MEGA eBook - APM 1 - 4 keys to get a simple view of your application landscape

© MEGA - September 2012

4 Ways to Get a Simple, Organized View of your Application LandscapeHow you can revolutionize your application portfolio management initiatives to drive IT transformation Step 1: Inventory

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Common Concerns

With too many systems and technologies accumulated over the years, how can you change what you don’t know?

"After several mergers & acquisitions, we have too many redundant capabilities in multiple applications."

"Business group autonomy and many geographic locations make it difficult to know which applications are actually being used."

"We still pay for maintenance and licenses even if we don't use them!"

"We don’t know how many applications we have ...maybe around 10,000?"

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Do you know all the dimensions of your application landscape?

Business

– Do we have the right capabilities in place to support business processes?

– Are they aligned with business priorities? – Where are the potential synergies? – Are there duplications? – Do they provide quality and timely

information?

Operational

– Are applications sustainable? – Do they fall within the company’s risk

tolerance? – Do they have security, privacy, or disaster

recovery vulnerabilities? – Do they meet availability, reliability, and

maintainability requirements? – Is there long-term staffing support?

Technology

– Do applications fit the desired technical architecture?

– What is the technical migration roadmap? – What risks are presented by outdated

technology? – Are updates current with vendor releases?

Financial

– How do we maximize overall value, especially when redirecting funds to other applications or uses offering more value?

– Can costs be optimized across the organization, especially when eliminating or renovating costly applications?

– To what extent can innovation and new applications be funded by cost savings?

– Do they cost too much to operate or maintain?

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4 Ways to Get a Simple, Organized View of your Application Landscape

#1. Define the criteria you will use to consolidate information about your portfolio

#2. Organize a decentralized collection of descriptive content

#3. Store all data and relationships in a central repository

#4. Communicate the status of your portfolio through a wide range of reporting deliverables

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Define the criteria you will use to consolidate information about your portfolio

A clear definition of reference data is necessary in order to consolidate critical information about applications, so that you can conduct performance- based portfolio analysis.

The information should include costs and risks, as well as processes and business architecture in general.

A global information model allows you to depict applications with all of the necessary information and application relationships in a centralized structure.

Technologies &Components

(Editor, Versions, etc.)

General Information

(ID, Name, Type, etc.)

Functional Data

(Business Process,Capability, etc.)

Key Stakeholders

(Manager, Users,Support, etc.)

Environment &Hosting

Interfaces

History

(Incidents,Decisions Made,

Recommendations, etc.)

Costs Necessity / Risks / BCP

#1

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Organize a decentralized collection of descriptive content

Regular updating of information needs to involve all stakeholders, wherever they are based.

A decentralized data collection method, with easy Web form-based data entry and criteria assessment, facilitates the integration of all up-to-date information, and adapts it for occasional users.

Owner of ERPapplications worldwide

Owner of APAC ERPapplications

Owner of EMEAapplications

Owner of LAapplications

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Store all data and relationships in a central repository

A central repository provides “a single version of the truth”. The consolidation of all relevant information from multiple sources ensures that valid evaluations are performed.

Applications deployedin APAC

Applications deployedin EMEA

InterfaceOther applications

(Help desks, APL, etc.)

Data collection toolsApplication datasheets

(Excel, etc.)

Applications deployedin Latin America

Applications deployedin North America

#3

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Communicate the status of your portfolio through a wide range of reporting deliverables

Your APM process shouldn’t be a black box never to be opened; it is a valuable tool to manage the application portfolio. While the central repository is the source of information for analysis, it is important to share the results

of your inventory and information through consistent reporting, via dashboards for decision-makers and more detailed reports for others.

Single ApplicationDescription

Published Web Pages

InterfaceOther applications

(Help desks, APL, etc.)Update of app. attributes

Data collection toolsApplication datasheets

(Excel, etc.)

Dashboards

Reports (Applicationinventory, etc.)

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9© MEGA - September 2012

For the next steps, see:

eBook: 5 ways to evaluate the costs, risks, and technology efficiency of your application portfolio

eBook: 5 keys to organize the decision process and plan the transformation of your application portfolio

10© MEGA - September 2012

MEGA: A global leader in enterprise architecture

Visit our website to learn more about our APM solutions:

www.mega.com/apm

http://www.mega.com/apm

MEGA eBook - APM 1 - 4 keys to get a simple view of your application landscape

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