Managing Application Support – It Needn’t Cost The Earth

When computer systems go down it is of course an inconvenience, however, for businesses it can also be very costly. With so many companies relying on IT to run day to day parts of their business, when it’s not working as it should in some cases, business simply stops. Scrimping on application support can be costly in the long run and not a particularly wise move in the long run, even though many businesses are looking to reduce expenditure due to the recent financial crisis.

Most modern computer systems are complicated and problems aren’t solved by a simple reboot or by turning it off and on again – usually some sort of specialist support is required. For larger organisations this support is often available in-house, but if you run a smaller business then outsourcing is more likely to be the best option for you.

The reason many organisations outsource application support is down to cost. The cost of retaining an external support company often pales in comparison to the cost of employing someone full-time and nowadays, detailed service level agreements mean that custom support packages are available to suit your business needs so you don’t end up paying for services or expertise you will never need or make use of.

Teams who provide external support are often trained to deal with a wide range of issues and deal solely with support functions – they are dedicated support teams and so are used to dealing with time sensitive, pressure situations. Good external support teams are well aware of the age old mantra that time is indeed money. It can be a disaster if your one dedicated support developer or programmer happens to be off work when a problem occurs, whereas with a retained external team they should have someone available all trained and ready to help.

When outsourcing isn’t an option all is not lost however. On these occasions focus your efforts on getting the very best out of your existing in-house team. This can be achieved by keeping their workload manageable and ensuring that they don’t become too stressed, as being responsible for an entire IT system can be enough pressure in itself. Provide ample training in new systems and you should then have an in-house team with bespoke knowledge ideally suited to your own business and practices.

Looking at the long-term costs and potential savings is the only way to go when it comes to such things as outsourcing. As a business owner you will know how critical your IT system is to the running of your business and how important it is – decide on your support level accordingly and base your decision on cost and what is best for the running of your business, cut this too fine and you may be playing an unnecessary and risky game.

MSM are a software design, development and software maintenance company based in the UK.