Rationalize Your Application Portfolio
Establish an evergreen application portfolio management (APM) program to deliver the best possible return on investment.
When organizations consider application oversight a low priority and app portfolio knowledge is poor:
- No dedicated or centralized effort to manage the app portfolio means no single source of truth is available to support informed decision-making.
- Organizations acquire more applications over time, creating redundancy, waste, and the need for additional support.
- Organizations are more vulnerable to changing markets. Flexibility and growth are compromised when applications are unadaptable or cannot scale.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- You cannot outsource application strategy.
- Modern software options have lessened the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. But your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require centralized oversight to ensure the best overall return on investment.
- Application portfolio management is the mechanism to ensure that the applications in your enterprise are delivering value and support for your value streams and business capabilities. Understanding value, satisfaction, technical health, and total cost of ownership are critical to digital transformation, modernization, and roadmaps.
Impact and Result
Build an APM program that is ready for action and fit for size:
- Understand your current state, needs, and goals for your application portfolio management.
- Create an application and platform inventory that is built for better decision making.
- Rationalize your apps with business priorities and communicate risk in operational terms.
- Create a roadmap that improves communication between those who own, manage, and support your applications.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
9.6/10
Overall Impact
$189,980
Average $ Saved
32
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Carver County, MN
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,603
5
D&I Associates Ltd
Guided Implementation
9/10
$85,500
20
+ve : Very effectively scheduled, call opened on time, quick intros, opportunity to share context, practical advice based on sound models/framework... Read More
Stellenbosch University
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
120
Even though I am new to architecture landscape everyone was very welcoming and I was not intimidated by the content.
Regional Transportation District
Guided Implementation
10/10
$1.23M
110
Expert, friendly and collaborative advice.
University of Ottawa
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Too early to estimate savings at this point. Looks really positive. We can fill out a survey at the end of the work.
New Mexico Department Of Health
Guided Implementation
9/10
$1.37M
110
Hans is a wealth of information and a welcome knowledge-asset!
Regional Transportation District
Guided Implementation
10/10
$685K
47
This engagement has helped RTD establish a baseline measure of our Application Portfolio giving us better command over which systems need to be pri... Read More
Amey
Guided Implementation
10/10
$11,970
10
Excellent knowledge and able to put it quickly into the context of our organisation
NH Advisory LLC
Guided Implementation
9/10
$13,700
20
Andrew was very helpful. There is a lot of material to parse through - all positive
Bioventus LLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
$68,500
10
This was a great start to this guided implementation. I look forward to seeing the actual results at the end.
Sundale
Guided Implementation
10/10
$18,655
18
Great session with Ricardo who clearly and expertly unpacked and explained everything I need to know to get to the next stage.
Oregon Department of Justice
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,740
20
It was great to learn about APM and how it can be utilized. This is something that we will plan to implement in the future. An executive summary... Read More
Community Aid, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Hong was extremely helpful, pliable and accessible. We greatly appreciate his patience and expertise. Worst part is the rationizations input ta... Read More
North American Air Travel Insurance Agents Ltd.
Guided Implementation
10/10
$90,000
20
Another excellent & insightful meeting with Hans! His App spreadsheet is really helping us uncover a lot of facts about applications are users like... Read More
Braun Intertec Corporation
Guided Implementation
9/10
$2,466
2
Suneel does a great job to help put context around approach and ask good questions to help us shape what it is that would help guide us to get the ... Read More
Diamond Offshore, LLC
Guided Implementation
9/10
$34,250
5
Alignment and explanation of how I can use the tool to bring value by doing an Application Portfolio Management exercise to the org and more import... Read More
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Assoc.
Guided Implementation
9/10
$130K
20
Washington State Department of Health
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
50
Having the discussions about what EA is thinking vs reality. Take that with the methodology of the offering will assist when working within the DOH... Read More
The Corporation of United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
20
Australian Institute of Company Directors
Guided Implementation
10/10
$27,300
20
Best part - a proven cost effective framework supported by knowledgeable people
Consumers Energy
Workshop
10/10
$685K
20
Best part - Hans is exceptionally knowledgeable and a skilled facilitator. This is a tough topic to tackle, fraught with politics and fear, and he... Read More
SUNS LEGACY PARTNERS, LLC
Guided Implementation
10/10
$75,350
50
The PPT Slides and Excel templates are awesome!!! Also, Hong's advice was invaluable!! No negatives whatsoever!
