Organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor:
- No dedicated or centralized effort to manage the app portfolio means no single source of truth is available to support informed decision making.
- Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
- Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets. Flexibility and growth are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- You cannot outsource application strategy.
- Modern software options have lessened the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. But your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require centralized oversight to ensure the best overall return on investment.
- Application portfolio management is the mechanism to ensure that the applications in your enterprise are delivering value and support for your value streams and business capabilities. Understanding value, satisfaction, technical health, and total cost of ownership are critical to digital transformation, modernization, and roadmaps.
Impact and Result
Build an APM program that is actionable and fit for size:
- Understand your current state, needs, and goals for your application portfolio management.
- Create an application and platform inventory that is built for better decision making.
- Rationalize your apps with business priorities and communicate risk in operational terms.
- Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support your applications.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.5/10
Overall Impact
$119,858
Average $ Saved
28
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Consumers Energy
Workshop
10/10
$649K
20
Best part - Hans is exceptionally knowledgeable and a skilled facilitator. This is a tough topic to tackle, fraught with politics and fear, and he... Read More
SUNS LEGACY PARTNERS, LLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
$71,499
50
The PPT Slides and Excel templates are awesome!!! Also, Hong's advice was invaluable!! No negatives whatsoever!
Consumers Energy
Workshop
10/10
$649K
20
Kieran was an excellent partner for this workshop. He was flexible, knowledgeable, and helped build trust with our business partners.
Honorhealth
Guided Implementation
10/10
$123K
18
Alfred H. Knight Holding
Guided Implementation
10/10
$82,000
50
Hans is an expert in his field. He is a great sounding board for my plans and thoughts, mainly because he validates what I am saying but also align... Read More
Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
Guided Implementation
10/10
$50,000
10
Best parts: 1. Positive and friendly service. 2. Understood my need and was flexible to accommodate for it. 3. Very timely follow-up after the c... Read More
Hydro-Quebec
Guided Implementation
8/10
$50,000
50
The methodology is sound and I use it in the presentation. The advisors show great interest to help. We need more to work on solutions and have... Read More
Cameron County, TX
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,599
10
It was a great and instrumental experience. Mr. Suneel, did a great job of guiding and explaining the tools and the most efficient way to use them ... Read More
City of Penticton
Guided Implementation
9/10
$11,500
5
Pima County Community College District
Guided Implementation
10/10
$32,499
120
Suneel was amazing! This initiative has proven to be the foundation on which so many other initiatives are being build on/around. I didn't expect... Read More
Guild Education
Workshop
9/10
$123K
20
The best part of the workshop was working with Hans . He lead the workshop and gave great insights all along the way. Looking forward to more worki... Read More
University of the Fraser Valley
Guided Implementation
9/10
$11,500
10
Bi-State Development
Workshop
10/10
$90,999
50
Best: Seeing the team pull together their knowledge of our applications and beginning to see the light bulbs go off as they saw the metrics and res... Read More
BDO Canada LLP
Guided Implementation
10/10
$11,500
5
Anne Arundel Community College
Guided Implementation
10/10
$64,999
20
The best part of the experience was the thorough knowledge of the principal research director, Hans, and his ability to translate the broader conce... Read More
Bloomfield Hills Schools
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Andrew was awesome in prompting, questioning, and letting us brainstorm an approach, etc. No bad part of the experience at all.
VCU Health System Authority
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
35
Strathcona County
Guided Implementation
8/10
$1,500
3
Best part- great suggestions, things to consider, risk mitigation conversations to help increase value to our team and build a process that is simp... Read More
Braeston Proprietary Limited
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
It was too short due to the changes on my side of the business.
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,000
5
Greenheck Fan Corporation
Guided Implementation
6/10
$6,197
1
Knowing we're on the right track. Feeling like the bottleneck was really just on our side to do the work.
Lane Council of Governments
Guided Implementation
10/10
$61,999
105
Ben came to the call well-prepared, and immediately showed how the Info-Tech research material could be applied to our Division's modernization nee... Read More
CLO-OCOL
Workshop
9/10
N/A
N/A
Clark Pacific
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Still forming a move forward strategy, i.e., execute department application surveys or focus on applications discovery. Previous conversations had ... Read More
Western Forest Products Inc.
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
Natural Resources Canada
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
MicroPort Orthopedics Inc.
