These days, you can find an application to manage most business tasks and processes. From help desk applications to CRM to mobile payment apps and inventory management, this huge array of applications has led many organisations to stray from their goal of having integrated or singular master system(s) to run their business and keep up with data demands and legislation.  

We’ve spoken at length in a previous blog about how and why application sprawl is becoming an overwhelming problem for many organisations. But once you’ve decided on a course of action to tackle this issue (such as an applications review), it’s important to have a consistent set of criteria to compare these applications and assess their relevance. 

At CoStratify, we use a comprehensive 12-point application measurement criteria to ensure that every application in your system is working to its fullest potential within your organisation (if you’d like to find out more about this part of our roadmap service, please get in touch).  

When conducting an application review within your own organisation, however, there are 3 essential criteria you don't want to forget when assessing a business application’s relevance… 

Purchased Capabilities Used  

Is this application capable of carrying out your desired processes or producing your desired outcomes? Are you currently using the application to its fullest potential? And can it be integrated with other applications in your organisation, or are there any additional in-app purchases or ‘bolt-ons' that can help fulfil the role of other applications you are looking to rationalise? 

One of the most common reasons we see for application sprawl is that the organisation is unaware of the applications it has and what they can do. When conducting a review, it’s important not only to look at what functions the application currently performs, but also at what it’s capable of that’s not currently being used. 

Technical Complexity  

How easy is this application to use, and does it produce useful and relevant data? Does this application perform a similar function to any other application in your organisation? How many other applications and systems is this one application reliant upon?  

The more technically complex your network of applications is, the more challenging innovation within your organisation becomes. With a mass sprawl of applications, it can be not only more challenging to identify potential opportunities for change but also more complex to implement strategic changes, as changes to one application don’t always automatically update in linked applications. Mapping and understanding what each application does and can work within your current setup is an important step when judging an application’s relevance, and documenting it is critical.   

Data Quality & Control  

How complete, relevant, useful and accurate is the data each application is producing and holding for your current business practices? Is this data duplicated or available in any other applications on your network? Is this data secure and protected? Do users have to extract data from the system into spreadsheets to do their jobs?  

Every business application you have should have a role, users should know what it is used for, and it should collect valuable information to help inform your decision-making within the organisation. This ensures that every change you are looking to implement is strategic and aligned with the business’s aims and objectives to achieve great results.  

Undertaking a full business applications review can seem like too big a task to start, especially if the number of active applications within your organisation is in the hundreds or even thousands. If you're feeling swamped with business applications and think that it’s time for an application review, get in touch to find out more about our 12-point application measurement criteria and how we can help.