Improving the bottom line with Application Portfolio Management

[Lilly Souksamla]

In recent years, technology costs have come down considerably.  Ask any seasoned IT executive and they’ll tell you about the costs that they used to have to incur with in-house data centers, high storage costs, and continuously upgraded server racks to run the latest and greatest solutions.  Things are very different now, but technology still represents a very significant cost for the business, and in today’s world a lot of that cost is related to applications.

With organizations in many industries running on very fine margins in order to stay competitive, it’s essential that organizations control their costs as much as possible – expenditure savings go directly to the bottom line, making a real difference.  For technology leaders, that’s where effective Application Portfolio Management (APM) can provide a tremendous advantage.

Most obviously a complete, accurate inventory of current assets can help to identify duplicate, redundant and obsolete applications – all of which are unnecessarily adding to an organization’s cost base.  The inventory also helps to identify applications that create excessive risk, which also indirectly impacts the bottom line, either through contingency funds, risk control efforts, or recovery operations.  But most significant of all, APM can help control future costs.

Organizations are continuously looking to update, replace and expand their applications.  All of that costs money, and there must be confidence that those costs are going to deliver the best possible value for the business.  With effective APM, technology leaders can ensure that planned technology investments are helping to improve and/or expand business capabilities, and that the proposed applications represent the optimal choice for the organization. 

This positions IT leaders not just as the technology guides for the organization, but also as savvy business leaders – driving decisions that enhance the ability of the business to perform while strengthening financial performance.  They can provide their business colleagues recommendations that not only align with the needed business capabilities that are being invested in, but that can also optimize the return on investment.

Additionally, a complete, accurate understanding of APM allows those technology leaders to identify additional opportunities for both business improvement and financial contributions.  Some of the new applications being implemented as part of strategic initiatives will also be capable of being leveraged to replace or update other applications within the technology environment, driving further benefits that would have been missed without APM.

Of course, not all solutions can deliver this level of cost management capabilities. Organizations must invest in APM solutions that not only allow for the creation and automated maintenance of an accurate and complete technology inventory, but that also enable technology and business leaders to collaborate on the best solutions. That’s where ServiceNow’s APM solution excels.

As part of the Now platform, APM offers seamless integration with our strategic portfolio management (SPM) solution, as well as with IT operations and service management capabilities. With ServiceNow, technology leaders not only have an accurate understanding of their application landscape, they have it in the context of the business, and that makes all the difference.

Interested in learning more? Visit us online and find out how ServiceNow APM can help you plan for a new tomorrow.  

Read the next in the blog series here. 

Read the previous blog in the series here.

Learn more about Application Portfolio Management here.

Learn more about Strategic Portfolio Management here.