How many IT tools is my company using? How much do they cost my business? Are these tools helping us make data-driven decisions? IT executives commonly ask these questions in regard to their IT tools portfolio, but many end up overwhelmed by the complexity of finding the answers.
Over $3.8 trillionOpens a new window was spent on technology applications in 2019 and many of these tools are used to run day-to-day operations. Everyone from start-ups to mid-enterprise companies are packing their portfolio with various IT tools, and one can only imagine how many tools the average enterprise supports on the backend of its IT infrastructure. In fact, enterprise software is the fastest-growing area within this massive investment in IT. This out of control adoption of IT tools has been coined “tool sprawl†by industry experts.
IT tools rationalization is the most effective way to control tool sprawl and create an effective strategy. However, to fully understand the solution, let’s take a more in-depth look at tool sprawl and the issues it causes businesses.
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What is IT tool sprawl?
IT tool sprawl refers to the redundancy, wasteful spending and system complexity associated with the unnecessary purchase of new IT tools, and the use or misuse of stagnant, legacy systems. This trend is incredibly debilitating to an organization, as it creates spend inefficiency and siloed data. It leaves IT teams divided, which leads to longer repair times and failure to meet end-user requirements.
Unfortunately, tool sprawl is common for businesses of all sizes. According to GartnerOpens a new window , tool sprawl is one of the ten most common monitoring challenges for CIOs. Companies oftentimes don’t even realize they have a tool sprawl problem until it becomes incredibly expensive or creates security issues.
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Auditing the tools portfolio
To best prevent tool sprawl from affecting your business, consider conducting a tools portfolio audit. IT leaders evaluating their tools portfolio must have insight into the value of each tool, the costs of maintaining each tool and potential gaps or overlaps within the system. IT tools portfolio audits are critical to the success of a business. While this process isn’t cheap, it is essential to create a foundation built on streamlined digital transformation.
Many IT leaders are simply not ready to handle the IT monitoring needs of this evolving landscape; auditing your tools portfolio can solve the problem. This process works in three steps:
- Inventory current tools and your organizational requirements
- Consolidate tools portfolio
- Implement an ongoing monitoring strategy
IT leaders must first evaluate their current toolset and consider what is necessary. Was this a tool brought over from an acquisition? Do we have another tool performing the same functions? Is the tool creating security gaps in our system? From here, unnecessary tools can be eliminated to consolidate the portfolio and then the process can be iterated on an ongoing basis to keep a streamlined IT tech stack.
The true solution: IT tools rationalization automation
While the audit process is useful, it’s also expensive and tedious. For many organizations, especially enterprise companies, it requires large teams performing months of work that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. These enterprises then spend valuable time to fully understand all of the tool capabilities — not to mention analyzing each one to determine the value and cost requirements. The IT tools portfolio is only one category of tools businesses use, and the amount of time needed to identify and analyze the complete tools portfolio without an application rationalization strategy is often an impossible task.
Luckily, as the technology landscape continues to develop, so have solutions to remedy these common problems. Modern IT tools rationalization platforms can keep pace with the acceleration of change and monitor tools portfolios on an ongoing basis, lowering costs and streamlining monitoring across a company’s IT tech stack. This process automates the complete tools audit and makes informed recommendations about changes that teams can make to the tools portfolio. Automating and outsourcing IT tools rationalization removes the tedious analysis process from the hands of the IT team and allows those individuals to focus on higher-level, strategic tasks for the business. On average, organizations that spend more than $10 million on IT tools will save more than $1.5 million on annual tool spend when they invest in a modern IT tools rationalization solution.
While tool sprawl may seem out of control, IT tools rationalization can help solve the problem through adequate portfolio management. Rationalized processes help businesses achieve greater spend control, tool standardization, improved customer and vendor relationships as well as reduced exposure to security risk.
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