Managed Application Services: Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing a Provider

Managed Application Services: Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing a Provider

Services Should Help Drive Your Business Outcomes You rely on enterprise applications to help you run your business. That s why selecting the right Managed Application Services (MAS) Provider is so important. Partnering with a provider that is knowledgeable and capable of supporting your business processes providing functional, technical and operational assistance, and comprehensive business application lifecycle support will create the right alignment between your organization s strategy and the way application services are used to support it. But how do you know which provider is right for your company? What questions should you ask? To help you support a managed application services provider that can deliver the reliability and support you need, Velocity has created a Managed Application Service Provider Checklist covering these essential topics: Customer Experience Management Business Application Lifecycle Support Service Level Commitments Business Tools and Insight Infrastructure Management Managed Disaster Recovery and Business Resiliency Services Experience Relative to your Business Needs These questions, developed based on conversations with hundreds of companies conducting similar assessments, can help you make the best decision for your business. 2 Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider

What to Ask Potential MAS Providers Customer Experience Management Access to Customer Support What methods are available for the customer to contact customer support? Email, phone, a customer support portal? What are the hours of operation? Application Functional Support Is there a help desk to answer questions how to use features/functions of the application? How do you engage with the help desk? What are the hours of operation? Is there a limit to the number of questions you can ask? Application Technical Support Is there customer support to address technical issues with the application? What are the hours of operation? Application Operational Support Is there customer support to address application operational requirements, such as adding users in bulk or adding printers? Integrated Support Team Do functional, technical, operational support team members have the ability to collaborate to address issues, or are they separate call centers/organizations? Dedicated Customer Support Advocate Is someone named by the vendor to be a regular point of contact for ensuring the services meet your business needs? Customer Experience Lifecycle Management Process What type of framework and key performance indicators does the vendor have in place to monitor/manage the customer experience? Service Flexibility Does the vendor offer multiple levels of service that you can fit to your specific needs? Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider VelocityCloud.com 3

Business Application Lifecycle Support Custom Code, Interface, Report Retrofit to Upgrade Does the service include retrofitting custom code, interfaces, and reports of the new software version? Custom Code, Interface, Report Management Does the service include management of custom code, interfaces, and reports? Application Technical Upgrade Tasks, Cyclical Patches, and Bug Fixes Does the service include application of software patches and bug fixes? Application Testing Does the vendor support volume testing and pre-testing of data? Separate Development and Production Environments Does the vendor provide separate development and production application environments for the customer? Project Management Services Does the vendor have certified project managers who manage major change events with the application/services? Ability to Support Complementary Business Applications Can the vendor support many different types of software as part of its services, e.g. forms management software that connects to your human capital management software? Full Application Upgrades Does the service include implementation of major and minor application upgrades? Service Level Commitments Application Transaction Performance Can the vendor provide transparency/data into the performance of the application environment, e.g. transaction response time? System Availability What is the vendor s guarantee for application uptime? What are the penalties for falling outside the guarantee? 4 Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider

Support Response Time What time commitments are in place for responding to customer inquiries/issues? Defined Disaster Recovery Time/Point Objectives Should a catastrophic event occur with the systems, what are the committed recovery time and recovery point objectives? Service Level Reporting What type of service level reporting/transparency does the vendor offer? Is the information available in real-time? Business Process Tools/Insight Customer Support System Does the vendor offer an online facility for communicating with the vendor, such as submitting and reviewing the status of customer requests? Service Methodology Does the vendor employ best-practice standards and methodologies, such as ITIL? Change Management What service levels and tools are in place for monitoring changes to your system relative to your expectations? Security Management What tools are available to help you monitor and manage authorized users and the types of transactions they are conducting? Application Transaction Management Can the vendor provide insight into the volume/speed of transactions and where process bottlenecks may be occurring? Application Interfaces and Reports Library Does the vendor have an existing library of application interfaces and reports that can be customized to support your business needs? Infrastructure Management Cloud Environment What type of cloud environment does the vendor offer? Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider VelocityCloud.com 5

Systems Hardware and Maintenance Is the hardware and associated maintenance required to support the applications included in the service? Web Services Software and Management Are web services software and management part of the service? Relational Database Software and Management Is relational database software and management part of the service? Technology Redundancy What type of system redundancy is built into the technology architecture the vendor is providing? Communications and Single Sign-on What access methods (e.g. VPN) are available? Is single sign-on included? Wide Area Network Management Is wide area network management part of the service? SSAE 16 Audited Data Center Does the vendor meet SSAE 16 audit standards? What level of audit does the vendor undergo? Technology Refresh Is periodic refresh of the technology environment included in the service? System Monitoring What monitoring capabilities/tools does the vendor have in place? Performance Tuning What provisions does the service include to ensure systems are performing at required levels? Capacity Management Does the service include capacity planning? What is the vendor s ability to scale the service to meet your requirements? 6 Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider

Managed Disaster Recovery and Business Resiliency Services Business Application Resiliency What type of resiliency is built into the application architecture the vendor is providing? Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) What RPO and RTO come standard with the services? Can the vendor provide options? Managed Disaster Recovery Services Can the vendor offer managed disaster recovery as a standalone service for your on-premise applications? Experience Relevant to Your Business Needs Industry/Workflow Experience Does the vendor have experience working with other customers in your industry or who have similar workflows? Industry Compliance What types of compliance requirements can the vendor support? E.g. SSAE 16, HIPAA, etc. Application Experience What experience does the vendor have with the applications you need the vendor to support? Contracts Can the vendor offer multi-year contracts? A Managed Application Service provider has no small effect on your business. You need a partner that will deliver the right level of experience, support, tools and commitment to help you achieve your desired business outcomes. Fortunately, by asking the right questions you can select the right partner. Questions or comments on this checklist? Velocity invites you to email us at info@velocitycloud.com to discuss further. Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing an MAS Provider VelocityCloud.com 7

Velocity Technology Solutions, Inc. is a leader in enterprise and business application hosting services which are fully-managed and protected within a virtual private cloud. Velocity lowers operational costs, provides world-class customer experiences, and delivers application access at top levels of performance and availability. Velocity s expertise managing software 24/7, combined with its proprietary infrastructure design and cloud management platform, guarantee availability, security, and control over your enterprise software. Velocity is the trusted partner for rapidly deploying application software into a secure and resilient virtual private cloud. Velocity is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina with facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia. Velocity is a portfolio company of Silver Lake Sumeru, a global leader in private equity investments in growth-oriented technology and technology-enabled companies. Velocity Technology Solutions 1901 Roxborough Road, 4th Floor Charlotte, NC 28211 Phone: 888.430.9252 info@velocitycloud.com VelocityCloud.com Velocity and the Velocity logo are registered trademarks of Velocity Technology Solutions, Inc. 2015 Velocity Technology Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 070615MASCK