Cost management of software application portfolio

A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithm adapted to implement a method for managing a cost of ownership of a portfolio of N software applications, said method comprising the steps of:

• identifying a regression function for each software application of the N software applications, wherein each regression function expresses an approximate cost of ownership of the application in terms of at least one parameter and at least one undetermined coefficient, wherein N is at least 2;
• selecting J applications A1, A2, . . . Aj from the N applications such that a remaining N−J applications of the N applications are unselected, wherein J<N, wherein the coefficients in the regression functions for the N−J unselected applications constitute a subset of the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications, and wherein Fj represents the approximate cost of ownership of the application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J;
• and
• determining the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications so as to minimize a function H=Σj Wj|Fj−Gj|P, wherein Gj is an actual cost of ownership of application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J, wherein Σj represents a summation over j from j=1 to j=J, wherein P>0, and wherein Wj are predetermined weights subject to Wj>0.

A computer system comprising a processor and a computer readable memory unit coupled to the processor, said memory unit containing instructions that when executed by the processor implement a method for managing a cost of ownership of a portfolio of N software applications, said method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

• identifying a regression function for each software application of the N software applications, wherein each regression function expresses an approximate cost of ownership of the application in terms of at least one parameter and at least one undetermined coefficient, wherein N is at least 2;
• selecting J applications A1, A2, . . . , AJ from the N applications such that a remaining N−J applications of the N applications are unselected, wherein J<N, wherein the coefficients in the regression functions for the N−J unselected applications constitute a subset of the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications, and wherein Fj represents the approximate cost of ownership of the application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J;
• and
• determining the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications so as to minimize a function H=Yj Wj|Fj−Gj|P, wherein Gj is an actual cost of ownership of application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J, wherein Σj represents a summation over j from j=1 to j=J, wherein P>0, and wherein Wj are predetermined weights subject to Wj>0.

A method for managing, by a service provider, a cost of ownership of a portfolio of N software applications of a customer, said method comprising the steps of:

• identifying a regression function for each software application of the N software applications, wherein each regression function expresses an approximate cost of ownership of the application in terms of at least one parameter and at least one undetermined coefficient, wherein N is at least 2;
• selecting J applications A1, A2, . . . , AJ from the N applications such that a remaining N−J applications of the N applications are unselected, wherein J<N, wherein the coefficients in the regression functions for the N−J unselected applications constitute a subset of the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications, and wherein Fj represents the approximate cost of ownership of the application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J;
• and
• determining the coefficients in the regression functions for the J selected applications so as to minimize a function H=Σj Wj|Fj−Gj|P, wherein Gj is an actual cost of ownership by the customer of application Aj for j=1, 2, . . . , J, wherein Σj represents a summation over j from j=1 to j=J, wherein P>0, wherein Wj are predetermined weights subject to Wj>0, and wherein the identifying, selecting, and determining the coefficients steps are performed by the service provider.