Your APM goals

If this describes your primary goal(s)

• We are building a business case to determine where and if APM is needed now.
• We want to understand how well supported are our business capabilities, departments, or core functions by our current applications.

• Start with Application Portfolio Snapshot.
• Next step: Application Portfolio Management Foundations for Healthcare Organizations (this blueprint).

• We want to start our APM program with our core or critical applications.
• We want to build our APM inventory for less than 150 applications (division, department, operating unit, government, small enterprise, etc.).

• Optionally, start with Application Portfolio Snapshot for capability mapping and analysis.
• Start with Application Portfolio Management Foundations for Healthcare Organizations (this blueprint).

• We want to start simple with a quick win for our 150 most important applications.
• We want to start with an APM pilot before committing to an enterprise APM program.
• We need to rationalize potentially redundant and underperforming applications to determine which to keep, replace, or retire.

• Start with Application Portfolio Management Foundations for Healthcare Organizations (this blueprint).
• Continue with Build an Application Rationalization Framework.

• We want to start enterprise APM, with up to 150 critical applications.
• We want to collect and analyze detailed information about our applications.
• We need tools to help us calculate total cost of ownership (TCO) and value.
• We want to customize our APM journey and rationalization.
• We want to build a formal communication strategy for our APM program.

• Start with Application Portfolio Management Foundations for Healthcare Organizations (this blueprint).
• Continue with Build an Application Rationalization Framework.
• Then continue with Modernize Your Applications.

Your Challenge

• Organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor.
• There is no dedicated or centralized effort to manage your application portfolio, so there is no single source of truth supporting and informing decision making.
• Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
• Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets, balanced against internal and external pressures. Flexibility and the ability to scale are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.

Common Obstacles

• Application portfolio management (APM) implies taking a holistic approach and compiling multiple priorities and perspectives.
• Organizations have limited time to act strategically or proactively and need to be succinct.
• Uncertainties on business value prevent IT from successfully advising software decision making.
• IT knows it has significant technical debt but struggles to get the business to act on technical risks.
• Attempts at exposing these problems rarely gain buy-in and discourage the push for improvement.

Info-Tech's Approach

• Think low priority over no priority.
• Integrate these tasks into your mixed workload.
• Create an inventory built for better decision making.
• Rationalize your apps in accordance with business priorities and communicate risks on their terms.
• Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support an application.
• Build your APM process fit for size.

The prevalence of legacy systems

Legacy IT infrastructure can be difficult to manage and maintain, expensive to upgrade, and an attack vector for cyber threats. Integrating them with newer technologies can be a challenge and thus, not always an option.

A complex regulatory environment

Healthcare organizations must comply with a range of regulations, such as HIPAA, which constrain or hamper their ability to adopt new technologies and change existing systems.

Patient privacy

Protecting patient privacy is a top priority in the healthcare sector. Ensuring that sensitive patient information is encrypted (at rest, in motion, and often while in use), stored, and processed securely is a major challenge.

Interoperability

Healthcare organizations often use multiple systems from different vendors. Ensuring that these systems can exchange information and work together seamlessly is always challenging. Vendors are moving away from interfaces toward APIs and the new FHIR standard, complicating application rationalization.

Playing at the high stakes tables

In healthcare, a failure in IT systems can have serious consequences, up to and including the loss of life and/or compromise of sensitive patient data.

Resourcing constraints

There are often budget and staffing constraints. This makes it difficult to dedicate the resources needed for APM when there are more immediate challenges.

The ever-evolving technology landscape

The healthcare technology landscape is constantly evolving, and healthcare organizations need to keep up with the latest developments. That means making decisions about which technologies to adopt and which to retire.

Complicated by data storage and/or conversion requirements

Different jurisdictions mean different regulations, and M&A activity often results in a long tail of clinical integration.