Application Portfolio Rationalization
Enterprises accumulate applications based on:
Acquiring and Deployment of applications, for users to access newer capabilities that allow them to work diligently.
Merging and Acquisitions.
Custom-build or bespoke applications to support their unique business processes.
Little provision is made for the rationalization of older applications A group of users may continue to use an older applications for reasons of familiarity, or even feature sets that a newer application lacks.
Applications are also unused, or underused, because of a disconnect between the business and the IT teams that design and build the applications.
Product launches, deadlines, GoTo Market hunger, generally overlook utility of the existing application portfolio, or its advancement, and therefore the reason, for unused or underutilized applications, components, modules, or features, remain on the network, consuming resources.
In the larger picture, and for an effective business continuity, once has to deal with supporting customers, business specialties, usual politics, differential in features set, and therefore continue strategically, till a point when the landscape needs a thorough review and accordingly a case wise methodology is contemplated to restructure the application portfolio.
So the key drivers are the aging portfolio, inorganic growth, organic growth, and lack of Business & IT alignment.
Experience
It should be understood that rationalization is not purely a one time operational objective. Enterprises tend to accumulate applications, though deployed for justified reasons. The race to give users access to new capabilities that, in theory, allow them to do their work better or more efficiently, usually overlooks the capabilities that exist on hand. Off the shelf to custom-build applications, are deployed to support their unique business processes.
We have helped organizations create a strategy to evolve and rationalize newer requirements, processes, and applications viz a viz, the existing organization. Adhoc-ism without a thorough screening process only adds to the cost. Cost parameters are phenomenal, and there are at times parameters are overlooked by the management or the decision makers, that cause a damping effecting on business.
We help them unearth the impacts and structure, to make thoroughly thoughtful decisions for application upgrades, development, & acquisition.
Approach
The usual question of “Where to Start” & “Where to Invest”
The typical phases involved:
Baseline:
As-Is Analysis and Data Collection,
Understand the strategic business drivers for the portfolio.
Map applications to business capabilities.
Identify in-flight initiatives planned to enhance portfolio business capabilities
Identify potential gaps in application portfolio to support future business needs
Collect data on applications in the IT portfolio on functional, technical and operational dimensions
Build application clusters for optimization
Assess the current state of the IT portfolio and assess the cost of optimization opportunities.
Analysis:
Multi Dimensional Analysis
Analyze the value of the applications leveraging the suitable optimization frameworks:
Strategic
Functional
Technical.
Financial.
Identify potential candidates for “cloud” and/or “legacy modernization.”
Understand the interdependencies across the optimization opportunities.
Define Optimization Opportunities:
Define opportunities and conduct a deeper dive to determine:
Overlaps, redundancy, obsolescence.
Opportunities for migration to the cloud.
Opportunities for modernizing legacy footprints.
Consolidate opportunities into initiatives/projects.
Determine suitable mitigation strategies to align with future business strategy.
Recommend:
Define the implementation roadmap. This includes potential optimization opportunities and high-level mitigation strategies to ensure future business capabilities.
Develop high-level business case with potential application portfolio optimization savings.