Aligning Technology with Business: A Guide to Outsourcing Application Strategy and Application Maintenance and Support Services

Every business depends on a portfolio of software applications to function. These applications are the engines of modern commerce. To get the most value from these technology investments, a business must manage them effectively at two different levels: the strategic level and the operational level. Application Strategy defines the long-term plan for how technology will support business goals. Application Maintenance and Support handles the daily operational work to keep these applications running smoothly. Both of these functions are critical, and both require specialized skills. For these reasons, many companies choose to outsource these services to expert partners. This guide provides a complete overview of outsourcing Application Strategy and Application Maintenance and Support. It explains each service, details the benefits of outsourcing, and provides a clear roadmap for selecting the right partners to guide your technology future and support your daily operations.

Part 1: Application Strategy Services – Planning Your Technology Roadmap

The first pillar of effective technology management is having a clear plan. Application Strategy is a high-level consulting service that aligns a company's software application portfolio with its overall business objectives. It answers the question: "How can we use technology to win in our market?"

What is Application Strategy?

Application Strategy is the process of creating a long-term plan for a company's software applications. A technology strategist or consultant works with business leaders to create a roadmap for how to develop, maintain, and retire applications in a way that maximizes business value.

Key activities in Application Strategy include:

• Application Portfolio Assessment: This involves creating a complete inventory of all the applications a company uses. Each application is then analyzed based on its business value, technical health, and total cost of ownership.
• Application Portfolio Rationalization: Based on the assessment, decisions are made about the future of each application. The goal is to simplify the portfolio and reduce complexity. This often involves four main actions, sometimes called the "4 R's":
  • Retain: Keep high-value applications as they are.
  • Replatform/Rehost: Move an application to a new platform (like the cloud) with minimal changes to the code.
  • Refactor/Rearchitect: Significantly restructure the code of an application to improve its capabilities.
  • Retire/Replace: Decommission an old application and replace it with a new one or a commercial software product.
• Technology Roadmap Development: This is the creation of a timeline and plan for executing the decisions made during rationalization. It outlines which projects will happen, in what order, and what resources are required.
• Cloud Strategy: Developing a plan for how the business will use cloud computing services (like AWS, Azure, or GCP) to improve agility and reduce costs.
• Application Modernization Strategy: Creating a plan to update a company's old, legacy applications with modern technologies and architectures, such as microservices and cloud-native design.

A clear application strategy ensures that all technology investments are purposeful and directly support the company's growth.

Why Outsource Application Strategy?

Application strategy requires a rare combination of deep technical knowledge and high-level business acumen. It is a function that most companies do not need on a full-time basis.

1. Access to Senior-Level Strategic Expertise: Outsourcing gives you access to experienced IT strategists and enterprise architects. These consultants have helped many other companies in various industries solve complex technology challenges. They bring a wealth of knowledge and best practices to your business.
2. Gaining an Objective, External Perspective: An external strategist can provide an honest and unbiased assessment of your current technology situation. They are not influenced by internal company politics or attached to legacy systems. This objectivity is crucial for making difficult but necessary decisions about which applications to retire or replace.
3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Professional strategy firms use structured methodologies and tools to analyze your application portfolio. Their recommendations are based on data and a clear business case, not on gut feelings. This leads to better, more justifiable investment decisions.
4. Keeping Up with Technology Trends: The technology landscape changes rapidly. A good consulting partner is always tracking emerging trends and can advise you on which new technologies can provide a real competitive advantage for your business.
5. Accelerated Planning Process: An experienced strategy firm can complete a full portfolio assessment and deliver a technology roadmap in a matter of weeks. Attempting to do this with an internal team for the first time would be a much slower and less effective process.

How to Choose an Application Strategy Partner

• Evaluate Their Consulting Framework: Ask about their methodology for assessing an application portfolio and developing a technology roadmap. A professional firm will have a clear, structured approach.
• Look for Business Acumen: The right partner will speak your language. They will focus on business outcomes like revenue growth, cost reduction, and risk mitigation, not just on technology.
• Review Their Case Studies: Look for examples of how they have helped similar companies develop and implement successful application strategies. The case studies should show clear business results.
• Assess the Experience of Their Consultants: You should be confident in the experience and knowledge of the specific consultants who will be working with your company.
• Check Their References: Speak with other business leaders who have worked with the firm. Ask about the quality of their strategic advice and the long-term value they provided.

Leading Companies for Application Strategy Services

1. Accenture: As a global consulting leader, Accenture's Technology Strategy & Advisory practice is a top choice for large enterprises seeking to align their technology with their business strategy. They offer a full range of services, from IT strategy to cloud advisory.
2. Deloitte: Deloitte's Technology Strategy & Business Transformation practice helps clients use technology to solve their most critical business challenges. They are known for their deep industry expertise and their ability to connect strategy with execution.
3. Boston Consulting Group (BCG): BCG is a premier management consulting firm. Their Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice provides high-level strategic advice to C-suite executives on topics like digital transformation and IT modernization.
4. ScienceSoft: An IT consulting and software development company with a strong practice in IT strategy. They are a good option for mid-sized companies looking for practical, actionable advice on application modernization and portfolio rationalization.

Part 2: Application Maintenance and Support Services – Ensuring Operational Excellence

Once a company has a portfolio of applications, those applications must be kept running effectively. Application Maintenance and Support services handle the day-to-day work required to ensure applications are available, reliable, and secure.

What is Application Maintenance and Support?

Application Maintenance and Support is a continuous service focused on the operational health of a company's software applications. It is the work that happens after an application is launched.

