Application Support – Build or Buy

With outsourcing being the buzzword in today’s times, many a times organizations often find processes they can outsource even if there is not real need for outsourcing. One such are that is now relevant may be application support itself. Organizations, especially whose core competency is not IT, may not want / nor have the competency to manage in-house support for their applications. It may be too expensive, time consuming and administrative for them to have a support team within the organization for their applications. With these hindrances comes the tendency to outsource as it would seem to be an easy way out. However outsourcing application support may not be as easy and there would be other factors to be considered as well, for example confidentiality of data, downtime, availability of vendors etc. Below are some factors and outsourcing options which could be worth considering

In house support team: As mentioned earlier, the one key factor to have an in-house support team is data protection and ensuring data confidentiality. In house support team would mean that data access is only to employees. Goes without saying, the organization would have better control over the resources. However an often neglected aspect in this model is an SLA. Since all teams are within the organization SLA’s very rarely exist. Even where they do, implementation and monitoring of the SLA’s are very weak. Since business users get familiar support team, there is also a high chance of processes being circumvent. Many a time a “tap over the shoulder” approach becomes easier rather than raising a ticket. This model also increases the administrative concerns for the organizations as the responsibility of training, monitoring, attritions etc all come into play. These could be major areas of concern for the organizations especially if their focus is not on IT. However maintaining an internal IT team could also be a strategic decision for the organization and many look upon it as the first step towards getting into the IT sector on a competitive scale

Outsourced Support team: The benefits of this model are much known to all. Apart from cost reduction, it also reduces a lot of administrative headaches for the client. SLA monitoring is much improved and also scalability is easier to implement. Coverage over multiple time zones is also easily done. However one significant disadvantage is that data is exposed to the service provider team. However this can be fixed by having watertight NDA’s in place. Also frequent audits / assessments are also beneficial in order to ensure data security and provide confidence to the stakeholders. In this model the vendor selection is the most crucial thing. The relationship has to be a long term one and not looked upon as a short term fix. The organization must go through a proper RFP / RFQ process, evaluate the various options available and then finalize the vendor. Since scalability is easier in this model, organizations may want to start a pilot project with one application and then ramp up the support rather than go in with a big bang approach.

Best of both worlds: Nowadays Organizations are also looking a part in house and part outsourced model. Goes without saying, this helps the organization get the benefits of both the previous models and significantly reduces risk. It also helps organizations keep data secure at eh same time provides significant cost reduction and helps maintain control. This model would also help organizations meet any strategic objectives (Example A foray into SharePoint solutions only and outsource the other applications)

Having had a look at the options, which is the best one would be a tough question to answer, if at all there is one best model. A “one size fits all” approach would be useless here. There are various factors an organization needs to consider before selection of any of the models. One thing is for sure that it has to be looked at as a long term solution and not as a quick fix. A long term strategy is much beneficial for in such a situation. A wrong model selection could lead to some major outages, loss of goodwill and even cause downfall of the organization.

About Author:

Amol Bhembre is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at amol.b@spluspl.com