Every application portfolio begins as a spreadsheet, and that is not the problem. The spreadsheet is proof that someone had the need before the tool. The problem comes later, and it has two names: maintenance and shared truth.
So do not start by buying anything. Start with the list. One list, not three, and three columns beyond the name: who owns the application, where it is in its lifecycle, and how critical it is to the business. It sounds trivial, and it is, right until you try to fill in the owner column and discover how many systems nobody will claim. That discovery is the first real portfolio insight, and it is free.
With those three columns in place you can run your first TIME classification: what do we tolerate, what do we invest in, what do we migrate, what do we eliminate. That too can live in the spreadsheet. One afternoon with the right people in the room gives a first picture good enough for the next three decisions.
So when does the spreadsheet stop being enough? There are three reliable signs. When more than one person has to trust the list, and each maintains their own copy. When the list has to outlive its author, because they change jobs or simply take a holiday. And when someone in a decision asks how current the list actually is, and the answer is a pause.
That is where a tool earns its place: not by doing more than the spreadsheet, but by keeping the truth shared and alive without requiring a full-time role. The move should not be a project. If it cannot be done in an afternoon with what you already have, the problem is the tool, not you.
Read on: The application landscape · The evidence a CFO wants · How it works
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Spekir builds the layer that connects strategy to the IT portfolio. See Atlas