Application Portfolio Management (APM)

From a tangled web of applications to a streamlined IT landscape: transparency that saves millions.

Your application landscape has grown over the years. New tools were added, old ones remained, and eventually, no one had a complete overview anymore. 150 applications? 500? You don't know for sure—and that is exactly the problem. Redundancies cost you money every single month. Technical debt is piling up. And when management asks which systems truly contribute to the company's success, you lack a reliable answer. Without transparency regarding the benefits, costs, and status of your applications, you are flying blind when making decisions: Which software should be replaced? Where should you invest? What should be consolidated? Modernization projects stall because no one knows the dependencies. And with every passing week, the jungle continues to grow.

Duration
2 - 6 months
Format
Project
Target audience
CIO, CTO, Enterprise Architect

Solution Approach

Think of your application portfolio as a map: every application has its place, its value, and its status - clearly visible, assessable, and manageable. That is exactly what we achieve with our Application Portfolio Management (APM). We systematically capture your entire application landscape, evaluate every application based on strategic value, technical quality, costs, and lifecycle and make it clear what stays, what goes, and where you should invest. This is not a theoretical exercise, but a concrete management tool: you can see at a glance which systems drive your business, which ones are just costing money, and where potential for consolidation or modernization lies dormant.
The result is a sound basis for decision-making that protects your IT budget and makes your architecture future-proof.

Benefits

  • Clarity instead of guesswork: You know exactly which applications create value—and which ones are just burning cash.
  • Lower costs, higher impact: Eliminate redundancies, consolidate licenses, and systematically reduce technical debt
  • Strategic management: Your portfolio is aligned with business goals—not historical accidents
  • Informed modernization: Investment decisions based on data, not opinions
  • Sustainable governance: A dynamic management model that grows with your company

Approach

  1. Scoping & kick-off: Together, we define the goals, scope, and evaluation criteria—tailored to your corporate strategy and IT landscape.
  2. Current state assessment and categorization: We capture all applications, including business relevance, technology, costs, usage, maturity, and lifecycle status.
  3. Evaluation and analysis: Every application undergoes a structured assessment: strategic fit, business value, technical quality, operating costs, and risks.
  4. Visualization and mapping: Dependencies between applications, business processes, and organizational units become tangible—through heatmaps, relationship maps, and cluster diagrams.
  5. Rationalization and optimization: We identify redundancies, consolidation, and modernization potential, and classify them according to the TIME model (Tolerate, Invest, Migrate, Eliminate).
  6. Governance and operating model: We will work together to define roles, processes, and KPIs for the ongoing management of your portfolio.
  7. Roadmap and Quick Wins: You will receive a prioritized optimization plan – featuring both quick wins and a long-term perspective.

Deliverables

  • Complete application inventory with a structured assessment based on defined criteria as a central data foundation
  • APM dashboard with visualizations (heatmaps, cost analyses, maturity models) for both management and IT
  • Identified optimization measures with clear TIME classification – you will know immediately what stays and what goes
  • Concrete action plan for the consolidation, modernization, or replacement of applications
  • Governance model with roles, responsibilities, and KPIs for sustainable portfolio management
  • Prioritized roadmap for the step-by-step development of your application landscape

Speak with our experts!

Let’s work together to identify where the greatest potential lies and which measures will deliver the greatest added value for you.

Marcel Effinger
Lead Software Engineer & Architect
Contact us!
Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have questions? We have the answers.

Do we need existing documentation of our applications before we start?

No. The project is actually at its most valuable when there is no current inventory. We work with the people who know the systems to create transparency from the ground up.

How does APM differ from Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM)?

APM is a focused component within EAM that concentrates on the application landscape. EAM also covers business, data, and technology architecture. Many companies start with APM as a quick win and later develop it into a comprehensive EAM.

Which tools do you use for Application Portfolio Management?

We prefer to work with specialized platforms like Ardoq, which were developed for Enterprise Architecture and APM. For getting started, a structured discovery workshop using lighter-weight tools can also be useful—the data can be transferred to a professional tool later on.

What company size is APM suitable for?

Generally, for a portfolio size of about 50+ applications. The larger and more heterogeneous the landscape, the greater the impact. However, mid-sized companies also benefit when modernization or cloud decisions are on the horizon.

What happens to the results after the project?

The results are immediately usable as a basis for decision-making regarding IT strategy, budget planning, or modernization projects. The governance model ensures that your portfolio is maintained and managed in the long term. We are happy to support you in the next steps if desired.