Consumers Energy
Workshop
10/10
$685K
20
Kieran was an excellent partner for this workshop. He was flexible, knowledgeable, and helped build trust with our business partners.
Honorhealth
Guided Implementation
10/10
$130K
18
Alfred H. Knight Holding
Guided Implementation
10/10
$85,581
50
Hans is an expert in his field. He is a great sounding board for my plans and thoughts, mainly because he validates what I am saying but also align... Read More
Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
Guided Implementation
10/10
$50,000
10
Best parts: 1. Positive and friendly service. 2. Understood my need and was flexible to accommodate for it. 3. Very timely follow-up after the c... Read More
Hydro-Quebec
Guided Implementation
8/10
$50,000
50
The methodology is sound and I use it in the presentation. The advisors show great interest to help. We need more to work on solutions and have... Read More
Cameron County, TX
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,599
10
It was a great and instrumental experience. Mr. Suneel, did a great job of guiding and explaining the tools and the most efficient way to use them ... Read More
City of Penticton
Guided Implementation
9/10
$11,500
5
Pima County Community College District
Guided Implementation
10/10
$34,250
120
Suneel was amazing! This initiative has proven to be the foundation on which so many other initiatives are being build on/around. I didn't expect... Read More
Application Portfolio Management
Support your ongoing business objectives with a rationalized application portfolio while remaining aligned with your current and future technology needs.
This course makes up part of the Applications Certificate.
- Course Modules: 6
- Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour
- Featured Analysts:
- Ricardo de Oliveira - Research Director
Workshop: Rationalize Your Application Portfolio
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Lay Your Foundations
The Purpose
- Work with key corporate stakeholders to come to a shared understanding of the benefits and aspects of application portfolio management.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Establish the goals of APM.
- Set the scope of APM responsibilities.
- Establish business priorities for the application portfolio.
Activities
Outputs
Assess your current application portfolio
- An understanding of your current application portfolio
Determine narrative
- Current narrative for why we need to rationalize our application portfolio
Define goals and metrics
- Set short- and long-term goals and metrics
Define application categories
- List of application categories
Determine steps and roles
- A list of steps and roles for your rationalization program
Module 2: Improve Your Inventory
The Purpose
- Gather information on your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Populated inventory based on your and your team’s current knowledge.
- Understanding of outstanding data and a plan to collect it.
Activities
Outputs
Populate inventory
- Initial application inventory
Assign to business capabilities
- Alignment of inventory to business capabilities
Module 3: Rationalize Your Applications
The Purpose
Work with the application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Dispositions for individual applications
- Application rationalization framework
Activities
Outputs
Assess business value
- Business value score for individual applications
Assess technical health
- Technical health score for individual applications
Assess end-user perspective
- End-user satisfaction score for individual applications
Assess total cost of ownership
- Assessed TCO for individual applications
Module 4: Populate Your Roadmap
The Purpose
- Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prioritized initiatives
- Initial application portfolio roadmap
- Ongoing structure of APM
Activities
Outputs
Review APM Snapshot results
- A clear view of areas to focus on
Review Rationalization results
- A view of recommended dispositions and priorities for your applications
Determine dispositions
- Confirmed set of dispositions for your applications
Assess redundancies (optional)
- Identified set of redundant applications
Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional)
- Dispositions for redundant applications
Prioritize initiatives
- Prioritized new potential initiatives
Determine ongoing cadence
- Established an ongoing cadence of activities
Rationalize Your Application Portfolio
Establish an evergreen application portfolio management (APM) program to deliver the best possible return on investment.
Analyst Perspective
You can’t outsource accountability.
