What is an Application Inventory?

As businesses grow, they need different solutions that answer emerging business needs. Developing a new product, opening a new office or a new department, adding a line of business to the company’s scope, or employing a new business strategy all call for ad-hoc solutions in order to optimize the functional structure of a business. This whole process, if managed badly, could result in very complex enterprise architecture. Monitoring and ordinarily checking up on new solutions are the keys to maintaining the quality of a business.

There is a widely accepted technique that rushes to help: creating an Application Inventory.

What is an Application Inventory?

An inventory is the complete list of assets owned by an institution. Regardless of size or sector, any institution that has multiple properties, goods, contents can (and, in fact, should) create an inventory. An Application Inventory, also known as App Inventory, is creating such an inventory for the software assets a company utilizes. Compiling the software and making an elaborative list with necessary details facilitate monitoring the IT structure of a company. Micro-managing could be addressed as an Application Inventory deals with every single software answering an IT needs of a business.

IT departments of businesses are responsible for the management of the IT structure. Without an application inventory, the IT structure could get bulky in no time considering the speed of contemporary business and technological developments.

So, how does Application Inventory help?

1. Companies keep a good track of the software present in their IT structure.
2. Identifying the applications brings about understanding the IT costs.
3. Optimization of the IT budget can be realized.
4. Details of an application can be reached easily.
5. A simplified IT structure will benefit the IT department to allocate more personnel on tasks with more added value.
6. Pinpointing the Total Cost of Ownership benefits coping with compliance issues. Find out more about Total Cost of Ownership and why identifying it is crucial in the article.
7. Repurchases or Shadow IT can be prevented.

How to Make an Application Inventory?

Different periods in the business world require different techniques. As for building an Application Inventory, this rule stands, too.

• Pen & paper (the old-school way)

While using a pen and paper was the meta back in the day, employing such a technique today would only result in ungovernable paper silos. It’s old-school in a very bad way.

• Spreadsheets (digital but hard to control)

Then, there is the digitalized way of building an Application Inventory. The most common way is to use Microsoft Excel for compiling and storing the data regarding the applications in-use of a company. Yet, this is also an obsolete technique considering the number of business applications in a company. After some time, Excel spreadsheets would overflow and spreadsheet silos would be there to be cope with, requiring more personnel than it actually should be to maintain an efficient Application Inventory. Using spreadsheets is like using pen & paper, only digitalized. The personnel do not have to struggle with the physical burden of pen & paper but have to battle a digital load. This could also result in problems in the business.

• Using Application Inventory Software

Application Portfolio Management, APM in short, is the framework to account for the software applications of a business. So, building up an Application Inventory is a preferred technique under Application Portfolio Management. Check out this article about Application Portfolio Management to learn more about this comprehensive methodology.

Software dedicated to Application Portfolios handles the application management in a methodical way. Such software concentrates on this subject specifically and leverages important engagement points to conduct an Application Portfolio Management efficiently.

What does Application Portfolio Management software deliver?

1. An innovative approach to managing IT structure
2. More potential business value
3. Easier integration with future solutions
4. An intact business that gets affected less from malfunctions
5. A stable IT infrastructure
6. Better performance
7. Healthier user experience
8. More efficient business
9. Optimized budget

Loggle proposes all these and more. Read more about Loggle’s benefits.