Saturday, April 25, 2009

What is Application Portfolio Management

Mid to Large companies typically have very large investments in application software. In certain industry sectors, for instance Oil and Gas, there may be a large number of high cost specialist applications.

Application Portfolio Management is concerned with activities such as:

- Maintaining an accurate application inventory
- Monitoring application usage to ensure effective use of licenses
- Maintaining the optimum mix of licenses single/LAN/WAN
- Understanding and managing the application lifecycle
- Managing change of the portfolio to avoid functional overlap

The benefits of Application Portfolio Management are:

- Reduced costs on application purchasing and maintenance
- Reduction in systems complexity, improving support, and reducing costs
- Improved commercial terms with vendors
- Improved user experience