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Many lack visibility into their overall application portfolio, focusing instead on individual projects or application development. Inevitably, application sprawl creates process and data disparities, redundant applications, and duplication of resources, and it stands as a significant barrier to organizational agility and responsiveness. The shift from strategic investment to application maintenance creates an unnecessary constraint on innovation and value delivery. With the rise and convenience of SaaS solutions, IT has an increasing need to discover and support all applications in the organization. Unmanaged and unsanctioned applications can lead to increased reputational risk. What you don’t know will hurt you. You can outsource development, you can even outsource maintenance, but you cannot outsource accountability for the portfolio. Organizations need a holistic dashboard of application performance and dispositions to help guide and inform planning and investment discussions. Application portfolio management (APM) can’t tell you why something is broken or how to fix it, but it is an important tool to determine if an application’s value and performance are up to your standards and can help meet your future goals. Hans Eckman |
What is application portfolio management (APM)?
Application Inventory
The artifact that documents and informs the organization of your application portfolio.
Application Rationalization
The process of collecting information and assessing your applications to determine recommended dispositions.
Application Alignment
The process of revealing application information through interviewing stakeholders and aligning to organizational capabilities.
Application Roadmap
The artifact that showcases the strategic directions for your applications over a given timeline.
Application portfolio management:
The ongoing practice of:
- Providing visibility into applications across the organization
- Recommending corrections or enhancements to decision makers
- Aligning delivery teams on priority
- Showcasing the direction of applications to stakeholders
Is this research right for you?
Research Navigation
Managing your application portfolio is essential regardless of its size or whether your software is purchased or developed in house. Each organization must have some degree of application portfolio management to ensure that applications deliver value efficiently and that their risk or gradual decline in technical health is appropriately limited.
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Your APM goals |
If this describes your primary goals |
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Executive Summary
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Your Challenge |
Common Obstacles |
Info-Tech’s Approach |
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Leverage APM to drive application rationalization goals:
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Info-Tech Insight: You can’t outsource strategy.
Modern software options have decreased the need for organizations to have robust in-house application management capabilities. Your applications’ future and governance of the portfolio still require centralized IT oversight to ensure the best return on investment.
APM can be even harder for small enterprises and siloed IT
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#1 challenge small enterprise owners face in their use of technology: |
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Taking appropriate security precautions |
24% |
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The costs of needed upgrades to technology |
17% |
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The time it takes to fix problems |
17% |
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The cost of maintaining technology |
14% |
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Lack of expertise |
9% |
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Breaks in service |
7% |
Source: National Small Business Association, 2019.
Having more applications than an organization needs means unnecessarily high costs and additional burden on the teams that support the applications. Especially in the case of small enterprises, this is added pressure the IT team cannot afford.
A poorly maintained portfolio will eventually hurt the organization more than it hurts IT. Legacy systems, complex environments, or anything that leads to a portfolio that can’t adapt to changing organizational needs will eventually become a barrier to organizational growth and accomplishing objectives. Often the blame is put on the IT department.
56% of small businesses cited inflexible technology as a barrier to growth
Source: Salesforce as quoted by Tech Republic, 2019.
APM comes at a justified cost
The benefits of APM
APM identifies areas where you can reduce core spending and reinvest in innovation initiatives.
Other benefits can include:
- Fewer redundancies
- Less risk
- Less complexity
- Improved processes
- Flexibility
- Scalability
Create a balanced approach to value delivery
Enterprise Agility and Value Realization
Product Delivery Lifecycle (Agile DevOps)
Enhance enterprise agility by leveraging an Agile mindset and continuously improving your delivery throughput, quality, value realization, and adaptive governance.
- Agile/DevOps Research Center
- Implement Agile Practices That Work
- Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence
- Implement DevOps Practices That Work
- Perform an Agile Skills Assessment
- Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery
Application Portfolio Management (We're here)
Transform your application portfolio into a cohesive service catalog aligned to your business capabilities by discovering, rationalizing, and modernizing your applications while improving application maintenance, management, and reuse.
Product Lifecycle Management
Align your product and service improvement and execution to enterprise strategy and value realization in three key areas: defining your products and services, aligning product/service owners, and developing your product vision.