Workshop
4/10
N/A
N/A
Westconsin Credit Union
Workshop
10/10
$12,399
20
The workshop was real ran and kept us on task. Adjustments were made to the schedule to accommodate us as needed to make sure it worked for everyo... Read More
Twin Disc
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
2
Confirmed that I was following the right path, templates helped me prepare for future. Worst part - the images in the survey never download so h... Read More
One Call Care Management
Workshop
9/10
N/A
20
Randy and Ben did a great job facilitating the workshop. They were flexible and adapted the agenda to the knowledge of the folks in the workshop s... Read More
Workshop: Application Portfolio Management Foundations
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Lay Your Foundations
The Purpose
- Work with key corporate stakeholders to come to a shared understanding of the benefits and aspects of application portfolio management.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Establish the goals of APM.
- Set the scope of APM responsibilities.
- Establish business priorities for the application portfolio.
Activities
Outputs
Define goals and metrics.
- Set short- and long-term goals and metrics.
Define application categories.
- Set the scope for applications.
Determine steps and roles.
- Set the scope for the APM process.
Weight value drivers.
- Defined business value drivers.
Module 2: Improve Your Inventory
The Purpose
- Gather information on your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Populated inventory based on your and your team’s current knowledge.
- Understanding of outstanding data and a plan to collect it.
Activities
Outputs
Populate inventory.
- Initial application inventory
Assign business capabilities.
- List of areas of redundancy
Review outstanding data.
- Plan to collect outstanding data
Module 3: Gather Application Information
The Purpose
Work with the application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Dispositions for individual applications
- Application rationalization framework
Activities
Outputs
Assess business value.
- Business value score for individual applications
Assess end-user perspective.
- End-user satisfaction scores for individual applications
Assess TCO.
- TCO score for individual applications
Assess technical health.
- Technical health scores for individual applications
Assess redundancies.
- Feature-level assessment of redundant applications
Determine dispositions.
- Assigned dispositions for individual applications
Module 4: Gather, Assess, and Select Dispositions
The Purpose
- Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prioritized initiatives
- Initial application portfolio roadmap
- Ongoing structure of APM
Activities
Outputs
Prioritize initiatives
- Prioritized new potential initiatives.
Populate roadmap.
- Built an initial portfolio roadmap.
Determine ongoing APM cadence.
- Established an ongoing cadence of APM activities.
Build APM action plan.
- Built an action plan to complete APM activities.
Application Portfolio Management Foundations
Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.
Analyst Perspective
You can’t outsource accountability.
Many lack visibility into their overall application portfolio, focusing instead on individual projects or application development. Inevitably, application sprawl creates process and data disparities, redundant applications, and duplication of resources and stands as a significant barrier to business agility and responsiveness. The shift from strategic investment to application maintenance creates an unnecessary constraint on innovation and value delivery.
With the rise and convenience of SAAS solutions, IT has an increasing need to discover and support all applications in the organization. Unmanaged and unsanctioned applications can lead to increased reputational risk. What you don’t know WILL hurt you.
You can outsource development, you can even outsource maintenance, but you cannot outsource accountability for the portfolio. Organizations need a holistic dashboard of application performance and dispositions to help guide and inform planning and investment discussions. Application portfolio management (APM) can’t tell you why something is broken or how to fix it, but it is an important tool to determine if an application’s value and performance are up to your standards and can help meet your future goals.

Hans Eckman
Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group
Is this research right for you?
Research Navigation
Managing your application portfolio is essential regardless of its size or whether your software is purchased or developed in house. Each organization must have some degree of application portfolio management to ensure that applications deliver value efficiently and that their risk or gradual decline in technical health is appropriately limited.
Your APM goals |
If this describes your primary goal(s) |
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Executive Summary
Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
Info-Tech’s Approach |
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Info-Tech Insight: You can’t outsource strategy.
Modern software options have decreased the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. Your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require a centralized IT oversight to ensure the best return on investment.
The top IT challenges for SE come from app management
Source: National Small Business Association, 2019 |
Having more applications than an organization needs means unnecessarily high costs and additional burden on the teams who support the applications. Especially in the case of small enterprises, this is added pressure the IT team cannot afford. A poorly maintained portfolio will eventually hurt the business more than it hurts IT. Legacy systems, complex environments, or anything that leads to a portfolio that can’t adapt to changing business needs will eventually become a barrier to business growth and accomplishing objectives. Often the blame is put on the IT department. |
56%
of small businesses cited inflexible technology as a barrier to growth Source: Salesforce as quoted by Tech Republic, 2019 |
A hidden and inefficient application portfolio is the root cause of so many pains experienced by both IT and the business.
