Application Maintenance Outsourcing
Redundancy is the level whereby it is felt, that operations require steadiness, and in order to ensure sustainability costs are spent to maintain the same. Costs in terms of payroll, upgrades, knowledge management, keep spiraling by time, and therefore a point arrives, whereby alternate avenues are looked for to maintain the costs at their appreciable levels.
Application Maintenance Outsourcing (AMO) can be a nervous move for some organizations, but right planning, and collaboration through partnerships, it can improve your organization’s knowledge management, resource deprivation, technology innovation, internal operations, and cost savings.
The success is based on an effective team, strong project management, and a well-thought out lifecycle that can support your organization’s technology and core business operations.
Here are five elements to consider when choosing an AMO vendor:
Partner Integration
It is essential to find a partner who can integrate their team with your in-house staff. Effective AMO delivery teams are built upon communications and mutual operations throughout all phases of the lifecycle. For example, a provider with a distributed risk mitigation model where the provider’s team does the heavy lifting ensures that your systems remain operational while providing the necessary collaboration and communications with your in-house IT infrastructure team.
Full-cycle Approach
AMO requires the right mix of maintenance to ensure your applications run at peak efficiency. Look for a provider that can cover the following tasks over outsourced applications:
Corrective maintenance
Adaptive maintenance
Preventative maintenance
Strong Production Management
This encompasses managing and monitoring your organization’s daily application usage with effective reporting and communications with your in-house IT infrastructure team. The joint production activities should include running batch jobs, developing and distributing reports, and reviewing the accuracy and timeliness of application feeds.
Well-developed Lifecycle
Project management processes need to be tailored for your organization’s requirements. Typical processes for a successful AMO include project control, communications, and quality assurance/improvement. A breakdown of an AMO lifecycle looks something like this:
Planning: It begins with pre-engagement initiation and application performance management.
Transition-In: This is where the engagement focuses on the transition from internal staff to AMO vendor. Both teams then define maintenance/project support, and application performance management in the context of their engagement.
Delivery: At this phase, engagement definition focuses on project delivery. The provider then begins to execute on maintenance/project support and application performance maintenance.
Closeout: This phase includes maintenance support, project support, application performance management, and support transfer.
Robust Infrastructure
AMO success also requires a provider with robust and mature infrastructure that has the geographical reach with secure server rooms accessible to authorized personnel in the regions where you do business. It needs to be a scalable environment with Windows and Linux servers, redundant backup and redundant Internet backbone connectivity. All of this should be segregated at the customer level. Effective communications with the staff managing the infrastructure requires a minimal time overlap between the onsite and offshore team. Dedicated communications lines in your local area code are also a something to ask for.
Experience
We have helped organizations perform effective software maintenance cycles while realizing cost savings. Some of the benefits with experience, our maintenance outsourcing service offered:
Extensive experience in software optimization, design reengineering, development, and project management
Direct & open communication, with us in close proximity
Seamless transition of project activities between location, bringing in economies
Efficient resource management .. ability to utilize resources on site, offsite, or offshore, as best fit the current skills and workload on an engagement.
Flexibility in resizing and scaling the project team
Increased agility, faster response to changes in scope and requirements
Cost savings from majority of work performed in low cost locations
Lower investment in infrastructure, office space, equipment, expertise, and software licensing
Approach
Elements for consideration while planning an AMO:
Team Integration
It is essential to integrate the team with your in-house resources. The medium of engagement We ensure that an effective delivery model is built upon timely communications and mutual operations, throughout all phases of the lifecycle.
Full-cycle Approach
We evolve a right mix of maintenance to ensure your applications run at peak efficiency. Following are the tasks outlined to ensure the levels:
Corrective maintenance
Adaptive maintenance
Preventative maintenance
Production Management
Managing and monitoring your organization’s daily application usage with effective reporting, and communications with your in-house IT infrastructure team. The joint production activities include running batch jobs, developing and distributing reports, and reviewing the accuracy and timeliness of application feeds.
Well-developed Lifecycle
Project management processes are tailored as per organization’s requirements, and culture. Redundancy is removed. Typical processes for a successful AMO include project control, communications, and quality assurance/improvement.
A breakdown of an AMO lifecycle looks something like this:
Planning: Pre-engagement initiation and application performance management.
Transition (Handover): The engagement focuses on the transitioning from within the organization to us. Collaboratively, teams then define maintenance/project support, and application performance management, contextually.
Delivery (Operational): We begin to execute on maintenance/project support and application performance maintenance.
Closeout: Maintenance support, project support, application performance management, and support transfer.
Robust Infrastructure
Depending on the engagement finalized under the AMO, success is dependant on robust and mature infrastructure, that has the geographical reach with secure server rooms accessible to authorized personnel in the regions where you do business. It needs to be a scalable environment with Windows or Linux servers, redundant backup, and redundant Internet backbone connectivity.
All of this is segregated at the customer level. Effective communications between the staff managing the infrastructure, requires a minimal time overlap between the onsite and offshore team. It may require dedicated communications lines with localization so to maintain minimal costs.