{"id":886906,"date":"2026-01-21T20:12:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/it-portfolio-management-optimizing-it-assets-for-business-value\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:12:34","slug":"it-portfolio-management-optimizing-it-assets-for-business-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/it-portfolio-management-optimizing-it-assets-for-business-value\/","title":{"rendered":"IT portfolio management: Optimizing IT assets for business value"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\t\t

<\/p>\n
\n

Opinion<\/span><\/p>\n

Jan 16, 2026<\/span>7 mins<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\n\t\t\t\tCIOs can improve IT\u2019s value to the business by managing its assets like a portfolio of investments tuned to deliver, diversify, and de-risk. \t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n

In finance, portfolio management involves the strategic selection of a collection of investments that align with an investor\u2019s financial goals and risk tolerance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This approach can also apply to IT\u2019s portfolio of systems, with one addition: IT must also assess each asset in that portfolio for operational performance.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s IT is a mix of legacy, cloud-based, and emerging or leading-edge systems, such as AI. Each category contains mission-critical assets, but not every system performs equally well when it comes to delivering business, financial, and risk avoidance value to the enterprise. How can CIOs optimize their IT portfolio performance?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here are five evaluative criteria for maximizing the value of your IT portfolio.<\/p>\n

Mission-critical assets<\/h2>\n

The enterprise\u2019s most critical systems for conducting day-to-day business are a category unto themselves. These systems may be readily apparent, or hidden deep in a technical stack. So all assets should be evaluated as to how mission-critical they are.<\/p>\n

For example, it might be that your ERP solution is a 24\/7 \u201cmust have\u201d system because it interfaces with a global supply chain that operates around the clock and drives most company business. On the other hand, an HR application or a marketing analytics system could probably be down for a day with work-arounds by staff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

More granularly, the same type of analysis needs to be performed on IT servers, networks and storage. Which resources do you absolutely have to have, and which can you do without, if only temporarily?<\/p>\n

As IT identifies these mission-critical assets, it should also review the list with end-users and management to assure mutual agreement.<\/p>\n

Asset utilization<\/h2>\n

Zylo, which manages SaaS inventory, licenses, and renewals, estimates that<\/a> \u201c53% of SaaS licenses go unused or underused on average, so finding dormant software should be a priority.\u201d This \u201cshelfware\u201d problem isn\u2019t only with SaaS; it can be found in underutilized legacy and modern systems, in obsolete servers and disk drives, and in network technologies that aren\u2019t being used but are still being paid for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Shelfware in all forms exists because IT is too busy with projects to stop for inventory and obsolescence checks. Consequently, old stuff gets set on the shelf and auto-renews.<\/p>\n

The shelfware issue should be solved if IT portfolios are to be maximized for performance and profitability. If IT can\u2019t spare the time for a shelfware evaluation, it can bring in a consultant to perform an assessment of asset use and to flag never-used or seldom-used assets for repurposing or elimination.<\/p>\n

Asset risk<\/h2>\n

The goal of an IT portfolio is to contain assets that are presently relevant and will continue to be relevant well into the future. Consequently, asset risk should be evaluated for each IT resource.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Is the resource at risk for vendor sunsetting or obsolescence? Is the vendor itself unstable? Does IT have the on-staff resources to continue running a given system, no matter how good it is (a custom legacy system written in COBOL and Assembler, for example)? Is a particular system or piece of hardware becoming too expense to run? Do existing IT resources have a clear path to integration with the new technologies that will populate IT in the future?<\/p>\n

For IT assets that are found to be at risk, strategies should be enacted to either get them out of \u201crisk\u201d mode, or to replace them.<\/p>\n

