Outdated applications cost businesses billions

Rethink IT, Jan, 2005

Obsolete, redundant and unused software applications are costing US companies billions of dollars each year in unnecessary IT spending, according to new research from the BPM Forum.

The Forum, created to promote business performance management techniques and technologies, surveyed 226 IT and business executives and found the majority say they aren't getting the most out of their enterprise software investments.

Companies typically have no way of measuring return on software investments, no process for tracking what software is used, and no system for qualifying and certifying existing or new applications, according to the report.

When asked how often they conduct a company-wide software audit to see how many business applications are active on the network, just 25% of survey respondents said they do so once a year. More than 40% said they do it on an 'as-needed basis', while 13.4% never conduct audits at all.

Processes for getting rid of outmoded software are scarce: 73% of respondents say they have no systematic processes for retiring applications.