Every organization experiences some degree of application sprawl
Causes of sprawl:
Poor Lifecycle Management
Turnover & Lack of Knowledge Transfer
Siloed Organizational Units & Decentralized IT
Business-Managed IT (Shadow IT)
Mergers & Acquisitions
Problems with sprawl:
Redundancy and Inefficient Spending
Disparate Apps & Data
Obsolescence
Difficulties in Prioritizing Support
Barriers to Change & Growth
Application sprawl:
Inefficiencies within your application portfolio are created by the gradual and non-strategic accumulation of applications.
You have more apps than you need.
Only 34% of software is rated as both IMPORTANT and EFFECTIVE by users.
Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision
Build your APM journey map
Application rationalization provides insight
Review the value drivers of your applications
Financial vs. Human Benefits
Financial benefits refer to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and are often quite tangible.
Human benefits refer to how an application can deliver value through a user’s experience.
Inward vs. Outward Orientation
Inward orientation refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.
Outward orientation refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.
Info-Tech Best Practice
Replace organizational value and fit with your strategic enterprise goals or priorities. Use the value matrix to help identify value drivers and sources of value.
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Increase Revenue or |
Reduced Costs and Drive Efficiency |
Enhanced Services |
Reach Customers |
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Application functions that are specifically related to the impact on your organization’s ability to generate revenue and deliver value to your customers. |
Reduction of overhead. How an application limits the operational costs of operational functions. |
Functions that enable business capabilities that improve the organization’s ability to perform its internal operations. |
Application functions that enable and improve the interaction with customers or produce market information and insights. |
Understand the back end and technical health of your applications
Technical health identifies the extent of technology risk to the organization.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY/DISASTER RECOVERY
The degree to which the application is compatible with business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) policies and plans that are routinely tested and verified.
SECURITY
Applications should be aligned and compliant with ALL security policies. Are there vulnerabilities or is there a history of security incidents? Remember that threats are often internal and non-malicious.
MAINTAINABILITY (RAS)
RAS refers to an app’s reliability, availability, and serviceability. How often, how long, and how difficult is it for your resources to keep an app functioning, and what are the resulting continuity risks? This can include root causes of maintenance challenges.
ADAPTABILITY
How easily can the app be enhanced or scaled to meet changes in operational needs? Does the app fit within the organizational strategy?
INTEROPERABILITY
The degree to which an app is integrated with current systems. Apps require comprehensive technical planning and oversight to ensure they connect within the greater application architecture. Does the app fit within your enterprise architecture strategy?
Info-Tech Best Practice
Technical health represents the most important aspects and priorities for your enterprise technology. Adjust, merge, or replace these sample criteria to match your priorities and goals. For example, many teams are using SaaS and cloud readiness as technical health criteria.
Unfortunately, the business only cares about what they can see or experience.
Rationalization is your opportunity to get risk on the organization’s radar and gain buy-in for the necessary action.
End users provide valuable perspective
Your end users are your best means of determining front-end issues.
Data quality
To what degree do the end users find the data quality sufficient to perform their role and achieve their desired outcome?
Effectiveness
To what degree do the end users find the application effective for performing their role and desired outcome?
Usability
To what degree do the end users find the application reliable and easy to use to achieve their desired outcome?
Satisfaction
To what degree are end users satisfied with the features of this application?
What else matters to you?
Tune your criteria to match your values and priorities.
Info-Tech Best Practice
When facing large user groups, do not make assumptions or use lengthy methods of collecting information. Use Info-Tech’s Application Portfolio Assessment to collect data by surveying your end users’ perspectives.
Consider the spectrum of application cost
An application’s cost extends past a vendor’s fee and even the application itself.
LICENSING AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: Your recurring payments to a vendor.
Many commercial off-the-shelf applications require a license on a per-user basis. Review contracts and determine costs by looking at per-user or fixed rates charged by the vendor.
MAINTENANCE COSTS: Your internal spending to maintain an app.
These are the additional costs to maintain an application such as support agreements, annual maintenance fees, or additional software or hosting expenses.
INDIRECT COSTS: Miscellaneous expenses necessary for an app’s continued use.
Expenses like end-user training, developer education, and admin are often neglected, but they are very real costs organizations pay regularly.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: Perceived value of the application related to its TCO.
Some of our most valuable applications are the most expensive. ROI is an optional criterion to account for the value and importance of the application.
