More are more companies throughout the world, especially in the IT sector, have realized how beneficial outsourcing can be to their businesses, and are turning towards outsourcing a majority of services. From web and app development to turnkey solutions including application management, the shift to outsourcing is only picking up pace.
In this article, we shall be talking about Application Management Outsourcing (AMO), exactly what it entails, and it benefits one can expect.
What is Application Management?
Application management (AM) is the process of managing the operation, maintenance, versioning, and upgrading of an application through the course of its life. This entails all tasks, techniques, practices, and procedures essential to a deployed application’s optimal operation, performance, and efficiency throughout the enterprise and back-end IT infrastructure.
Application management services include –
- Proactive monitoring and troubleshooting;
- Performance management;
- Incident management;
- Enhancement management and evolution;
- Help desk services, et al.
What are the forms of AMO?
Depending on the scope of services, you have – (a) all-round outsourcing, wherein vendors assume responsibility for the overall management of activities around application support, enhancement, and optimization; and (b) selective outsourcing, where, as the name suggests, vendors assume responsibility for certain aspects of application management (be it application troubleshooting or enhancement).
Depending on the vendor’s location, AMO can be classified into 4 categories, namely – (a) onshore, when the vendor is placed in your country; (b) near-shore when the vendor is placed in a neighboring country or within your time zone; (c) offshore, when the vendor is placed in a different time zone or continent; and (d) mixed, for example, having customer operations onshore and the technical team placed offshore.
What are the Benefits of AMO?
The benefits that one expects from application outsourcing can be similarly expected from AMO, with relevant variations, of course. In the present market, outsourcing is driven by much more than specialized skills and cost-effectiveness.
Here are some of the other benefits that one can expect from AMO –
- There is increased flexibility with regards to scaling the outsourced team in accordance with the extent of the project. It is easier to scale up or cut down an outsourced team-up than it is to do so in-house.
- One gets access to a wide range of technologies, methodologies, and processes that are relevant in the present context, since these outsourcing companies are specialized in the field, and have to keep themselves updated with the latest developments.
- Since the services are outsourced to specialists, and there is immense competition in the market, you can be assured that you’ll get a much better quality of service (software availability, user experience, etc.) than it is possible in-house.
- Free from application management, the in-house IT dept. can focus on the strategies and other aspects of development.
In conclusion, owing to reduced costs, specialized services, increased flexibility, and access to high-quality resources, Application Management Outsourcing is a great business decision for the growth of a company.