- Demand/Capacity Imbalance
- Overspending
- Security and Business Continuity Risk
- Delays in Delivery
- Barriers to Growth
APM comes at a justified cost
The benefits of APM
APM identifies areas where you can reduce core spending and reinvest in innovation initiatives.
Other benefits can include:
- Fewer redundancies
- Less risk
- Less complexity
- Improved processes
- Flexibility
- Scalability
APM allows you to better understand and set the direction of your portfolio
Application Inventory
The artifact that documents and informs the business of your application portfolio.
Application Rationalization
The process of collecting information and assessing your applications to determine recommended dispositions.
Application Alignment
The process of revealing application information through interviewing stakeholders and aligning to business capabilities.
Application Roadmap
The artifact that showcases the strategic directions for your applications over a given timeline.
Application Portfolio Management (APM):
The ongoing practice of:
- Providing visibility into applications across the organization.
- Recommending corrections or enhancements to decision makers.
- Aligning delivery teams on priority.
- Showcasing the direction of applications to stakeholders.
Create a balanced approach to value delivery
Enterprise Agility and Value Realization
Product Lifecycle Management
Align your product and service improvement and execution to enterprise strategy and value realization in three key areas: defining your products and services, aligning product/service owners, and developing your product vision.
- Make the Case for Product Delivery
- Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
- Build a Better Product Owner
Product Delivery Lifecycle (Agile DevOps)
Enhance business agility by leveraging an Agile mindset and continuously improving your delivery throughput, quality, value realization, and adaptive governance.
- Agile/DevOps Research Center
- Implement Agile Practices That Work
- Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence
- Implement DevOps Practices That Work
- Perform an Agile Skills Assessment
- Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery
Application Portfolio Management
Transform your application portfolio into a cohesive service catalog aligned to your business capabilities by discovering, rationalizing, and modernizing your applications while improving application maintenance, management, and reuse.
Every organization experiences some degree of application sprawl
Causes of Sprawl
- Poor Lifecycle Management
- Turnover & Lack of Knowledge Transfer
- Siloed Business Units & Decentralized IT
- Business-Managed IT
- (Shadow IT)
- Mergers & Acquisitions
Problems With Sprawl
- Redundancy and Inefficient Spending
- Disparate Apps & Data
- Obsolescence
- Difficulties in Prioritizing Support
- Barriers to Change & Growth
Application Sprawl:
Inefficiencies within your application portfolio are created by the gradual and non-strategic accumulation of applications.
You have more apps than you need.
Only 34% of software is rated as both IMPORTANT and EFFECTIVE by users.
Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision
Build your APM journey map
Application rationalization provides insight
Directionless portfolio of applications |
Info-Tech’s Five Lens Model |
Assigned dispositions for individual apps |
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Application Alignment |
Business Value |
Technical Health |
End-User Perspective |
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) |
Maintain: Keep the application but adjust its support structure. Modernize: Create a new initiative to address an inadequacy. Consolidate: Create a new initiative to reduce duplicate functionality. Retire: Phase out the application. Disposition: The intended strategic direction or implied course of action for an application. |
How well do your apps support your core functions and teams? |
How well are your apps aligned to value delivery? |
Do your apps meet all IT quality standards and policies? |
How well do your apps meet your end users’ needs? |
What is the relative cost of ownership and operation of your apps? |
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Application rationalization requires the collection of several data points that represent these perspectives and act as the criteria for determining a disposition for each of your applications. |
APM is an iterative and evergreen process
APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your business operations and value delivery to all users and customers.
