I've written a lot of research around the topic of application portfolio management (APM), and how the tools are slowly maturing from their application mining roots. Although the process of APM applies equally across packaged and custom-appls, the mining tools, until recently anyway, have excluded packaged applications.

Our application development team recently expanded with some new colleagues, and one of the topics a new colleague - George Lawrie - and I intend to take on as a joint effort is application consolidation across custom and packaged applications.

We'd like to know - how important is this topic to you - what are the nuances of it that keep you awake at night, or is it a non-issue? If it is a non-issue, why? Have you done such a good job of staving off redundant and obsolete technology, or is it someone else's responsibility? Please chime in, we'd love to hear about your application environments.