Inventory of Applications and Infrastructure

Objectives

• Capture every application, integration, hardware asset, and cloud workload within the carve-out perimeter.
  
• Assign a business owner, technical owner, and criticality score to each item.
  
• Flag separation disposition: retain, replicate, replace, or retire.
  

Step-by-Step Inventory Process

• Define Scope Categories
  1.1 Business applications (ERP, CRM, MES, HRIS, finance tools)
  1.2 Infrastructure (servers, storage, network devices, endpoints, cloud accounts)
  1.3 Security tooling (firewalls, SIEM, endpoint protection)
  1.4 Data integrations and middleware
  
• Collect Source Data
  – Extract configuration-management database (CMDB) records.
  – Export licence and support-contract registers.
  – Run discovery scripts on on-prem and cloud environments.
  – Conduct workshops with functional and regional IT teams.
  
• Populate the Inventory Tracker
  For each item capture:
  • System / asset name
  • Business function and process supported
  • Technical owner and vendor / version
  • Hosting location (on-prem, private cloud, public cloud)
  • User base and peak utilisation
  • Contract number, renewal date, and assignment clause
  • Criticality rating (High, Medium, Low)
  • Separation complexity (High, Medium, Low)
  • Proposed disposition (retain, replicate, replace, retire)
  • TSA requirement (Yes / No)
  
• Map Integrations and Dependencies
  – Document inbound/outbound interfaces, batch jobs, APIs, and data feeds.
  – Produce a high-level dependency diagram for critical path analysis.
  
• Validate and Reconcile
  – Cross-check against finance asset ledgers and licence-usage reports.
  – Review with business owners to confirm accuracy and criticality.
  – Resolve duplicates and decommissioned entries.
  
• Assign Disposition and Prioritise
  – Tag “retain” items for early licence novation.
  – Schedule “replicate” or “replace” systems into cut-over waves based on complexity.
  – Approve “retire” candidates and plan data archiving.
  
• Publish and Freeze Baseline
  – Circulate the final inventory tracker to IT, Legal, Finance, and PMO.
  – Use as the single source of truth for budgeting, TSA scope, and vendor negotiations.

Deliverables

• Master Application & Infrastructure Inventory tracker (Excel or CMDB export).
  
• Integration-dependency diagram highlighting critical data flows.
  
• Heat map showing criticality vs. separation complexity.
  
• Disposition summary: count of systems by retain / replicate / replace / retire.
  

Common Pitfalls

• Missing “shadow IT” tools procured directly by business teams.
  
• Overlooking integrations that trigger data-privacy or licensing obligations.
  
• Recording vendor names without contract numbers, hindering novation work.
  
• Failing to reconcile discovery-tool output with human-validated records, leading to duplicate entries.
  

A disciplined inventory process equips the carve-out team with the data needed to execute cut-overs confidently, negotiate licences from a position of strength, and eliminate costly surprises during TSA exit.