For the Application Streamlining Initiative, an application is software designed to implement a repeatable set of tasks in a shared, managed environment for a business purpose. It does at least one of:
- Manipulates / transforms data
- Maintains data (does not just display it)
- Implements business logic rules to automate business processes.
For our purposes, the following are not included:
- Personal productivity applications like email, Excel, Word, anti virus software, VPN clients, software license managers.
- Websites which just present information.
- CommonSpot websites which do not have any managed elements, or simple managed elements.
- Academic research applications. We are looking only at business applications (applications that are used in the function of your business, even if that function is supporting academics).
- A key part of the definition is "managed". Scripts which are used to automate tasks on your desktop, even though they are important to system administration and other tasks.
- Powershell or other short scripts
The following are included:
- Business specific applications such as vacation trackers, time away planning, SIP awards, space planning, wikis, collaboration tools.
- Administrative applications such as budget tracking , extracting data out of a data warehouse, combining data from two or more sources for presentation on a single dashboard, reporting software.