Iain Saunderson | Chief Technology Officer
Software applications and systems are critical for businesses and industries across the globe. The needs to maintain and support software ecosystems are constantly evolving with the changing technology landscape. The potential benefits of pairing your business-critical software ecosystem with flexible support and maintenance services can be achieved by selecting the right third-party support provider. Ideally, this provider should be able to demonstrate the value of seamless orchestration of people, process, and tools to successfully deliver on IT outcomes of software ecosystem transformation, improved service quality, security, cost, and resource optimization.
While it’s possible to institute the right processes, hire the right people and secure the right tools in-house or partner with the software provider, it can come at the price of innovation, service quality, security, and huge IT spending.
As you look to partner with a third-party support provider here are some of the key considerations to keep in mind:
- Deep expertise and experience
Having domain expertise around software applications and systems is key. That expertise should extend to incident resolution, managing change, cloud-based software systems and migrations, new machine-learning and artificial intelligence technologies, security, and most importantly, successfully supporting integration across legacy and new software platforms. The service provider should constantly invest in knowledge sharing, training, and communication of best practices to ensure that their skill set stays sharp and is always relevant.
- Alignment with industry leading ITIL framework
Like any other IT system, your software ecosystem requires adoption of an ITIL-based approach to service management that focuses on aligning mission-critical services with the needs of an organization and adopts an agile approach to change management. Leveraging the principles of the ITIL framework, your service provider should follow detailed processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists that can be applied towards service design, service transition, service operations and continual service improvement.
- Flexible consumption models
A one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t work for today’s organizations. A third-party partner should be able to support the flexibility that companies seek from their migration or upgrade initiatives. The third-party service provider should structure their expertise, processes, and agreements to uniquely meet specific business needs that mega software-vendors are unable to provide. An unbiased approach to software ecosystem transformation is key.
- Visibility and Control
Working with a third-party does not have to mean losing control or visibility. The right service provider will partner with you to define and execute service-level agreements (SLAs) that align with your business outcomes while delivering on the right level of service quality and security. These SLAs can range from response times to resolution times. Any provider should always allow you to have granular visibility into your system’s health.
- Automation for incident resolution
A forward-looking service provider understands that it is important to invest in sophisticated automation and analytics technologies that can make software ecosystem support and security management better, driving faster and more efficient resolution of system issues. Investing in AI-based technologies can eventually also help transition from a break/fix methodology to a proactive approach that emphasizes problem prevention and continuous improvement.
Spinnaker Support can be that third-party support partner. Our service capabilities span Break/Fix services, Security and Vulnerability management, Global Tax, Regulatory & Compliance (GTRC), and General Inquiry and Advisory services for multiple software ecosystems including Oracle, SAP, and JD Edwards. Our services are enabled by a combination of:
- People – Engineers who bring on average 20+ years of experience and deep expertise in related software application ecosystems, and customer success teams that partner with our customers every step of the way.
- Process – ISO9001 process designed for Level-4 support and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework for service design, service transition, service operations, change management, and continuous process improvement. Our processes are also designed to ensure Intellectual Property (IP) protection of original software vendor.
- Tools – Robust knowledge base and AI-based automation ‘SAGE’ (more to come!) to augment decision making and accelerate service response at scale, best-in-class security tools.
To learn more, please visit us at https://www.spinnakersupport.com/oracle/third-party-support/.