Info-Tech Best Practice
The TCO assessment is one area where what you are considering the ”application” matters quite a bit. An application’s peripherals or software components need to be considered in your estimates. For additional help calculating TCO, use the Application TCO Calculator from Build a Rationalization Framework.
APM is an iterative and evergreen process
APM provides oversight and awareness of your application portfolio’s performance and support for your operations and value delivery to all users and customers.
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Determine scope and categories |
Build your list of applications and capabilities |
Score each application based on your values |
Determine outcomes based on app scoring and support for capabilities |
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1. Lay Your Foundations 1.1 Assess the state of your current application portfolio. 1.2 Determine narrative. 1.3 Define goals and metrics. 1.4 Define application categories. 1.5 Determine steps and roles (SIPOC). |
→ |
2. Improve Your Inventory 2.1 Populate your inventory. 2.2 Align to business capabilities. |
→ |
3. Rationalize Your Applications 3.1 Assess organizational value and fit. 3.2 Assess technical health. 3.3 Assess end-user perspective. 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership. |
→ |
4. Populate Your Roadmap 4.1 Review APM Snapshot results. 4.2 Review rationalization results. 4.3 Determine dispositions. 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional). 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional). 4.6 Prioritize initiatives. 4.7 Determine ongoing cadence. |
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Repeat according to APM cadence and application changes |
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Executive Brief Case Study
INDUSTRY: Retail
SOURCE: Deloitte, 2017
Supermarket Company
The grocer was a smaller organization for the supermarket industry with a relatively low IT budget. While its portfolio consisted of a dozen applications, the organization still found it difficult to react to an evolving industry due to inflexible and overly complex legacy systems.
The IT manager found himself in a scenario where he knew the applications well but had little awareness of the business processes they supported. Application maintenance was keeping things operational, but there was little consideration given to business strategy.
As the business demanded more responsiveness to changes, the IT team needed to be able to react more efficiently and effectively while still securing the continuity of the business.
The IT manager found success by introducing APM and gaining a better understanding of the business use and future needs for the applications. The organization started small but then increased the scope over time to produce and develop techniques to aid the business in meeting strategic goals with applications.
Results
The IT manager gained credibility and trust within the organization. The organization was able to build a plan to move away from the legacy systems and create a portfolio more responsive to the dynamic needs of an evolving marketplace.
The application portfolio management initiative included the following components:
Train teams and stakeholders on APM
Model the core business processes
Collect application inventory
Assign APM responsibilities
Start small, then grow
Info-Tech’s application portfolio management methodology
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1. Lay Your Foundations |
2. Improve Your Inventory |
3. Rationalize Your Applications |
4. Populate Your Roadmap |
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Phase Activities |
1.1 Assess your current application portfolio 1.2 Determine narrative 1.3 Define goals and metrics 1.4 Define application categories 1.5 Determine steps and roles |
2.1 Populate your inventory 2.2 Align to business capabilities |
3.1 Assess organizational value and fit 3.2 Assess technical health 3.3 Assess end-user perspective 3.4 Assess total cost of ownership |
4.1 Review APM Snapshot results 4.2 Review rationalization results 4.3 Determine dispositions 4.4 Assess redundancies (optional) 4.5 Determine dispositions for redundant applications (optional) 4.6 Prioritize initiatives 4.7 Determine Ongoing Cadence |
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Phase Outcomes |
Work with the appropriate management stakeholders to:
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Gather information on your own understanding of your applications to build a detailed inventory and identify areas of redundancy. |
Work with application subject matter experts to collect and compile data points and determine the appropriate disposition for your apps. |
Work with application delivery specialists to determine the strategic plans for your apps and place these in your portfolio roadmap. |
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 5 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Lay your foundations
- Call 1: Establish goals and foundations for your APM practice.
Guided Implementation 2: Improve your inventory
- Call 1: Initiate inventory and determine data requirements.
Guided Implementation 3: Rationalize your applications
- Call 1: Initiate rationalization with group of applications.
- Call 2: Review result of first iteration and perform retrospective.
Guided Implementation 4: Populate your roadmap
- Call 1: Initiate your roadmap and determine your ongoing APM practice.
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