On balance, our research shows a proactive and automated application PM effort can yield impressive results related to cost cutting and improved IT effectiveness. We studied a wide variety of situations, ranging from companies with no dedicated application PM professionals to those with a dozen on staff. Generally, we found that the spectrum of benefits closely mirrored the importance of IT within an organization. In virtually all cases we studied, those sites that had a proactive application PM program in place also had upper management buy-in to the initiative and a recognized link between IT and corporate competitiveness. We believe Figure 2 approximates the relationship between IT's contribution and the benefits of a proactive application PM initiative.
Automation plays a crucial role in exploiting IT value.
The key decision is how much of a dedicated staff effort to apply to the process. Our research shows that typically, the more resources a company devotes to application PM, the greater the payback. Nonetheless, we believe the intensity of application PM should generally relate to the importance of IT to a company's competitiveness. Moreover, by automating the process, companies can achieve effective results with fewer staff resources. Automating the application PM process does not have to be overly complex and taxing on IT staff.