What is third-party application maintenance? What are the types? All you need to know is here!
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Third-party application maintenance: the essence
It is also known as TPAM and consists of subcontracting the maintenance service for all applications, or only some, to a professional service provider external to the company. It is an outsourcing service whose main objective is to ensure the availability, performance, and reliability of the application. Such services are highly popular nowadays: Body Leasing and team leasing are used frequently. Being scalable according to what the company declines as needs but also according to the nature of its activity, the professional subcontractor must be able to make the necessary adjustments for the application in order to align with changing needs.
The different types of TPAM
Application maintenance come in different forms for different media. Being developed in pure PHP or based on frameworks, an application is subject to specific constraints in the sense that its software base update cycle takes longer and is accompanied by a need for application maintenance that is more important.
- Scalable maintenance: it comes in response to the appearance of new needs through integrating new features. After obtaining the client organization’s approval, the subcontractor will define the different functional specifications and the scope of the need in question.
- Preventive maintenance: as its name suggests, this type of application maintenance comes in the prevention of possible malfunctions that may appear in the application. The subcontractor carries out preventive operations to avoid such anomalies or at least to reduce their appearance as much as possible. It is essentially a question of updating the application’s technical environment.
- Corrective maintenance: it comes last when an anomaly occurs, and it will have to be corrected. It is also about correcting errors that have occurred in the application. The subcontractor will define the degree of severity of the anomaly as well as the degree of urgency of an intervention operation. Very often, it is a question of modifying the source code of the application.
What are the advantages?
By using a tailor-made application maintenance service, an organization can benefit from a number of advantages:
- An optimized budget: application maintenance is now based on a formula that allows the company to take advantage of an offer in the form of a prepaid package, thus avoiding wasting.
- Confirmed expertise: using an application maintenance subcontractor allows the organization to benefit from the know-how and expertise necessary to maintain its applications thanks to a dedicated team of consultants who are constantly aware of new technologies.
- A personalized service: the main advantage of TPAM is the diversity of tailor-made services it offers. This allows the company to choose only the services it needs and thus benefit from a personalized service that meets different maintenance needs.
- A guarantee of security: application maintenance will make it possible to sustain a company’s investments in its information systems by keeping all the control of its application fleet as well as setting up a system to control the various costs related to the maintenance of applications.
The progress
An application maintenance project takes place in general in three steps, namely: getting acquainted, maintenance, and reversibility. The first phase is the key to the success of an application maintenance project. Indeed, the subcontractor discovers the purpose of the maintenance, the related documentation, and all the data essential for the execution of the project.
Then comes the second phase, that of maintenance, during which the subcontractor team will correct the detected errors and, in turn, make the necessary improvements to the applications. In some cases, it may be necessary for the team to integrate new features. Finally, the third and final step is reversibility in the sense that TPAM skills are transmitted in the event that the company decides to manage application maintenance internally or entrust it to a new provider. During this stage, training is provided to new workers within the company.
In what forms can application maintenance be offered?
Professional subcontractors responsible for application maintenance projects offer several forms of TPAM services, each of which corresponds to the specific requirements of the customer company and its environment.
- Maintenance of applications in flat-rate management: this contract is intended for companies that evolve within a variable environment with performance obligations and tools that can evolve throughout the service cycle.
- Maintenance of applications in the form of a ticket book: this is a contract that is offered to organizations operating in a limited intervention environment as well as declining specific needs over time.
Application maintenance can only be performed when the former subcontractor turns on and stabilizes the application or website. This approach prevents simultaneous interventions by different subcontractors on the same source code. When the start-up ends, the maintenance of applications is considered to be factually started.
If you want to find a reliable company to do the job for you, remember to take a look at customer reviews and portfolios: they can tell a lot about the company. Good luck!
