Applications Inventory and Attributes

Description — Classification of the application by its supply and build model: Custom-Built, Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Open Source, or Hybrid.

Benefit(s) — Drives fundamentally different governance, financial, and risk approaches. SaaS applications require subscription management; Custom-Built applications carry development and maintenance labor costs; Open Source applications require license compliance monitoring. Without this classification, governance applies the wrong approach to the wrong application type.

Source — Manually Entered.

Examples — SaaS (Salesforce CRM), Custom-Built (internal reporting tool), COTS (SAP S/4HANA), Open Source (Apache Kafka), Hybrid (on-premises ERP with cloud analytics layer)

Notes — Valid values: Custom-Built, COTS, SaaS, Open Source, Hybrid.

Description — Classification of the application by its primary functional domain — for example, CRM, ERP, HRIS, Finance, Supply Chain, Collaboration, Security, Analytics, or Integration.

Benefit(s) — Enables portfolio grouping and analysis by functional area, supports redundancy detection across applications in the same functional category, and provides a consistent taxonomy for cross-portfolio reporting and executive communication.

Source — Manually Entered.

Examples — CRM, ERP, HRIS, Finance, Supply Chain, Collaboration, Security, Analytics, Integration, ITSM

Notes — Use the organization's standard application category taxonomy. Establish and publish the taxonomy before beginning the initial inventory pass to ensure consistency across all application records.

Description — A more granular functional classification below Application Category — for example, within CRM: Field Sales, Customer Service, or Marketing Automation; within Finance: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, or Treasury.

Benefit(s) — Enables detection of fine-grained functional overlap that Category-level grouping misses. An organization may have one ERP but three different Accounts Payable tools — invisible at Category level but immediately surfaced at Sub-Category level.

Source — Manually Entered.

Description — A high-level business domain classification grouping applications by the organizational area they primarily serve — Customer, Finance, Operations, People, Technology, Corporate, or similar organizational domains.

Benefit(s) — Enables portfolio rationalization analysis and investment reporting at the business-domain level — the view most natural for executive leadership comparing technology investment and value across organizational areas. Distinct from Application Category, which classifies by technology function rather than organizational alignment.

Source — Manually Entered.

Examples — Customer (Salesforce CRM), Finance (SAP S/4HANA), People (Workday HCM), Operations (Oracle SCM), Technology (GitHub Enterprise)

Notes — Valid values should align with the organization's standard business domain taxonomy. Common examples: Customer, Finance, Operations, People, Technology, Corporate, Legal, Risk, Compliance.