IT departments can be run more effectively and at a reduced
cost by taking a more systematic approach to the development of IT
applications, according to Forrester Research.
With an application strategy, IT departments have to document the
various processes in an organisation, such as invoicing a supplier,
and the IT applications that support this.
IT staff can then work with business units to agree their short-,
medium- and long-term IT requirements. According to Forrester, this
activity will help to give an overview of IT projects within an
organisation over the next six to 12 months. It will also show the
IT director which projects are considered a priority for each
business unit.
Careful planning will help to maximise the benefits of new
applications and also assist organisations with managing their
sprawling IT infrastructure, Forrester said in reports on
application planning published in the past two months.
Application planning has become increasingly used by IT directors
at financial services firms who find themselves in a highly
competitive environment and under pressure from their boards to do
more than simply cut costs from their IT budgets.
"A UK-based bank spoke of a myriad of projects working on small
aspects of the business - and the challenge to align all these
projects with the business without increasing functional redundancy
and complexity," Forrester said in its report.
"Enterprises recognise that they have to consolidate business
requirements from distinct business divisions and avoid isolated
application development activities. A holistic approach,
supplemented by a more granular perspective on requirements,
enables IT organisations to consolidate isolated divisional IT
efforts."