result, resources can be conserved by not holding on to low value projects. IT can fully support the application portfolio by demonstrating improved efficiencies, the decreased total cost of ownership, and alignment to business initiatives.

■ Realize transformation value and ROI– The efficiencies of application portfolio management software can free IT to embrace new and different types of projects. Based upon cost assumptions and lifecycles, IT managers are able to create simulations of future projects and analyze possible outcomes of their assumptions. Through the compilation of resulting data, they can compare different scenarios, tighten up planning, and conserve resources.

Application Portfolio Management software makes it easy to evaluate financial impact metrics, with insight into budget and forecast figures. With the elimination of wasteful apps, low-value projects, project overruns and decreased project durations, the business case for an excellent ROI will be easy to make.