Solution Set

Applications pass through four lifecycle stages: Birth, Growth, Maturity, and Death. To effectively manage each application, the IT leader and Applications Manager (AM) must know to which state it belongs.

Case Study

Ad hoc management of the application lifecycle leads to inefficient management of the application, reducing its overall value.

Tool

Determining if or when to retire an application is a difficult proposition. Retirement decisions have a reactionary effect on an enterprise's corporate and technology infrastructure. Using the wrong criteria to determine whether or not to retire...

Video

IT Asset Management (ITAM) benefits are most readily available with the use of automated tools. The ITAM Vendor Landscape will help you choose the tool that is right for your organization.

Note

This storyboard will help you create meaningful procedures to promote improvements in your overall application maintenance approach. If you fail to provide appropriate resources and processes for maintenance tasks, the applications that drive...

Video

Seventy-six percent of survey respondents indicated that application maintenance is one of the most critical areas of the business, and yet many organizations deal with maintenance in a reactive mode, with very little process.

Tool

When evaluating whether to replace a legacy system, focus on business risks and benefits, since in the end, it will be a business decision. Examine risks to productivity, expected costs, and the benefits that the new system will bring to the...

Template/Policy

Use this template to define normal application maintenance business hours, after-hours support, priority guidelines, and response times based on priority.

Template/Policy

This app maintenance workflow template provides flowcharts for managing defects, upgrades, and patches. Use this document to establish maintenance processes specific to your environment. Having processes is key to stepping out of reactive mode...

(16-Jul-10) Software support—upgrades, new capabilities, patches—come from the vendor. That’s the way it’s always been in the industry, although in other realms, people and companies are free to buy services from whomever they please. Some...

Use these notes to apply cost-savings across your department. Discover cost savings in every aspect of your cost-to-serve expenses, and use the guidance and tools below to start reducing costs today.

There is more to disaster recovery planning than protecting against hackers and floods.

(18-Dec-09) Carlos Rosa’s IT infrastructure had everything he needed, and then some. But, he realized, the “and then some” was probably too much. Mahwah Township Public Schools’ eight-year-old network was top of the line. “That comes at a...

(26-Nov-09) Buying server operating system software is in some ways similar to buying a car. Maybe you feel pressured by the salesperson to buy an SUV when you want a smart car. Maybe you can’t really afford that Ferrari. Or maybe you buy a...

IT leaders should generally stick to quick wins and avoid making deep-seated changes in their first 100 days. However, new leaders must also recognize when long-term change is needed. The real-world scenarios presented in this note provide new...

11-Sep-09 Google's announcement of its new Chrome operating system, due to debut in the second half of next year, almost instantly generated controversy and criticism in the technology community. Some industry observers think that Windows 7 will...

Cellular data network capabilities improve as their cost curves show a downward trend. As a result, many enterprises will have to choose between landline DSL service and cellular connections for Internet and business application access. However,...

Tool

This tool is designed to help organizations determine top tactics for cost reduction within the network and telephony service area. After the questions have been completed, the tool will generate guidance on which cost-saving actions to take,...

Desktop virtualization is a game changing technology that can reduce IT operational costs while increasing efficiency and agility in desktop management, says Info-Tech Research Group. 30% of IT leaders have plans to implement a Desktop...

Premium Resource

The purpose of this bundle is to assist you in the care and feeding of the DRP after its creation and communication to the rest of the company. There is a series of tasks that must be completed in order to keep the DRP current and actively...

Premium Resource

Establishing a process for collecting valid project requests is achieved through the completion of two main steps, which are establishing rules of engagement and collecting project proposals.

Premium Resource

Whether it's planned, routine, or emergency-related, the constant change involved in application maintenance must be managed in order to minimize possible downtime and maximize maintenance efforts without overrunning the maintenance budget.

Premium Resource

The framework for applications maintenance and change practices has been established. In this bundle, you will be setting up a process for gathering, assessing, and accepting/denying change requests from users within the organization.

Note

Enterprises looking to reduce costs in the network and telephony services area can make significant headway in reducing expenses without reducing quality of service. First, determine which areas have potential for cost savings, then assess how...

Questioning the value of existing software maintenance and support agreements and not getting a good answer? Consider ditching this 15-25% annual expense and save money.

Note

Failure to properly maintain software assets wastes money and can put the enterprise's reputation at risk if downtime is the result. Implement an application maintenance policy to control and raise the profile of this important, yet often...

Tool

Apply OptimizeIT's Application Status Rationalization Tool. This advanced tool provides a series of questions that will help you determine if an application is adequately serving current business needs and is still affordable to maintain. Clear...

Software is the backbone of the modern business world. While conception, design, and implementation phases are all key aspects of the Software Development Lifecycle, maintenance, which occurs over the actual life of the software, is arguably the...

IT leaders deploying application servers may face a choice between operating systems. Evaluate the business suitability of operating system candidates by examining costs, the quality and availability of support, and the product's rate of change.

IT managers that are unhappy with the often excessive money they are paying for software Maintenance and Support (M&S) can replace their apps vendor with a third-party provider. When third-party M&S is the right fit for the enterprise, it can...