Enterprises have significant investments in IT assets to execute their business and derive appropriate returns. These investments are made over a period of time and spread across the technology spectrum; spanning from legacy platforms to client-server system to more contemporary multi-tier browser-based systems.
 Transition Management:

Altech has a well-defined Transition Management Methodology to ensure business continuity and at the same time reduce the Total Cost of Ownership.  Our transition methodology steps through:

• Knowledge Acquisition
• Shadowing & Joint Operation
• Onsite Support & Offshore Transfer
• Offshore Stabilization
• Steady State
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

Knowledge Acquisition: 

The purpose of this phase is to acquire knowledge of the existing system, study the relevant technical documentation of the system, and understand the current processes and methodologies used to support the database environment. 

This involves studying the following aspects of the existing system:

• Process/data flow of the system
• Descriptions of the various transactions
• Existing technology and future technology direction
• Application interfaces
• Operating environment
• Documentation standards
• System standards
• Database structures
• Environment maintenance process
• Current inter-group coordination
• Configuration/change management procedures
• Acceptance procedures
• Release management procedures
• Escalation procedures
• Existing tools

The deliverable for this phase is a Knowledge Transfer document that will be reviewed by the Customer’s existing support team.

Shadowing and Joint Operations

After the knowledge acquisition phase, the offshore resource will ensure that the infrastructure is in place. Any customization / configuration (For Example Configuring the instance of the database client to ensure that it is pointing to the right target systems) of the software required will be done by the offshore resource . Under the guidance of the current support team at the customer site, Onsite/Offsite team members will participate in the support process for classifying the priority of call tickets, and being assigned call tickets. The onsite and the offshore resources will work together for resolution of the trouble tickets, as part of joint operations as well as shadowing operations. The activities for this phase consist of the following:

• Offshore & Offsite Environment setup
• Altech begins shadowing activities of their counterparts in the Customer site
• Onsite team members are introduced to customer and participate (passively) at project related meetings
• Altech is provided 'hands on training' on applications
• Altech handles issues under the supervision of the current team
  • Triage of call tickets
• The customer maintains and tracks metrics such as
  • Number of calls resolved independently
  • Number of calls resolved with assistance by current team
  • Number and complexity of calls that were unable to be resolved by Altech
• Altech maintains and tracks metrics
  • Number of calls resolved independently
  • Number of calls resolved with assistance by current team
  • Number of recurring problems
• Refinement of processes
• Shadowing and Joint Operation Gate Review
  • Metric availability and review
  • Customer SME's to certify comfort level and readiness of Altech’s ability to provide the required support services

Note:

• It is proposed that prioritization of Call Tickets is taken up in this phase to enable an early familiarization with this critical process step
• Process refinements, as an activity, has been introduced to improve upon the processes based on joint operations phase

Onsite Support and Offshore Transfer

Altech’s Offshore resources will take on the responsibility of application support and it is expected that Altech’s team in Onsite/Offsite and Customer’s team in Onsite will provide support to the offshore resource, as required.

• Onsite Coordinators provide 'triage' on call tickets
• Altech takes on responsibility of application support, under the guidance of existing team
• Finalize SLA for Steady State
• Onsite Support and Offsite Transfer Gate Review
  • Metric identifying total # of calls handled independently by IndSource vs. total # of calls
  • Updated Knowledge Transfer document

Offsite/Offshore Stabilization  

Customer’s current Support team will continue to support the Offsite / offshore team, on need basis, to achieve stabilization of the support process and establishing a firm handshake between the two teams. But by this stage the size of the Customer’s current support team may be reduced in view of the reduced workload.

• Altech Offshore takes responsibility for application support under the guidance of Onsite team
• Customer’s current support personnel available for support if necessary
• Capture and analysis of metrics by Altech
• Update of Knowledge Transfer Document whenever required
• Identification of contents and creation of knowledge repository
• Offsite stabilization Gate Review
• Metrics Review

 Note: The contents of the knowledge repository will be discussed with the Customer’s current support team and finalized

 Steady State

 Customer’s current Support team will be ramped down and Altech’s Offsite with assistance from Altech’s Offshore team will support the application for the time coverage and scope of work signed up for.

 Application Maintenance:

Altech has a well-defined and transparent application maintenance process which allows effective capture, reporting and resolution of maintenance requests. This process supports a distributed delivery environment wherein work responsibilities can be effectively divided between the various organizations depending on the criticality of the requests. Each of these activities can be governed and monitored by SLA frame work:

• Incidents management (Web based tool like JIRA to ensure complete transparency across customer’s and Altech teams)
• Work around (Sometimes symptoms have to be arrested to ensure business continuity and resolution of the root cause might involve a major enhancement or removing technological obsolescence)
• Resolution  (Permanent solution for the incidents)
• Root cause analysis  (Analysis ensures proactive approach to maintenance, avoiding future problems)

Application Support involves various activities such as:

1. Help Desk Support
2. Operations Support
3. Break-Fix Support
4. Enhancements Support
5. Migration

Altech has its expertise in Break-Fix, Enhancements and Migration and works with partners and/or customer’s resident IT teams to handle help desk and Operations support activities.

The benefits of this structured management of applications result in

• Reduction in Total cost of ownership
• Drive continuous improvements in quality of services
• Improve applications stability
• Reduce support costs

With our RightSource approach of delivering from

• Onsite
• Offsite
• Offshore
• Or a Hybrid model,

we ensure a coverage of 24x7 is provided based on your SLA requirements