Software development is a continuous process that is never ending, not even after it is deployed. Constant optimizations and bug fixes are crucial for enterprise software. You should also be ready to tackle any issues and circumstances that might pop up in the future.
All about Software Maintenance
Software maintenance is optimizing a software product, mostly after it is launched. It also includes infrastructure, recovery, and hosting. Most people assume that software maintenance is all about fixing bugs. But it also involves improving the software and ensuring it performs at optimum levels.
There are 4 software maintenance branches, which are equally important to keep your company running smoothly. They are,
- Corrective maintenance (Fixing bugs, errors, and faults as and when they occur.
- Preventive maintenance (Changing, adapting, and upgrading your software to avoid imminent issues, making it easier to manage and scale.
- Perfective maintenance (Adding and removing redundant features to ensure user needs are met.)
- Adaptive maintenance (Adapting to changing environment, policies, and regulations.)
What are software maintenance services?
As the name suggests, these services maintain enterprise software. They carry out various selective maintenance activities, based on the contract, on a pay-as-you-go basis. Most software maintenance and support services contracts are long-term, making interactions easy for the client and the service provider.
Software maintenance services may also provide remote troubleshooting in case your employees are spread across the globe, making maintenance activities cumbersome. The services might also provide installation and usability assistance when necessary. Here’s a list of processes that a software maintenance service can help with,
- Implementation of maintenance plans, including conception and creation of the plan itself
- Problem and modification analysis
- Software modification
- Testing modifications
- Migration
- Retiring old or redundant software
Benefits of software maintenance services
Lower costs of upgrades
Adding new features to well-maintained software is easier and cheaper. Software maintenance services will document every bug, every issue, and every act of maintenance in your software. This document will ensure that your team is well-equipped for changes.
Software maintenance services keep your machines up-to-date so that your team won’t have to waste any of their precious time. They also focus on reducing maintenance costs for the client. And you will only pay them for their time working on your software.
Since software maintenance services cover upgrading and developing fixes for your software, you are essentially paying for both maintenance and development activities—two birds with one stone. With a good software maintenance service, your IT infrastructure will be responsive to market needs and keep your business going.
Tested processes save you time
Software development services have years of experience developing processes to carry out maintenance activities. They help you save time by making the process seamless. This makes sure your employees do not see maintenance as a burden.
Most software maintenance services work closely with your team to ensure the process is less intrusive. This ensures that your business doesn’t waste a single minute of productivity.
Contingency plans are in place
You can peacefully run your business only when you know everything is running smoothly. When software maintenance activities are carried out promptly, you can be sure that you are ready to handle them when things go down. The documented maintenance log will help your team respond to downtimes immediately and get you back online. The documentation will also help you with the workflow toward fixing critical issues, responsibilities, and points of contact.
A software maintenance service will also help you with developing a contingency plan. And those are key in every risk management strategy. A well-made plan would include,
- A course of action to solve issues
- Responsibilities for task
- Timeline for completion of tasks
- Contact information of stakeholders
- Possible risks
- List of resources to address the risks mentioned above
- Plans and procedures to handle specific events
Lower project downtime
With a proper software maintenance plan in place, you can rest assured that your company will run tension-free. It doesn’t matter if your server goes offline or your traffic goes off the charts; your product or service will keep running.
Well-designed IT infrastructure and systems that perform best are crucial for business continuity. Without it, your business can face a lot of resource-wasting downtimes. A good software maintenance service can take this off your hands and keep the system running with low to zero downtime to keep doing what you do best—more on that next.
More time to focus on your business
What would you rather do, maintenance or doing what you do best? You can save plenty of time and focus on your core business instead of working on upgrading your software and developing patches and bug fixes.
When outsourcing software maintenance to a service, you can work on your business and keep growing your company while the experts handle the issues. Also, those services have years of experience maintaining software for multiple organizations. They will be better and easier than you are handling it on your own.
To sum everything up
Software maintenance, like any other, is crucial in today and age. No matter how big your company is, a small issue or downtime can do unrepairable damage to your business. Automating software maintenance by outsourcing it to a software maintenance service is a reasonable way to ensure your business thrives even in bad weather.
