Guide · Application rationalisation

How to build an application inventory

Every application rationalisation starts with one thing: knowing what you actually have. A good application inventory is the foundation everything else is built on.

Why the inventory comes first

You can't score, classify or rationalise applications you can't see. The inventory turns a vague sense of "we have too many systems" into a concrete, workable list.

What to capture

• Identity — name, description, and business owner.
• Purpose — the business capabilities it supports.
• Cost — licence, hosting, support and people cost.
• Usage — number of users and how critical it is.
• Technical facts — technology, version, support status and hosting.

Where to get the data

Pull from finance (what you pay for), IT asset and identity systems (what's deployed and who uses it), and business owners (what it's for and how important it is). Expect gaps — the goal is "good enough to decide", not perfection.

Keep it decision-ready

An inventory is only useful if it feeds decisions. Structure it so it flows straight into scoring and TIME classification, rather than becoming a static list that ages on a shared drive.