What is Application Support? It is a vital part of customer service. It is the process of providing help to the users of a product or service. There are over 150,515 application support specialists currently employed in the United States.
This process includes solving customer complaints, giving instructions on how to use a product or service, or suggesting additional products that may be needed and installed. Application support can be done by either humans or machines, and it typically covers areas such as billing, technical support, and customer relations.
The support provided can have the expertise to keep your business running and available to all users, providing more efficiency and greater operability. The scope of support activities that can be provided is huge and is necessary for keeping any business as technologically efficient as possible.
A support team is a hugely important part of getting an app to perform at its best. The different kinds of support practices can be divided into two broad groups: reactive and proactive support.
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Reactive Support
Reactive support involves dealing with problems when they arise. This support should include solving basic issues such as password resetting and login support, changing complex code, solving complex problems in codes and databases – for custom software, fixing coding issues and for platform-based apps, fixing problems with customizations, fixing application operational issues without rewriting code or making changes to the app’s codebase, and making general changes to configurations
Proactive Support
Proactive support involves guidance and maintenance to prevent problems from ever occurring and making sure customers use the best IT systems and applications for them with continuing upgrades to make sure they are using the most up-to-date and advanced software.
What Application Support is Best For You?
The best way to help with support varies depending on the size and scope of the application, its functionality, and where it’s hosted (i.e., in-house or in the cloud, for employees or customers). Factors like these will also determine support needs and what kind of plan is best.
When deciding what to include in a support setup plan, it’s important to think about the needs and requirements of the application. For example, if you’re planning to have an on-premises application with no customer-facing capability and limited functionality, you may not need a large number of people or high-touch support.
What Tools Do You Need?
For reactive support, this is simple as you just need communicating tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom to have meetings with support agents. It could be as simple as sending emails, installing call center software, or having a customer portal.
Why Would You Need Application Support?
To be at the forefront of business nowadays, having good IT is a minimum. So many different tasks can easily be completed and simplified through the use of well-maintained and up-to-date computer software. Application support can make sure that your business is not just using the best apps and systems provided by proactive support but also receiving help whenever anything goes wrong with reactive support.
What Exactly is Provided by an Application Support Team?
The first stage always involves analyzing the project code. In the process of this, it is determined how its modules interact, what is the best way to multiply/supplement them, etc. Then, information about performance problems and errors is collected through a special function. Based on this information, changes are made to the code. Also, if the need arises, new functionality and interfaces are added. All this must be agreed upon with the customer. The process discusses the need for various innovations and changes. At the end of the work, advice is provided regarding the use of new functions and an updated interface.
Application support is provided by a team who all have different specialties and can help deal with different problems that come up and advise in a diverse range of areas. These specializations are:
Application Support and Maintenance Manager
In overall charge of the team, it is their job to allocate the tasks to the person best suited to them alongside managing the budget.
End User Support Agent
Deals with the customer first, listening to their requests and reporting this to the team. They also gather information on problems and can help solve issues if they are simple and minor.
Developer Operations Engineer
Studies the problems that need solving and resolves the technical issues such as account resetting and fixes configurations with platform apps. More complex issues are validated and reported to the team.
Software Developer
Resolves much more complex issues at the code level when required. Handles third-party site integration and databases to support your IT network better.
Also Read: Software Developer Vs Software Engineer: A Comprehensive Comparison
Test Engineer
Check the applications to make sure issues were resolved correctly and recorded. Provides proactive support by validating newly introduced app functions.
As you can see application support is provided by a diverse team who can deal with a wide scope of support activities.
In-house or Outsourced Support
Application support can be provided in two ways that can be blurred together to provide mixed support if preferred. In-house support gives the application team complete control and oversight of your IT infrastructure for constant guidance and help. Outsourced support however can be requested when necessary and doesn’t give as much control to the application support team. However, they can’t view your systems in as much depth.
As you can imagine there are both advantages and disadvantages of both but you can choose what is the best fit for your business as the support can be flexible to mold itself around your needs.
Summary
Application support is a type of customer service that involves guidance and maintenance to keep information technology as efficient as possible and making sure customers use the best IT systems and applications for them with continuing upgrades to make sure the systems are always up-to-date. This is so important in business today and choosing the right support can make or break any company. It is one of the reasons why Temok managed cloud and dedicated servers provider delivers fully dedicated and technical support 24/7/365 to all their clients.