21/07/2020

Top 5 software application support challenges

Having mission critical legacy systems built by a single developer or a small development team may seem attractive as it’s usually a smaller initial financial investment, but it’s not always the best long-term solution. We share the most common system support challenges and explain the value of enlisting an established technology partner for application support and maintenance services.

We’re contacted every week by businesses with the same challenge – they have a mission-critical application that was built by a one-man-band developer, or a very small software development company, and are now urgently looking for an established software business to take over the support and development of that system.

Despite the range of business sectors and size, their issues are almost identical and almost always due to one or more of the same five software application support challenges:

The business has either parted ways with or have an ongoing disagreement with the individual or company who built the system, (around for example the IP/ownership of the code
The application developer may have retired/be due to retire
The development company may have ceased trading
The business feels locked in with uncompetitive pricing and unworkable timescales for developing new functionality
They have realised the risks that all of the above represents to their business

Scenarios such as those outlined above typically leave businesses hugely exposed from the point of view of business continuity and a basic ability to trade, as typically all the knowledge and ability to support that mission critical system resides with one individual. In one sense, the control of the business is effectively in the hands of that software developer.

As experts in developing and maintaining software applications, we work with many well-known UK organisations to deliver support and on-going development for their systems. Our applications support services include:

Providing a health-check and recommendations report on the software application
Conducting on-site knowledge transfer and building up documentation, so our team can take over the day to day support, and therefore allow a safe transition away
Sharing that knowledge with our team of developers to further reduce the risks
Continuing the knowledge process to the extent where our team also take on application development work so the system can meet the business’s requirements
Providing a complete managed service for the application, eliminating those critical issues and risks, and returning control and direction of the application back to the business.

For more information on our Application Support and Maintenance services and to find out how our 100% UK based team can help your business, contact us today.