- September 6, 2019
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Application Maintenance and Support, Services
Supongamos que has creado la mejor empresa de TI en el negocio para desarrollar una aplicación. Y, más tarde, cuando termines esta aplicación, planeas implementar tácticas promocionales para captar la atención de tu mercado.
Pero, ¿Esto significa que puedes dejar de preocuparte por las funcionalidades de la aplicación por completo?
- ¿Qué pasa con las fallas técnicas y los defectos de gestión?
- ¿Cómo abordamos estos temas?
- ¿Cómo mantengo y respaldo las aplicaciones de software complejas?
Con la tecnología de la información en el mundo actual, siempre se necesita un cuidado adicional, lo que naturalmente ejerce una enorme presión sobre el mantenimiento y soporte de software.
Según un informe del conglomerado multinacional de servicios profesionales – Deloitte, el 60% de los subcontratistas prefieren contratar servicios de soporte y mantenimiento de aplicaciones.
¿Es importante darle la importancia en este momento?
¿Qué es el mantenimiento de la aplicación?
Como sugiere el término, el mantenimiento de la aplicación se ocupa de cualquier aplicación después de su desarrollo. Se trata de actualizar, modificar y reevaluar constantemente la aplicación para encontrar fallas y corregirlas; además de mejorar su rendimiento.
“A diferencia de la creencia popular, el mantenimiento de la aplicación no siempre se trata de corregir errores”
El mantenimiento de la aplicación no siempre tiene que ver con la reparación de defectos. En cambio, tiene mucho que ver con hacer que su sitio web o aplicación se vea visualmente atractiva. Algunas funciones importantes del mantenimiento de la aplicación incluyen:
- Corrección: incluye todo el trabajo requerido para solucionar problemas y solucionar problemas encontrados en el usuario final o mediante informes de error.
- Adaptación: trabajo en progreso para modificar el software y mantenerlo actualizado y relevante según las tendencias actuales.
- Perfección: todo el trabajo de mantenimiento necesario para lograr objetivos a largo plazo.
- Prevención: tomar medidas preventivas para garantizar que no aparezcan errores ni fallas en el futuro.
¿Por qué es necesario el mantenimiento de las aplicaciones?
¿Por qué las empresas dependen en gran medida del mantenimiento de las aplicaciones?
Try thinking of it this way. After building your dream house, will you just forget about it? Or will you set aside a specific budget for repairs and renovations that will be required in the future?
Of course, the latter! Right?
The same concept stands true for applications as well. Any project you are dealing with will need a certain amount of maintenance to survive. And by maintenance, we don’t just mean maintaining. It has a lot to do with improving and evolving gradually.
Remember: In the world of information technology, you don’t stand still – you either move forward or fall back. With user expectations and requirements changing now and then, you need a regular maintenance strategy in place. Application maintenance services can help!
What does the maintenance process look like?
Here it is.
So far, so good? Now, let’s dig in the benefits of application maintenance.
8 Benefits of application maintenance you should know about
- Bug Fixation
When it comes to maintenance management, bug fixation tops the list. You need to get rid of glitches to keep your application or website running smoothly.
The issue can occur in any part of the application – be it hardware, software, or the operating system. Your maintenance expert will search for errors in the code and fix them without disturbing any element of the existing software.
- Capability Enhancement
The software market is an ever-changing platform. To keep up with the competition, you need to make certain changes in the features and functions of your solution from time to time.
It includes enhancing the software platform, changing work patterns, upgrading hardware, tweaking compilers and other aspects that may affect workflow. Hence, you need maintenance services to sustain in the loop.
- Getting rid of outdated functionalities
Needless-to-say, any obsolete or unwanted feature in the software is useless. All it does is occupy space and hinder its efficiency.
Application management removes such elements in the root (UI and coding) and suggests new developments based on trending tools and technologies.
4. Performance Improvement
While in the testing phase, developers detect issues and resolve them. It is done to improve system performance.
Likewise, data and coding restrictions and reengineering are a crucial part of software maintenance. It prevents solution from vulnerabilities and harmful activities like hacking.
- Scalability and security
Next, let’s talk about scalability and security. Timely maintenance can not only keep your application secure from external threats but also make it more scalable. This allows the system to sustain larger workloads while maintaining acceptable levels of performance at the same time.
- Cost-saving
It is simply illogical to buy new software or develop the solution from scratch, every time it crashes or gets disturbed by a bug. Instead, invest in maintenance regularly for a lifetime to curb future costs.
- Customer satisfaction
All in all, application maintenance can improve the overall quality, online presence and response time of applications. So, when this happens, improved customer satisfaction becomes a thing.
- Peace of Mind
Lastly, application maintenance brings peace of mind. How – you ask?
Well, when you are confident that your application is in safe hands, you don’t need to be worrying about any bug for upcoming years. Your mind will automatically be at peace.
Moving on…
Now that you are clear about the benefits of hiring a team for application maintenance, let’s bring in application support to the picture.
What is application support and why do you need one?
Simply put, application support is service.
Confused? Let’s get to the depth.
Not long ago (say, three to four decades back), complex business processes were meant for a close-knit group who had been with the company for a long time. But times have changed. Today, they can be easily supported on a computer.
Just as people can make mistakes, so can computers. And to make sure business applications are running successfully, every company requires an application support organization.
From the outside, most people are of the perception that an application support team only fixes errors and does nothing much.
So, no, they are not someone who will put their fingers in a hole only when a leak springs up. A support staff offers several additional services and responsibilities to make sure a solution is up and running.
So, when we say services, following are a few we are referring to.
- Responding to emergencies like application down and substantial logic error. Application down happens when a process has crashed. Substantial logic error is difficult to perceive as a problem may occur even while the app is up.
- Fixing errors includes fixing normal bugs and glitches that keep occurring from time to time. Its severity level is not high though.
- Assisting as support staff. This includes answering questions about how an application works to new and existing users alike.
- Responding to environment changes. For example, your client-server application runs on Windows NT. But now, you want to migrate to Windows XP. You will need to run multiple tests to ensure all processes are running post-transition correctly. A support time will offer the final call about the accuracy and stability of your application.
- Documentation updates. An application support team complies with documentation updates (from minor to major) too.
Tips to choose the perfect Application Maintenance and Support company
To land with a cost-effective maintenance and support team is easy. Here are a few useful tips that can be of help:
- Be clear about your requirements.
- Research the development company in and out that you wish to partner with.
- Evaluate different platforms and choose the one that fits you best.
- Embed processes and works on continuous improvements, iterations and bug fixation.
Summing up
New age businesses use a combination of commercial and off-the-shelf software to deal with the rapidly changing consumer needs.
Application maintenance and support services can help an organization take care of the software product development process from designing to coding to debugging of software in the best matter expected.
So, don’t hold back. Go for it!