All Contents © 2006 Burton Group. All rights reserved.

Burton Group Take 5!IT Applications – Less is More

Lyn Robison

Application Platform

Strategies, Analyst

September 25, 2006

2

Burton Group Take 5: Less is More

8,000 applications?

2,000 applications?

135 applications?

How big is your IT legacy boat anchor?

3

Burton Group Take 5: Less is More

Most companies have a bloated portfolio of IT applications• Add new applications frequently• Retire old applications rarely• Ever-growing portfolio of applications

4

Burton Group Take 5: Less is More

Software Maintenance Costs become Titanic

Source: Jean-Marie Favre. “Software Maintenance.” Imag.fr. 2 Feb 2005. http://www-adele.imag.fr/users/Jean-Marie.Favre/ENSEIGNEMENT/TRANSPARENTS/SoftwareMaintenance/7/SoftwareMaintenance-7.pdf

5

Burton Group Take 5: Less is MoreIT

Bud

get

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

$

Year

2007 2008 2009

O&M

New App 1

New App 2

O&M O&M

1 & 2 O&M

New App 3

New App 4

O&M

1 + 2 O&M

3 + 4 O&M

New App 5

New App 6

O&M

If you do not retire your old applications, operations & maintenance costs will fill the entire IT budget

6

Burton Group Take 5: Less is More

A bloated application portfolio stifles progress in IT• Can’t add new IT applications to support business needs• IT initiatives such as SOA, IdM, and MDM are nonstarters

7To optimize a bloated portfolio:

• Reduce the number of applications in your portfolio• Ensure the applications you keep are the right ones• Know what data and functionality they each provide• Ensure that application decisions are made jointly between

business and IT• Build an effective roadmap and project pipeline

• See Burton Group’s Application Platform Strategies overview, “Application Rationalization: Burning Fat and Building Muscle,” for references and more information.