Evergreen IT — Application Rollout

According to a new study by CapGemini, almost every second CIO believes that his or her organization has more applications than needed, and 55% think that less than half of their in-house apps are mission-critical! 

As a result, organizations are dealing with application sprawl while overspending on licenses and maintenance for unused or duplicate software. In addition, an unmanaged application portfolio creates enormous speed bumps on your Evergreen IT journey which requires a smooth and ongoing upgrade and management process. Therefore, it is vital to manage your Evergreen application rollout process in a streamlined and automated manner while reducing your application footprint.

In an Evergreen IT context, application rollouts also happen as part of ongoing software optimization efforts that consider the application usage statistics of your entire estate and find programs that might be due for retirement or could be culled permanently. In addition, new core applications need to be rolled out to the entire organization (e.g., upgrading to a new Internet Explorer version or implementing Skype for Business) or other business applications to specific business units (such as an SAP upgrade or a new front-end implementation of a back-end system) in a Business-as-Usual manner. 

Benefits Of Managing Your Application Rollout With Dashworks

Rolling out a new application with Dashworks isn't different from managing your Evergreen hardware refresh cycle or your Windows 10 Servicing. Simply load your inventory from SCCM and equivalent tools into Dashworks and define your scope based on your specific criteria for this iteration. Then, you can create a repeatable application rollout project framework, including self-service tools and automated project emails, and manage it within Dashworks' central command and control center. 

Doing so has multiple benefits:

• Keeping applications within lifecycle. By centrally managing your application estate, you are in control when it comes to your applications' lifecycle management. Simply define your policies and rules and Dashworks' smart workflows will do the rest. This will make software audits and license true-ups easier, too.
• Managing exceptions rather than by default. Instead of having to blindly go in and certify, package, and test every single application, you can confidently certify 60-80% of your in-scope applications (low hanging fruit) before turning your attention to those which truly need further investigation and/or intervention.
• Repeatable industrialized process for managing application change. The secret to successfully managing Evergreen IT is a smooth, repeatable, and industrialized process to manage all change, including your application rollouts. With Dashworks, you are in control of that process at all times.
• Reduced application footprint. Managing your application estate as tightly as possible reduces the risk of Shadow IT and application sprawl and reduces the number of applications you need to manage, maintain, and pay licenses for. 
• Utilize peripheral benefits from past or ongoing parallel initiatives. With Dashworks, you can manage a single project as well as multiple projects at the same time. So, if you already drive your ongoing Windows 10 Servicing, hardware refresh cycle, and Office 365 support update management through Dashworks, adding application rollout requires minimal additional effort but brings huge benefits to every project involved.