Application Portfolio Rationalization as a Service

 

Enterprises  accumulate large application portfolios over time, resulting in high maintenance costs and complicated inter-dependencies. Rationalizing  an application portfolio is  a key step in the enterprise digital journey  and  requires fewer resources to operate, while empowering accelerated changes.

 

55%

Of CIOs are challenged by their

boards to reduce costs of IT. ​

42%

Of leading organizations are cutting IT operating costs to give business leaders more budget for digital solutions development. ​

 

A significant share of IT operating costs is spent on running and maintaining the applications.​





 

In many organizations, application portfolios are accidental

and disorganized.

Legacy, poorly architected applications are slowing the introduction of new digital offerings.​

Bloated application portfolio slows down business agility.​ ​

 

​Organizations with an outdated app portfolio fall short in business performance, and struggle to introduce new products and services fast enough. ​

 

​Leading organizations are managing application portfolios with a focus on maximizing business value and simplifying business processes. ​​

 

 

Jeanne was recently appointed as a CIO. As a newly hired and valued member she understood the company culture and structure, had a passion for complex systems, and a vision for digital transformation.

She wanted to make things happen!

 

 

The board accepted her plan for modernization of the

IT department. However, the CFO refused to grant extra funding because the IT budget was already too big. Therefore, Jeanne had no choice but to source funding from her existing budget.

Whilst pondering over her plan, Jeanne was faced with the ‘CIO’s Dilemma’: to manage competing imperatives for growth, innovation, and new capabilities on the one hand, and to continue cost reduction and to improve efficiency on the other.

 

Jeanne decided to cut costs and stay focused on the applications portfoliobecause she knew inefficiencies were there.

Every application had been used for a particular business process, so any change there would affect existing business processes. The CEO encouraged Jeanne to be part of the working group for standardization of business processes.

 

The application portfolio assessment

has been created

INDIVIDUAL APPLICATIONS ARE BEING ASSESSED AND EVALUATED. EVALUATION STAGE CONSIDERS THE BUSINESS VALUE DELIVERED AND THE TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TCO).

 

An assessment revealed a functional duplication across the portfolio because applications had been operated with overlapping features. Jeanne included business functions leaders into the business process standardization exercise.

After simplifying and standardizing business processes, the company’s portfolio of supporting applications had to be simplified. Jeanne aligned changes to applications with changes to business processes. The final decision on which apps should be decommissioned was based on multiple factors, including: business value, total cost of ownership (TCO), IT strategy, and overall business strategy.

 

The application portfolio had been segmented, and the roadmap was developed for modifying or decommissioning particular applications.