Application maintenance services both enhance the performance of an organization's software systems and reduce cost by freeing up human resources. Since, organizations have significant costs when it comes to maintaining and supporting their existing IT systems, that means that they often don't have as much budget as they would like to invest in strategic projects and new innovations.
This constant upkeep also requires a lot of both human and financial resources, thus placing additional burden on the company’s balance sheet. A better way to go about this is to opt for an application maintenance service.
Application Maintenance Services
Most organizations rely on custom software solutions and apps to streamline their processes and improve efficiency. However, just having these apps and software solutions developed once doesn't end the investment that they need to make in order to keep them running as they're supposed to.
These things actually require routine maintenance. Whether that's for fixing any issues, enhancing existing capabilities or adding new functionality, application maintenance is highly necessary.
Organizations also have to adapt quickly as changes can rapidly take place in their industry. This means that they must have the resources available to make the required chances and not fall behind the competition.
Therefore, application maintenance isn't related to just fixing any defects that the software might have. It also entails proactively adding functionality and improving performance of existing applications as and when required.
Advantages of application maintenance
Supporting Innovation
One of the biggest advantages of having an application maintenance service is that it frees up an organization’s resources that would have otherwise been used for the maintenance and upkeep of those applications and software.
Trusting a dedicated service provider with this task ensures that all of the applications are properly managed, looked after, and even improved from time to time. The organization no longer has to exhaust resources from its in-house development team on these tasks. The in-house team is thus freed up to pursue other projects, innovate on new products and operate in a more efficient manner overall.
Increasing Productivity
A proactive approach to application management can provide a productivity boost. The IT team isn't split between upkeep tasks and having to work on new projects as well. If they're made to juggle different tasks at the same time, there's a high chance that their productivity across all of the different tasks will suffer.
Depending upon the support infrastructure being utilized, the in-house team can be aided by a user support team that answers queries, a technical support team that provides troubleshooting, and even a full-fledged development team that can help out with fixing bugs and issues to free up additional resources for the in-house team.
Access A Larger Talent Pool
One of the biggest things that CIOs have to worry about is retaining their IT resources. People are always in search of better opportunities and are likely to take them should one arise. Losing a valuable IT resource can put additional strain on an IT team, often leaving CIOs scrambling to hire replacements.
That's not something they need to worry about when application management has been handed to a trusted third-party. They will no longer have to worry about hiring the right resources for application maintenance. The service provider will have a large pool of resources from which they can quickly address any and all needs that you as a client have.
Effortless Scalability
A managed application maintenance service also allows for effortless scalability. Once your resources have been freed up to focus more on new innovations, there will ultimately come a time when existing products and services have to be scaled up.
The service provider can manage scalability for you by adding more capacity and assigning more resources to work on your services. This works the other way as well, if you need to scale down, the service provider can adjust accordingly.
Application maintenance services help alleviate the biggest challenges companies face when maintaining and supporting their apps
Large organizations can have hundreds of different applications that they rely upon both internally to run the business and externally to connect with their customers. Maintaining and supporting all of these apps can put a significant burden on an in-house development team.
This would result in them spending a lot of valuable time that they could be using to come up with new apps or features for just providing support and maintaining the existing applications. This doesn’t benefit the organization as well since it needs to continue paying them but their work becomes less focused on new innovations.
This is by far one of the biggest challenges that companies face when they have to maintain their applications. The pace of innovation within the company can slow down and this can have a very negative impact on the business as a whole.
Managing the IT team becomes a hassle as well. If new resources have to be hired, it puts more strain on the company’s finances and may also restrict its capability to branch out into new areas of growth.
The cost of hiring all of the new resources can also eat into the development budget, thus not leaving behind enough money that the organization can then go on and invest in the development of new projects.
The quality of service can go down too if there are not enough people assigned to maintaining the apps. That's because any issues that need to be fixed take longer to be fixed and thus results in a consistently bad customer experience.
All of these challenges can be overcome by handing off the application maintenance tasks to a trusted third-party service provider. They take a set fee to provide a whole host of services and the fee is always less than what it would cost to raise a dedicated in-house team that would solely be focused on maintenance tasks.
What services are included in application maintenance?
Most application maintenance service providers offer a comprehensive solution that can include adaptive maintenance, which involves adapting to new hardware or software, corrective maintenance which identifies and removes bugs, as well as perfective maintenance which helps add new functionality.
That's not all, though. The service providers can also help with emergency maintenance, in the event that something goes wrong and an immediate fix is required. Since these companies are very well experienced in handling these matters for their clients, they can provide significant value to their clients by lowering risks and increasing predictability, improving quality of service, reducing the total cost of ownership and increasing the return of investment on your apps.
Consulting services are often provided as well for clients that require roadmap definition for their apps, offshorability analysis and a detailed application portfolio assessment. That's in addition to providing developer support, operations support and support for end users.
Get the right development firm to give you the application development and maintenance support you need
The true advantage of an application management service cannot be realized until you find the right service provider for your organization. Both need to be on the same page in order for this delicate balance to work, otherwise, you’re only going to rack up maintenance costs without having much to show for it.
That’s why you should rely on Zibtek for all of your application development and maintenance needs. It's one of the world's leading software development companies that works with both startups and Fortune 500 conglomerates alike. ZIbtek is based in Salt Lake City and has a global talent pool that's all managed from its offices in the United States.
It has more than a decade of experience in designing and building great mobile apps, working on a wide range of projects from ERP-integrated mobile experiences to apps that allow teachers to teach on the go. Its developers are highly skilled in iOS, Android, React native, Phonegap and hybrid app development.
Getting your app developed is just the first step. As you have come to know by now, you also require robust application maintenance services so that the end user experience is never compromised. Zibtek can help you with that as well.
It can quickly deploy resources from its vast talent pool of developers that are located across the globe and also in the United States to help with maintenance projects of any scale. Having already helped countless clients with this, Zibtek has a lot of experience in dealing with application maintenance projects of every complexity. If you’re in need of application maintenance services that truly help take the load off of your in-house development team, help reduce costs and improve efficiency, reach out to Zibtek and ask them how they can help.