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IT departments “in denial” on apps use

Enterprises are struggling to get a a grip on what IT they have and how it is used.

Enterprises are struggling to get a a grip on what IT they have and how it is used. Many think they have a much higher utilisation of their assets than actually happens.

In a study by Centrix Software among 100 IT professionals, some 74% of enterprises admitted one of the most challenging areas for end-user applications (apps) is knowing what's happening across their IT estate. This is despite more than three quarters (76%) of CIOs stating that "understanding the entire app portfolio" is a key end-user app goal.

Most CIOs believe that only a very low percentage of app instances across their organisation aren't used (just over one quarter: 27% whereas a Centrix Software analysis of more than three million desktops, found an average of four out of five (80%) of app instances available to employees are never used. The top three end-user app goals were reported as: understanding the apps portfolio across installed, cloud and virtual, to enable planning and management; optimising the app portfolio to match business and user needs; and cutting the cost of running apps to free up more IT resource for strategic initiatives.

In the study, 70% stated their most challenging end-user apps issue with was managing too much complexity in the portfolio. While, a high proportion of the CIOs surveyed (71%) have IT asset management or software licensing tools in place for managing their end-user app portfolio, they still struggle to know what's really happening across their desktop estates. And even although the majority of organisations (71%) use asset or licence management software, 38% admit to using manual usage tracking such as surveys.

"When we analyse usage data in real-time, organisations just don't believe the statistics we reveal - with 80% of installed apps instances never being used," said Lisa Hammond, CEO of Centrix Software. "The findings are consistent across all sizes and types of businesses, including FTSE companies and major government institutions."

"This research confirms that understanding the entire app portfolio has to be the key end-user app goal. Achieving this goal on an on-going basis isn't possible without a much clearer and more detailed understanding of which apps are really important to the business, which are being used and which are delivering value. Business intelligence (BI) solutions have been available to decision makers for years, and the survey clearly shows IT leaders need BI analytics to really understand their app and device usage" Lisa Hammond added.