Need support from our in-house helpdesk or priority bug-fixing? We’ll support and maintain your software throughout its lifecycle
Given that across the digital sector software maintenance often accounts for 50% of the costs involved in applications – and frequently much more than that – the need for an effectively structured and keenly costed approach to support and maintenance is critical. Keeping systems current and operational reduces downtime and supports organisational productivity and efficiency. The bottom line is simply this – rigorously staying on top of your applications with scheduled time for in-depth diagnostics and smoothly executed revisions helps you serve your customers better, and makes sure you stay you profitable.
Our unique Team as a Service (TaaS) approach represents the best value for customers since support needs are part of the fabric of such agreements, integral to what amounts to an ongoing and multi-layered process of refinement. In other circumstances, we offer customers a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which will be implemented by the team at our dedicated support desk, who can be phoned or emailed for a prompt response in the event of an unanticipated shortfall, localised failure, or puzzling response.
Maintenance and support broadly fulfils two interlocking objectives: making corrections to the software, and enhancing it. Your software is designed to meet the challenges of the real world, and it’s the real world that provides the feedback which allows for it to be corrected. With that feedback processed in a way that allows a suitable response to be devised and implemented, your application can carry on and offer an ever-greater quality of performance to end users.
What’s involved in support and maintenance?
The overall range of operations encompassed by application maintenance is extensive. Some features may need to be edited out, while others steadily accrete improvements so that users experience ever higher levels of performance, as well as system optimisation and the elimination of errors. That isn’t just a singular task, it represents a whole variety of endeavours that together serve to improve the fit of the planned system in accordance with its designated intent through a process of debugging and enhancement.
Our applications maintenance processes comprise several elements:
- A robust 360-degree maintenance plan that covers preparation of software and identification of different categories of problems.
- Processes for proactive analysis of problems at the level of root cause, which as well as scoping out and testing additionally includes solution frames and ensuring that necessary support is available for modifications on an ad hoc basis.
- Effective communications flow, with specific emphasis on confirming the progress of a given query with the person who flagged up the issue.
- Where necessary, implementation of structured platform migration that will enable seamless transition while also delivering consistent functionality.
Factors involved in maintenance and support
It really doesn’t seem at all fair that you buy a system and then have to keep paying so that it works. That’s one way of looking at it anyway, but in practice, it overlooks some of the factors involved in developing applications that companies like ours are frequently faced with.
Some of the software systems you are using now may be a decade old or older, and all kinds of technological advances have happened in that time. In the same time period, you may have had two or three cars, arranging to buy a whole new vehicle each time. With an application, the analogy can be made with the famous broom that the owner has had 20 years, changing the handle just twice and the head three times. To keep an application integrated with current technologies and delivering the results you want from it, some skilful maintenance is necessary on a regular basis.
In the case of legacy systems, the designers maybe no longer part of the picture, but the application still has relevance in some businesses and delivering that potentially takes a dedicated commitment of time and resources.
Approached with foresight, maintenance and support are essential processes in maintaining system functionality despite the changing nature of related subsystems as version follows version, and of wider changes within digital communications that impact the wider ecosystem. Think of the maintenance and support as a means of delivering you a continued service – you haven’t bought a solid thing, an object. Instead, you’ve invested in a solution over time, and the elements involved in that system are liable to evolve as technologies jostle for attention and the fittest win.
How Atlas Can Help You
If you’re interested in finding out how Atlas could help you with your application support and maintenance, call us now on +44 (0)800 133 7948 for a free no-obligation consultation.
Industries & Customers
We have worked closely with a range of industries and truly understand that no two customers or businesses are exactly alike. This is why we tailor our services and technology to our customers specific business needs.
Our varied and extensive industry knowledge ensures that our software development team are perfectly placed to understand and deliver value to your business quickly and efficiently.
Finance
Pharmaceutical
Inventory Management
Manufacturing
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Startups