TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• High-Level Process
• Application Discovery
  • Common Discovery Sources
• Application Normalisation
• Reviewing Pending Applications
  • Step 1: Reject Applications
  • Step 2: Rationalise and/or Accept Applications
    • Rationalising Applications
    • Accepting Applications
• Magnet Applications
• Additional Resources
• Further Support

Overview

Effective IT transformation projects involving applications require a comprehensive understanding of the application estate and its usage. Establishing a clear strategy for discovering and managing applications at the outset ensures stakeholders have accurate visibility of application requirements throughout the project.

High-Level Process

1. Application Discovery
   Applications are created with status Pending and/or Accepted.
2. Application Normalisation
   ACE:AI standardises naming and version information.
3. Review Pending Applications
   • Reject irrelevant applications
   • Accept key business applications
   • Rationalise duplicates and superseded versions

Application Discovery

Application records are created in ManagementStudio by various connectors and import methods. These applications are assigned either the Pending or Accepted status. Once processed, the application status becomes one of the following:

• Accepted: In-scope for the project (consumes a licence)
• Rationalised: Mapped to another version or product
• Rejected: Out-of-scope or not required

Applications which remain in Pending generally still require reviewing. 

You can view applications by Rationalisation Status from the ribbon in the Applications module.

Common Discovery Sources

Applications from the SCCM Connector and Intune Discovered Apps are created with a Pending status to allow for triage. The project team must determine their relevance and decide whether to proceed with, rationalise, or reject them. This triage process ensures resources focus only on relevant applications.

Application Normalisation

Application Normalisation standardises application names and versions, building a clean and consistent inventory for analysis, rationalisation, and management. Categories and descriptions are also assigned during this process.

• ACE:AI Normalisation Overview
• Manual Normalisation Instructions

Reviewing Pending Applications

The rationalisation status of Pending is intended as a holding area for applications which require review. How these applications are processed will depend on specific project requirements. The following steps describe a typical workflow but may need adaptation.

Step 1: Reject Applications

Rejecting applications allows the list of Pending applications to be reduced, which can make the rationalisation process faster and easier. Note that Rejected applications are not deleted. They are instead marked as Rejected and hidden from the default view.

• Application Rationalisation Instructions

Step 2: Rationalise and/or Accept Applications

Where applications are determined to be in-scope they should be either rationalised or accepted.

Rationalising Applications

• Mark applications as Rationalised when their discovered version(s) are being superseded by a different version, referred to as the target version. 
• During the rationalisation process, the target application must be specified.
• Any linked User Migrations and/or Devices will automatically be forwarded to the target application.
• Multiple versions of Pending applications can be rationalised to a single target application.
• Once the Pending applications are rationalised, their status is changed to Rationalised
• The target application status will be Accepted 

Accepting Applications

• Mark applications as Accepted if the discovered version is the required version.

Use one of the following approaches:

• Rationalisation with ACE:AI
• Rationalisation without ACE:AI

Magnet Applications

Magnet Applications is a capability within the ACE:AI Connector that automatically rationalises applications with multiple discovered versions into a single target application, referred to as the Magnet Application. This is particularly useful for software like Microsoft Office or Google Chrome, where numerous versions exist across an estate, enabling them to be unified under one consolidated application. 

For further information on Magnet Applications refer here: Configuring the ACE:AI Connector

Additional Resources

• ACE:AI Overview
• Manual Rationalisation Instructions
• Core Applications Best Practice
• Rationalisation without ACE:AI

Further Support

If you require further support, please visit ManagementStudio's Service Desk to search the knowledge base or create a new support ticket.