The service is often broken down into different levels:

• Level 1 (L1) Support: This is the first line of support, often called the help desk. The L1 team logs user issues, answers basic questions, and resolves simple problems. If they cannot resolve an issue, they escalate it to Level 2.
• Level 2 (L2) Support: The L2 team has more technical expertise. They investigate more complex issues that are escalated from L1. They have a deeper understanding of the application and its backend systems.
• Level 3 (L3) Support: This is the highest level of support. The L3 team is typically composed of senior developers and architects who can fix complex bugs in the application's source code. They also handle major upgrades and enhancements.

A complete maintenance and support service includes several key activities:

• Proactive Monitoring: Using tools to monitor the application's health and performance 24/7. This helps to detect and fix problems before they impact users.
• Incident Management: A formal process for responding to, investigating, and resolving application outages or other incidents.
• Bug Fixes (Corrective Maintenance): Fixing defects in the code that are causing the application to behave incorrectly.
• Minor Enhancements (Adaptive Maintenance): Making small changes to the application to adapt it to new operating systems, browsers, or business rules.
• User Support and Help Desk: Providing assistance to end-users who have questions or are experiencing problems.
• Security Patching: Regularly applying security patches to the application and its underlying infrastructure to protect against vulnerabilities.

Why Outsource Application Maintenance and Support?

Managing and supporting a portfolio of applications can be a significant burden on an internal IT team. Outsourcing this function to a specialized provider is a common and highly effective strategy.

1. Significant Cost Savings: Outsourcing maintenance and support can reduce operational costs by 40-60%. This is achieved by leveraging the provider's scale, efficient processes, and access to global talent in lower-cost locations.
2. Access to 24/7 Support: Most outsourcing providers offer 24/7 "follow-the-sun" support. This means that issues can be worked on around the clock, which significantly reduces resolution times and minimizes business disruption. Building a 24/7 in-house team is financially impractical for most companies.
3. Frees Up Internal IT Staff for Strategic Work: This is a major benefit. When an external partner handles the day-to-day support tickets and maintenance tasks, the company's internal IT experts can focus on high-value projects like developing new products and driving innovation.
4. Improved Service Levels and Faster Resolution Times: AMS providers use formal processes and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to manage their work. This leads to more consistent service and faster resolution times for user issues compared to an often-overloaded internal team.
5. Access to a Broad Skillset: A single AMS provider gives you access to a team with a wide range of technical skills. Whether you need a database expert, a cloud engineer, or a specialist in a legacy programming language, the provider has the right resources available.

How to Choose an Application Maintenance and Support Partner

• Scrutinize Their Service Level Agreements (SLAs): The SLA is the most important part of the contract. It must clearly define key metrics like guaranteed uptime, response times for different priority levels of incidents, and specific resolution time targets.
• Evaluate Their Technical Expertise: Ensure the provider has deep experience with the specific applications and technologies in your portfolio.
• Assess Their Support Model: Understand their support process. How do you submit a ticket? How do they handle escalations from L1 to L2 to L3?
• Check Their Security Certifications: The provider will have access to your systems and data. Ensure they have strong security practices and certifications like ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
• Talk to Their Long-Term References: The best indicator of a good support partner is a happy long-term client. Ask for references from companies that have been using their service for multiple years. Ask about their reliability, proactivity, and communication.

Leading Companies for Application Maintenance and Support Services

1. Rackspace: A leading managed cloud computing company. They offer expert application maintenance and support services, especially for applications hosted on major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. They are known for their high level of customer support, which they call "Fanatical Experience."
2. Rimini Street: A major third-party provider of enterprise software support. They specialize in providing maintenance and support for Oracle and SAP systems, often at a significant cost savings compared to the original vendor's support.
3. Capgemini: A global IT services leader with a comprehensive Application Management Services practice. They provide end-to-end support for large, complex application portfolios for enterprise clients.
4. Chetu: A custom software development company that also provides ongoing application maintenance and support services. They are a good option for businesses looking for a single partner to both develop and support their custom applications.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Application Strategy? Application Strategy is the process of creating a long-term plan that aligns a company's software applications with its business goals. It involves assessing the current application portfolio and creating a roadmap for future development, modernization, and retirement of applications.

2. What is Application Portfolio Rationalization? This is a key part of application strategy. It is the process of analyzing every application a company uses to determine its value and then deciding whether to keep it, modernize it, replace it, or retire it. The goal is to simplify the portfolio and reduce costs.

3. What is Application Maintenance and Support? This is the ongoing operational work required to keep software applications running smoothly. It includes fixing bugs, providing user support, monitoring performance, and applying security patches.

4. What are the different levels of support (L1, L2, L3)?

• L1 (Help Desk): The first point of contact for users. Handles basic issues.
• L2 (Technical Support): Handles more complex issues escalated from L1. Has deeper technical knowledge.
• L3 (Expert Support): The highest level, usually developers or architects. Fixes bugs in the source code.

5. What is a Service Level Agreement (SLA)? An SLA is a formal contract that defines the specific, measurable levels of service a provider will deliver. For application support, it includes metrics like guaranteed uptime, issue response times, and issue resolution times.

6. Why should I outsource application support? Key benefits include significant cost savings, access to 24/7 support, faster issue resolution times, and the ability to free up your internal IT team to focus on more strategic work.

7. Can a single company provide both Application Strategy and Application Support? Yes, many large IT services and consulting firms, such as Accenture, Deloitte, Capgemini, and ScienceSoft, have practices that cover the full spectrum of application services, from high-level strategy to day-to-day maintenance and support.

A company's software applications are valuable assets. A clear Application Strategy ensures these assets are aligned with business goals and that investments are made wisely. Professional Application Maintenance and Support ensures these assets are protected, reliable, and continue to deliver value every day. By outsourcing these critical functions to expert partners, businesses can reduce risk, control costs, and position their technology as a true driver of competitive advantage.