Determine Scope and categories | Build your list of applications and capabilities | Score each application based on your values | Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities | |||
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1. Lay Your Foundations 1.1 Assess the state of your current application portfolio. 1.2 Determine narrative. 1.3 Define goals and metrics. 1.4 Define application categories. 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles (SIPOC). |
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2. Improve Your Inventory 2.1 Populate your inventory. 2.2 Align to business capabilities. *Repeat |
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3. Rationalize Your Apps 3.1 Assess business value. 3.2 Assess technical health. 3.3 Assess end-user perspective. 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership. *Repeat |
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4. Populate Your Roadmap 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results. 4.2 Review APM Foundations results. 4.3 Determine dispositions. 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional). 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional). 4.6 Prioritize initiatives. 4.7 Determine ongoing cadence. *Repeat |
Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes
Executive Brief Case Study
INDUSTRY: Retail
SOURCE: Deloitte, 2017
Supermarket Company The grocer was a smaller organization for the supermarket industry with a relatively low IT budget. While its portfolio consisted of a dozen applications, the organization still found it difficult to react to an evolving industry due to inflexible and overly complex legacy systems. The IT manager found himself in a scenario where he knew the applications well but had little awareness of the business processes they supported. Application maintenance was purely in keeping things operational, with little consideration for a future business strategy. As the business demanded more responsiveness to changes, the IT team needed to be able to react more efficiently and effectively while still securing the continuity of the business. The IT manager found success by introducing APM and gaining a better understanding of the business use and future needs for the applications. The organization started small but then increased the scope over time to produce and develop techniques to aid the business in meeting strategic goals with applications. Results The IT manager gained credibility and trust within the organization. The organization was able to build a plan to move away from the legacy systems and create a portfolio more responsive to the dynamic needs of an evolving marketplace. |
The application portfolio management initiative included the following components: Train teams and stakeholders on APM Model the core business processes Collect application inventory Assign APM responsibilities Start small, then grow |
Info-Tech’s application portfolio management methodology
1. Lay Your Foundations |
2. Improve Your Inventory |
3. Rationalize Your Apps |
4. Populate Your Roadmap |
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Phase Activities |
1.1 Assess your current application portfolio 1.2 Determine narrative 1.3 Define goals and metrics 1.4 Define application categories 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles |
2.1 Populate your inventory 2.2 Align to business capabilities |
3.1 Assess business value 3.2 Assess technical health 3.3 Assess end-user perspective 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership |
4.1 Review APM Snapshot results 4.2 Review APM Foundations results 4.3 Determine dispositions 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional) 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional) 4.6 Prioritize initiatives 4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence |
Phase Outcomes |
Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:
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Gather information on your own understanding of your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy. |
Work with application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps. |
Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap. |
Blueprint deliverables
Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals.
Application Portfolio Management Foundations Playbook |
Application Portfolio Management Snapshot and Foundations Tool |
This template allows you to capture your APM roles and responsibilities and build a repeatable process. |
This tool stores all relevant application information and allows you to assess your capability support, execute rationalization, and build a portfolio roadmap. |
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Key deliverable:
Blueprint Storyboard
This is the PowerPoint document you are viewing now. Follow this guide to understand APM, learn how to use the tools, and build a repeatable APM process that will be captured in your playbook.
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit |
Guided Implementation |
Workshop |
Consulting |
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.” | “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.” | “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.” | “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.” |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
Guided Implementation
What does a typical GI for on this topic look like?
Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4 |
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Call #1: Establish goals and foundations for your APM practice. |
Call #2: Initiate inventory and determine data requirements. |
Call #3: Initiate rationalization with group of applications. Call #4: Review result of first iteration and perform retrospective. |
Call #5: Initiate your roadmap and determine your ongoing APM practice. |
Note: The Guided Implementation will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our right-sized best practices in your organization. A typical GI, using our materials, is 3 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 3 months.
Workshop Overview
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
1. Lay Your Foundations | 2. Improve Your Inventory | 3. Rationalize Your Apps | 4. Populate Your Roadmap | Post Workshop Steps | |
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Activities | 1.1 Assess your current 1.2 Determine narrative 1.3 Define goals and metrics 1.4 Define application categories 1.5 Determine APM steps and roles | 2.1 Populate your inventory 2.2 Align to business capabilities | 3.1 Assess business value 3.2 Assess technical health 3.3 Assess end-user perspective 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership | 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results 4.2 Review APM Foundations results 4.3 Determine dispositions 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional) 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional) 4.6 Prioritize initiatives 4.7 Determine ongoing APM cadence |
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Outcomes | Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:
| Work with your applications team to:
| Work with the SMEs for a subset of applications to:
| Work with application delivery specialists to:
| Info-Tech analysts complete:
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Note: The workshop will focus on a subset or group of applications depending on the state of your current APM inventory and available time. The goal is to use this first group to build your APM process and models to support your ongoing discovery, rationalization, and modernization efforts.