Baljit Singh Sidhu, Dr. Kirti Gupta
Organizations are looking for innovative means to stay ahead of the competition even while having to practice austerity in economically stressed environment. Technology, being the business enabler, is constantly called upon to deliver solutions that business can adopt to improve its prospects. IT leaders are expected to create applications that can balance cost with complexity while delivering desired value to business. There is increased focus on developing more agile applications and technologies to support the business without compromising the performance of existing systems.The process of application portfolio management plays a big role in helping the organizations acquire a competitive edge while keeping the operational costs under control. It is a concept quite similar to financial portfolio and deals with inventory analysis of a company's software applications for optimizing business benefits of each application. Research suggests that resolving application portfolio issues goes a long way in improving business-IT alignment.This paper introduces the concept and discusses the practices and benefits of application portfolio management. It looks at various approaches recommended by the consulting community and academicians to deal with management challenges brought about by the complexities of IT applications accumulated over a period in the organizations.
Business Enabler, Performance, Competitive Edge, Operational Costs, Business-IT Alignment, Management Challenges