Centralized vs. Local Support Teams

Before we compare the centralized and local support, let us understand the two terms in brief:

Centralized Support:

A support architecture comprising of a single team providing support to all applications / systems utilized by an Organization across all geographies forms a Centralized Support desk

Local Support:

A support architecture comprising of multiple teams providing support applications / systems wise, geography (Branch) wise for an Organization forms a Local Support desk

Centralized Support over Local Support

One stop destination: Centralized support is a one stop destination for all applications / Systems related issues across geographies as compared to Local support team scenario, where in users may have to raise issues in different systems or dial in different numbers in case of telephonic communication to resolve their issues.

Reports: Reporting related to support becomes easy and efficient in centralized support architecture as there is only one system and one team across all applications / systems. Thus reports like total issues encountered in previous month, no. of issues escalated, no. of issues closed and such can be easily made available. This will help the stakeholders and senior management to have a holistic view of the entire support scenario for analysis and decision making.  However, it is a tedious and cumbersome activity when it comes to local support team scenarios, as collating reports generated from different systems by different teams in different formats will be time consuming and would require additional resources to accomplish the task. Also, it would be difficult for the senior management to have a clear picture of the support status.

Standardization: Standardization can be implemented in SLAs and in the escalation process which increases the efficiency of resolving issues in centralized support architecture as there is one single team managing support through one system. Hence, there is single hierarchy for setting escalations on SLAs. In case of local support scenario, different teams with different reporting hierarchies are present. Hence, standardization cannot be implemented for SLAs and escalations which in turn affect the efficiency of the overall support.

Cost efficient: Centralized support is cost efficient as it can be hosted at one place with pre-defined IT infrastructure and resources. However, in case of local support scenario, whenever a new application / system is implemented or new branch / office is added to the organizational a separate budget have to be sanctioned for support expenditure which includes cost of the physical location, support team and IT infrastructure.

Local Support over Centralized Support

Dependability: In case of centralized support scenario, the dependability is too high on single support team. At any given point, if the respective support team faces any technical or human resource issues, support for all applications across geographies gets affected.

However, in case of local support teams, even if the support team for one application /system suffers technical or human resource shortcoming, support to other applications across geographies is carried out smoothly without interruption.

Easily approachable: Local support teams are easily approachable as there is no language barrier for communication and the issues are attended to and resolved quickly as that particular support team is dedicated to that particular geography / application. However, in centralized support architecture, these benefits cannot be experienced as there is a single team managing issues for all applications / geographies.

Resolution time: The resolution time is generally lesser in case of local support team as there is minimal prioritization thanks to independence from application / system / geographies. Thus, the local support team approaches every issue as it comes for that particular system as there are dedicated resources providing support. On the other hand, in case of centralized support architecture, issue resolution time will be based on the prioritization and also dependant on the geography and other factors. Thus, small issues which can be resolved quickly can take longer to get resolved.

It can be seen that both centralized support and local support have their advantages and disadvantages when compared with each other. Hence, in order to implement a successful, efficient and cost effective support system one needs to understand the nature of the organization and also analyze the support architecture that will suit it the best within the available budget.

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