Asset IP value<\/h2>\n

There is a CIO I know in the hospitality industry who boasts that his hotel reservation program, and the mainframe it runs on, have not gone down in 30 years. He attributes much of this success to custom code and a specialized operating system that the company uses, and he and his management view it as a strategic advantage over the competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He is not the only CIO who feels this way. There are many companies that operate with their \u201cown IT special sauce\u201d that makes their businesses better. This special sauce could be a legacy system or an AI algorithm. Assets like these that become IT intellectual property (IP) present a case for preservation in the IT portfolio.<\/p>\n

Asset TCO and ROI<\/h2>\n

Is every IT asset pulling its weight? Like monetary and stock investments, technologies under management must show they are continuing to produce measurable and sustainable value. The primary indicators of asset value that IT uses are total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI).<\/p>\n

TCO is what gauges the value of an asset over time. For instance, investments in new servers for the data center might have paid off four years ago, but now the data center has an aging bay of servers with obsolete technology and it is cheaper to relocate compute to the cloud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

ROI is used when new technology is acquired. Metrics are set that define at what point the initial investment into the technology will be recouped. Once the breakeven point has been reached, ROI continues to be measured because the company wants to see new profitability and\/or savings materialize from the investment. Unfortunately, not all technology investments go as planned. Sometimes the initial business case that called for the technology changes or unforeseen complications arise that turn the investment into a loss leader.<\/p>\n

In both cases, whether the issue is TCO or ROI, the IT portfolio must be maintained in a way such that losing or wasted assets are removed.<\/p>\n

Summing it up<\/h2>\n

IT portfolio management<\/a> is an important part of what CIOs should be doing on an ongoing basis, but all too often, it is approached in a reactionary mode \u2014 for example, with a system being replaced only when users ask for it to be replaced, or a server needing to be removed from the data center because it fails.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The CEO, the CFO, and other key stakeholders whom the CIO deals with during technology budgeting time don\u2019t help, either. While they will be interested in how long it will take for a new technology acquisition to \u201cpay for itself,\u201d no one ever asks the CIO about the big picture of IT portfolio management: how the overall assets in the IT portfolio are performing, and which assets will require replacement for the portfolio to sustain or improve company value.<\/p>\n

To improve their own IT management, CIOs should seize the portfolio management opportunity. They can do this by establishing a portfolio for their company\u2019s IT assets and reviewing these assets periodically with those in the enterprise who have direct say over IT budgets.<\/p>\n

IT portfolio management will resonate with the CFO and CEO because both continually work with financial and risk portfolios for the business. Broader visibility of the IT portfolio will also make it easier for CIOs to present new technology recommendations<\/a> and to obtain approvals for replacing or upgrading existing assets<\/a> when these actions are called for.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tSUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tFrom our editors straight to your inbox\t\t\t<\/h3>\n

\n\t\t\t\tGet started by entering your email address below.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n

Mary Shacklett is a freelance writer and president of Transworld Data, a technology analytics, market research, and consulting firm.<\/p>\n

Prior to founding Transworld, Mary was Senior Vice President of Marketing and Technology at TCCU, Inc., a financial services firm; Vice President of Product Research and Software Development for Summit Information Systems<\/a>, a computer software company; and Vice President of Strategic Planning and Technology at FSI International, a multinational manufacturing company in the semiconductor industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her work has appeared in TechTarget<\/a>, Information Week<\/a>, ZDNET, and Network Computing<\/a>, among other outlets.<\/p>\n

Mary holds a J.D. from William Howard Taft University, an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\n

More from this author<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/summary>\n<\/details><\/div>\n
\n

Show me more<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/main><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Michele Schildgen
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion Jan 16, 2026 7 mins CIOs can improve IT\u2019s value to the business by managing its assets like a portfolio of investments tuned to deliver, diversify, and de-risk. In finance, portfolio management involves the strategic selection of a collection of investments that align with an investor\u2019s financial goals and risk tolerance.\u00a0 This approach can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1913,212],"tags":[10627,6849],"class_list":{"0":"post-886906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-management","8":"category-portfolio","9":"tag-management","10":"tag-portfolio"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}