The average global company has around 20% of "redundant applications”, according to a new study carried out by Capgemini and HP. The research found that millions of out-dated apps are still being used within US and European companies that don't provide full business value.
This highlights the need for companies to better streamline their IT applications, especially before migration to the cloud, in order to avoid spending valuable resources and finances on the maintenance of unnecessary applications.
Capgemini carried out a survey on CIOs and IT leaders in the States and Europe and found that 60% of those questioned thought that their companies run or support far more applications than were necessary to run the business. However, 56% of those asked said that half of the apps their business use are bespoke, making using new technologies more complex.
The study has highlighted the need for applications to be better managed by organisations by rationalising their portfolios.
"As companies move towards the transfer of applications to the cloud, the need for systematic and well-managed application retirement will accelerate,” Capgemini said.
Capgemini go on to explain that, in addition to acknowledging the growing importance of this issue, companies must consider the numerous barriers to effectively managing applications. These include: "the cost of retirement projects, the lack of immediate ROI, cultural resistance to change, regional differences, the lack of qualified developers to migrate retired application data, and most importantly that applications are not considered a key priority.”
It's thought that the current state of application portfolios in organisations around the world could stifle innovation and growth within them. By organising applications effectively, companies can free up finances and resources in order to drive innovation and future growth.
It seems many CIOs agree, as 85% of those questioned said that they have application portfolios which are in need of rationalisation. Only 4% said that every IT system they use is critical to the smooth running of their business.
Bearing this in mind, companies should take a good look at their portfolios before deployment to the cloud to cut out any ‘dead wood' which could potentially hold their company back.