In earlier tips, blogs and even e-books we have shared our insights about the importance and benefits of Application Portfolio Management. By now, you are most likely convinced APM is a surefire way to save costs for your organisation too.
TIP #45 - June 2020: Create a compelling business case with Flexera Data Platform that allows you to spark the enthusiasm of your internal stakeholders.
For all but the simplest of IT infrastructures, some kind of tooling is needed to manage application titles, versions, editions and the APM status assigned.
However, getting started with Application Portfolio Management after choosing a tool can be challenging. What is the easiest way to prove the value of your investment? Or, in other words: How do you build the business case that sparks the enthusiasm of your internal stakeholders?
At Softline Solutions we have experienced there is one report that doesn’t fail to capture interest around a customers’ organisation when implementing Flexera Data Platform. Here is what it looks like:
Flexera Data Platform report
The basis is built on Software Category and Software Subcategory, with the install count and distinct product count added per row. This provides a quick overview that will interest not just the SAM/ITAM team, but also functional owners, platform owners, service managers and everyone interested in application rationalisation.
The next step is adding end-of-life and end-of-support information per row. This will enable conversations with lifecycle management and configuration management, who are in turn valuable allies when building your APM capabilities.
As a last step, we can add risk to the mix, using the CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) count per row to catch the attention of security.
And there you have it! A report that allows you to capture the imagination of stakeholders throughout your organisation by combining elements that are of interest for Software Lifecycle Management, Application Portfolio Management and Vulnerability Management.