Application Management Services

Companies of all sizes are continuing to adopt complex enterprise applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Performance Management (CPM), Business Process Management and e-commerce. The task of managing these applications can be daunting but critical to the operational and revenue success of the company, which is why more organizations are considering outsourced Application Management Services (AMS).

Merino as your Partner-2-Progress offers comprehensive, flexible and cost effective Application Management Services (AMS) to you.

MSL's Application Management Services can help companies like you to strengthen your competitive position by reducing your cost of ownership while improving business performance. Our deep industry expertise, technical expertise in various Enterprise Applications, and efficient global delivery capabilities combine to bring businesses an SLA based model that incorporates proven methodologies and best practices to enable continuous quality improvement of services at optimum costs.

Packaged applications for the enterprise have steadily increased in power and functionality. As a result, these applications are more deeply ingrained within enterprises than ever before. Thus MSL as Partner-2-Progress ensure you the following AMS:

• High availability
• High performance
• Rapid response to changing business conditions
• 24 x 7 support for widely dispersed groups of users

In an organization the complexity of packaged enterprise applications increases with time, however. Some companies have a large enough IT staff and budget to successfully manage these complex enterprise applications while guaranteeing acceptable levels of service, but many other companies struggle merely to maintain the IT status quo, never mind devote precious resources to initiatives designed to grow revenue and profitability.

Running an IT department that keeps a company agile enough to rapidly adapt to changing business conditions is a major challenge all by itself. Doing that, while focusing energy on managing applications can be more responsibility than many IT organizations will prefer to take on. Part of the challenge is that often the IT department has responsibility for applications that are central to furthering a company's business objectives. It makes little sense for IT staff to invest time and resources in standard business applications, such as ERP, CRM, BPM, EAM etc, when that work can be outsourced, enabling IT to focus on applications that will help grow the enterprise.

Manage Business Challenges
MSL's Application Management Services helps its customers overcome several challenges, such as:

• Winning the Talent Wars: MSL's rich talent pool with years of rich experience across various Enterprise Applications and Industry verticals is a dependable option for you to win talent wars.
• Bulletproofing Service levels: When the application is the business, the cost of downtime or even poor performance can be huge. MSL's SLA based commitment as part of Application Management ensures you high uptime and availability of the applications.
• Keeping Business Aligned with IT: As part of AMS, MSL offers you to regularly fine tune your Enterprise Applications to the changing business needs. Your Business users can concentrate on their core function of increasing revenue and profitability for the organization and MSL consultants takes up the responsibility of ensuring synchronization between Business and the Business Applications.
• Extending Support Globally: MSL's 24 x 7 AMS model ensures its customers a centralized globally available support facility. This helps customers reduce Application Management Cost, Knowledge Management cost and availability challenges.

AMS Components
MSL offers the following facilities to you as part of Applications Management Services

• Help Desk Support: MSL offer round-the-clock help desk coverage for Enterprise Application users in your organization. Our help desk staff continually assesses opportunities for improvement in incident management and call resolution through training programs for help desk staff and business users, and through updates to support tools.
• Functional and Technical Support: MSL's functional and Technical consultants leverage their experience across multiple engagements and domains to assist your business process owners in change management initiatives. Their expertise extends across various Enterprise Applications mentioned below:
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (Infor ERP LN, Baan IV, Baan V, SAP, Oracle E Business Suite)
  • Performance Management (Cognos and Business Objects)
  • Business Process Management (IBM Filenet and Fujitsu IBPM)
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • B2B and B2C Applications (with platforms like Java/J2EE, .Net)
  • Enterprise Asset Management (Maximo, Datastream)
• System Administration and Monitoring: MSL's system administration team supports implementation and rollout for new projects through system configuration support and transport management, while our monitoring team uses standard tools provided by various Enterprise Software vendors to monitor performance and execute corrective and routine maintenance activities such as backup and archival.

Flexible Engagement Option
MSL offers following Flexible options to the customers to support of the above mentioned solutions:

• Fully Outsourced Application Management Services: The MSL assumes full responsibility for your application infrastructure in secure Environment and guarantees application performance, scalability, reliability, security, continuity, and compliance. This option is available to the customers in following flexible options:
  • Fix Cost Application Management (8x5, 8x7 and 24x7)with dedicated resource pool available On Site / offSite / Off shore.
  • Time and Material Management (8x5, 8x7 and 24x7)with dedicated resource pool available On Site / offSite / Off shore.
• On-demand Services: This Flexible support model for Enterprise Applications lets you select and pay for only those support services needed. You can chose to utilize MSL's services as per their skill or business requirement. You have following flexible options to engage MSL:
  • 100 Hours per Quarter Support Pack with hourly ratecontract for extra usage (Off Site / Off Shore)
  • 400 Hours Annual Support Pack with hourly ratecontract for extra usage (Off Site/ Off Shore)
  • Rate Contract ( On Site)

MSL takes AMS benefits to a higher level by using proprietary tools to automate many labor intensive processes. Coupling these automated tools with a productized service offering that leverages the economies of scale inherent in a shared services support model. You are provided access to such tools to manage your Application Management Services requirement with MSL consulting teams.

Structured Team Approach
MSL has a standard team configuration for Application Management Services. The model is offered to you based on your choice and requirements of the flexible options mentioned above. Service Level Agreement
Application Management Services are monitored and managed on the measurable defined Service Levels. Service Metrics are available to the customers on the tools provided by MSL to the customers to monitor their AMS. It is standard practice at MSL to have a single SLA for each client covering all of the business services selected by the client and the associated enabling services. It is also possible to have more than one SLA for a single client.

To ensure the commitment to the service levels, MSL has escalation mechanism to escalate the cases at right intervals of time.

Phased Methodology
Phased Methodology is adopted to set up the AMS model for you; depending on the flexible option selected by you phases are planned:

• Planning: At the beginning of an engagement, MSL team members are introduced to key stakeholders in your organization. We validate the engagement scope and confirm your service expectations. In collaboration with you, we develop the project planning artifacts and finalize the transition plan.
• Transition: A three-phase, collaborative effort ensures a smooth transition of your application management with no business interruption.
  • Knowledge Transfer. Your business process owners impart business knowledge to our team, while your functional consultants share Enterprise Solution environment knowledge with our team. Your Application Administration experts help our team understand system landscape and environment monitoring and administration procedures performed. And your technical consultants help our team understand development processes and testing procedures.
  • Observation: Following knowledge transfer, we validate the acquired knowledge by observing your team delivering AMS. We refine the process documentation based on our improved understanding of the in-practice techniques.
  • Assisted Support: MSL assumes support responsibility, assisted by your team. You confirm that we are poised to assume application management responsibility; then, working with you, we define SLAs important to your business and strive to meet or exceed the SLAs.
  • Onshore Support: MSL practices an “on-site before offshore” philosophy to foster interaction, cultural awareness, friendships, and continuing knowledge transfer between your team and ours. A metrics-based framework helps confirm the readiness of our team to assume your Enterprise Application Management.
  • Steady State: Once transition is complete, MSL assumes responsibility for all in-scope services defined in the Service Level Agreement. Knowledge management tools help ensures continuous service quality improvement while our offshore team provides “follow-the-sun” support.

MSL has delivered Application Management Services to diverse customers continuously refining our service delivery methodologies and capabilities. We leverage this expertise to deliver best-in-class services that meet our customers' unique needs and goals.