Outsource IT support needs to stay focused on business core competencies
Businesses today would be hard-pressed to survive long without the capabilities provided by their IT organizations. Software systems, tools, applications, services and infrastructure form the underpinnings upon which businesses rely to manage, sell and deliver the value they bring to customers. And failing to keep pace with seemingly endless technology advances exposes businesses to the very real risk of falling behind the competition.
So what can companies do to reduce costs without sacrificing the benefits provided by Software/IT? Outsourcing Support Services can free a company from the expensive proposition of building and maintaining this capability from its own labor resources. Leveraging iSoftstone’s Support Services expertise frees companies to concentrate their own resources where they deliver the greatest return…on their business expertise.
Support services keep systems, applications, and services healthy and available for the users that rely upon them
Companies are heavily reliant upon systems, applications, and services for running their businesses. When system disruptions occur the impacts are manifested in forms from user frustration to financial loss due to lost sales, opportunities and effort, the extent of which are often directly correlated to disruption duration. While it may be impractical if not impossible to entirely eliminate all potential threats that might occasionally inhibit or prevent users from fully utilizing a company’s digital experiences, an excellent mitigation to such occurrences is a strong Support Services capability.
Just as your company has key business expertise that set it apart from its competitors, iSoftstone has expertise and experience that make it a great choice for meeting your Support Services needs, be it for a single application or across the enterprise.
Support services offerings
The types of support provided can range from one to multiple services according to needs.
Monitoring
Application endpoints, log files, etc. are continually checked to ensure they are working and alerts are sent to support team when they aren’t
Maintenance
Patch releases, bug fixes, minor enhancements
Service desk
User issues/inquiries submitted to Tier 1 support and either resolved immediately or routed to Tier 2/3/4 as appropriate
Incident response
Critical disruptions to production operations are responded to and key teams and resources are engaged
Root cause analysis
Investigation together with other teams as appropriate, of an issue/incident to determine the root cause source, be it in the application or the platform, environment or network in which it runs
Issue resolution
Corrective steps taken to resolve an application issue and restore production health
Knowledge base management
Update and maintain a repository of information regarding an application and its production operation that can be referred to for future support challenges
Support services tiers
Not all issues are alike and efficient support teams apply the right skillsets accordingly to ensure efficient and responsive service.
Tier 1
Service desk / Support technician
Address incidents, events, and user requests
Basic level of tech knowledge, reliance on SOP/FAQ
Tier 2
Support engineer
Escalation from Tier 1
Assess & resolve issues requiring more advanced resolutions
Experienced and knowledgeable technicians
Tier 3
Support specialist engineer
Escalation from Tier 2
Root cause analysis using deep knowledge of code, designs and specifications
Issue fixes implemented, deployed, documented and communicated to Tier-1 and Tier-2 for future reference
Tier 4
External support
Outside teams supporting an external dependency component/service/app related to the overall customer experience but not within the organization’s support scope
A variety of tools are available to assist in the many facets of Support Services
Support Services rely on many different types of tools, solutions and infrastructure to aid in managing and executing the wide range of support activities. Which tools are to be employed depends on support needs and technologies involved, as well as what might already be in use across the enterprise. Some aspects of Support Services where tools, solutions, and infrastructure can provide great benefit include the following:
Monitoring and alerting
Provides application, service, infrastructure monitoring which can be leveraged to send alerts when issues arise, such as Nagios, Patrol, SCOM, Azure Monitor, and many others
Service management
Create workflows for managing requests, issues, etc. including ServiceNow, Remedy, ServiceWise, Jira Service Desk
Code management/Dev Ops
Tools like Azure Dev Ops, GitHub, Jira/Bitbucket, etc.
Knowledge asset repository
Capture and publish RCA, SOPs, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips utilizing wiki pages, SharePoint, etc.
Dev & test
Development, Testing and staging environments that replicate production systems for Issue reproduction and resolution verification
Why iSoftStone
We are a global digital consulting company with expert business domain knowledge, deep product knowledge, trained and certified software development engineers, and in-house expertise to design and deliver quality, innovative solutions.
We ensure customer success through our consultative and collaborative approach to determining the best solution to your specific Support Services needs.
