What is Third Party Application Maintenance ?

Why choose Third Party Application Maintenance ?

What is TPAM?

Third Party Application Maintenance or TPAM is the delegation of services related to the life cycle of an application (bug fixes, knowledge maintenance, updates, etc.) to a third party IT service provider outside your company.

The main objective of this job is to guarantee a fluid user experience, free of errors, bugs, etc. This experience must be respectful of the constantly evolving trends. By placing Application Management at the center of your company's IT processes, your company can achieve sustainable performance and investment.

What does TPAM include?

The Third Party Application Maintenance allows your company to benefit from all the human and technical resources necessary to take charge of the improvement and modification of existing digital applications and in production. The mission of the TPAM expert is to correct errors, add new functionalities, modify files, improve performance, and work towards the constant improvement of the quality of applications.

TPAM is divided into three main categories, which your company will have to choose according to its needs: preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance and evolutionary maintenance.

Preventive maintenance

The IT service provider performs technical audits and periodic checks to ensure that the client's application is running efficiently. Specifically, the developers review the databases and audit their access and network performance.

They provide support with managing security elements, offer advice on the application's architecture and setup, and suggest data backup and restoration strategies in the event of a data loss. Additionally, they are present during any application-related material migrations.

Corrective maintenance

This involves resolving operating anomalies through small updates and bringing the information system into compliance. This includes audits in case of failure, the implementation of backup measures, the integration of patches, functional validations and the establishment of an informative document (Wiki, etc.).

Evolutive maintenance

A good application evolves over time, with the addition of new functions, an ever more innovative use and compliance with legislation, which changes constantly. Evolutionary maintenance can be minor or major.

What are the differences between TPAM and software support?

Although these two professions are quite similar, software support focuses strictly on fixing bugs that affect the use of an application. In such a case, it is up to the supporting software developers to intervene quickly by fixing the bugs in question. Here, speed is an essential factor, as the consequences of bugs are minimized.

Application Management is a much more complete profession, focused on improving applications. The TPAM development team works on the evolution of an application by researching and integrating new functionalities, improving the user interface, so that the application stands out from the competition.

What are the advantages of TPAM?

By choosing to include Third Party Application Maintenance in its operations, your company will achieve :

Controlling your IT costs;
Guarantee the quality of its service;
Access to specialized skills that are often difficult to find and costly locally;
To ensure the continuity of knowledge on the project concerned.

But also to :

Ensure the proper functioning of its application;
Enable the implementation of innovations;
Increase the security of the application;
Improve productivity;
Increase user satisfaction;
Provide a positive image.

TPAM allows the company to increase its profitability, to access a larger pool of talent, and to gain in efficiency, because it will finally be able to focus on its core business. The 10 most common challenges to overcome in order to succeed in your TMA project.

Lack of internal experience in web outsourcing

An experienced third-party IT service provider understands the vision and culture of your company. He will work around it by bringing his own experience, his technical and human resources necessary for a close support.

Lack of internal expertise on an outsourced task

Avoid this pitfall by setting clear performance standards, for example, by dedicating an internal person to define and monitor workflow and results.

Poor cost estimation

Costs are based on establishing specific requirements, clear deadlines, resources, etc., and your company does not have an unlimited budget!

Choosing the right IT outsourcing

Choose a service provider of similar size to your company. A very large provider will be less personal and will charge too much. The cheaper one will tend to drastically reduce its own costs, thus, its quality.

The cultural context

In addition to organizing internal awareness and educational programs on diversity, it is essential that each party has clear and organized communication channels.

Legal and regulatory procedures

Since each country has its own laws and regulations, a confidentiality agreement will clearly outline compensation, working conditions, provider responsibilities, ownership information, etc.

Knowledge transfer

It is done through clear documentation and transparent procedures, which detail the functionalities, the technology, the logic of the code.

Team management and communication

The solution is continuous communication, which may be achieved by including calls, feedback loops, collaboration platforms, and other communication methods into the project schedule.

A trusted IT service provider

It all happens during the provider selection stage, where you need to take the time to contact clients, both past and present, to gather their feelings about the providers that interest your company.

The type of outsourcing contract

There are three models of outsourcing contracts :

The time and material contract;
The lump sum contract;
The dedicated development team contract.

The number of service providers

Should you then choose a provider of IT outsourcing and another specialist in TPAM or an agency offering both services? In the first case, each provider has proven expertise in its field, while being solely responsible for the services provided. However, this can be particularly problematic in the event of an emergency in the other field (outsourcing or TPAM).

By choosing a single provider for IT outsourcing and application management, your company will have a single point of contact in the event of infrastructure or application failure of a service.