In the fast-paced world of business, keeping up with technological advancements is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. But simply investing in modern technology is not enough to guarantee success. As user experience becomes crucial, businesses need to find ways to optimize technology spend and uncover new ways to improve employee productivity and satisfaction. This is where Application Management Services (AMS) come into play.
Current economic conditions are forcing CXOs to extract more value, more productivity, more scalability, and more efficiencies from core business applications while facing the pressure of cost reductions, finding, and retaining qualified technology resources and preventing cyber and bad actor attacks. These are the drivers and reasons why CXOs need to turn to qualified Application Management Service Provider companies for answers to these challenges.
By outsourcing the management of its applications, companies can focus on core competencies while allowing experts to handle the day-to-day maintenance and support of its main business applications. In this article, we will delve into the various challenges faced by businesses and explore the vital role AMS can play in enhancing employee productivity, customer satisfaction, cost efficiency, and overall business results.
Modern Enterprise Application Challenges
Enterprise applications have become the backbone of today’s organizations, providing critical functionality for a wide range of business processes. However, many application management-related obstacles hinder employee productivity. These include:
1. Legacy Systems
Legacy systems pose a significant challenge to employee efficiency as they have complex user interfaces and often require manual time-consuming information processing steps outside of the system. Since they lack the capabilities to integrate with modern applications, this can lead to unsatisfactory user experience and sluggish workflows. Employees may need to switch between multiple systems, resulting in inefficiencies and reduced productivity. Legacy systems also demand specialized skills to maintain, which can be a challenge to find, train, and retain.
2. Mediocre User Interfaces
Inadequately designed user interfaces impede productivity by making it difficult for employees to navigate and leverage applications effectively. Employees may struggle to find the information they need, resulting in wasted time and frustration. Moreover, a poorly designed interface can lead to errors and mistakes that can further slow down operations and diminish efficiency.
3. Poor App Health and Stability
When applications are not properly maintained and routinely updated, they become susceptible to data inaccuracies, security risks, and downtime, which in turn disrupts workflows and impacts productivity. Employees may need to wait for the application to come back online resulting in less efficiency, data quality issues, and a waste of valuable time and resources. Moreover, mission-critical applications that are down can significantly affect business operations, leading to lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.
4. Outdated Features
Applications that lack modern features and functionality can slow down day-to-day operations while causing dissatisfaction, transaction integrity issues, and irritation. Employees may need to overcome limitations or opt for manual workarounds, leading to further inefficiencies. When applications don’t meet the need of tech-savvy users, the result is reduced job satisfaction.
5. High Operational Costs
The operational costs associated with managing and maintaining enterprise applications are another deterrent that affects employee workflow. This might compel businesses to cut back on investments in training, development, and other critical areas, all of which can cause significant workforce resentment. Additionally, the high cost of licenses, hardware, and infrastructure can make it difficult to upgrade or replace applications, creating a further decline in productivity.
Elevating Employee Productivity with an Experienced AMS Provider
Applications Management Services are a cost-effective remedy to the above-mentioned challenges and enable numerous benefits that help ensure organizations are meeting employee expectations. Let’s dive into the details of how AMS providers can improve workforce productivity, and satisfaction and act as a catalyst for addressing business stakeholder value, technical debt reduction, and ROI.
1. Continuous Improvement
AMS providers focus on continuously increasing business and customer application performance and functionality. An outsourced provider proactively monitors and maintains the application landscape to identify and fix issues before they affect productivity. AMS providers also work on recognizing areas for business process automation and workflow improvement and upgrading the applications accordingly. This results in a seamless user experience and heightened proficiency which ultimately leads to better throughput across the organization.
2. Advanced Features
AMS partners ensure that enterprise applications are up-to-date and equipped with the latest and greatest features and functionality. New components and available upgrades make the applications more user-friendly, secure, and intuitive, which significantly improves the employee experience. Enhanced applications also support automating routine tasks to free up employee bandwidth, allowing them to focus on more critical business priorities.
3. Better User Experience
An AMS partner can custom-design user interfaces that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also offer simplified navigation for employees to find what they need in an expedited manner. A well-built user interface that is intuitive and seamless to use can substantially improve employee satisfaction and reduce the time it takes to complete tasks. Higher-quality applications also result in a better user experience and more productive business interactions with internal and external stakeholders.
4. High Application Availability
Leveraging a qualified AMS provider is a great way to ensure applications are performing at optimal levels; have the latest security and vulnerability protection; and remain highly available for use. Discovering issues to minimize downtime and process inefficiencies are formative in enhancing the employee experience. With AMS, businesses can ensure that applications are always available and accessible, enabling employees to do their jobs efficiently to meet individual, team, and organization-wide goals.
5. Stronger Security
Cyber threats are a major concern for businesses today as data breaches can have severe consequences. An AMS provider is well equipped to ensure applications are fully secure and protected from cyber threats, which minimizes the risk of breaches and other incidents. By providing stronger protection measures like upgrades, patches, and security-compliant configurations, AMS providers can help companies safeguard their applications and important information. This gives employees peace of mind and allows them to focus on their work, which eventually translates to increased employee satisfaction.
Conclusion
The success of any organization heavily relies on the productivity and satisfaction of its employees. While investing in modern applications is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in the fast-paced business world, it’s not enough. There is a pressing need to ensure these applications continue to meet the emerging needs of the modern workforce.
By engaging the management, maintenance, and enhancement services of a qualified Application Management Service provider, companies can focus on core competencies and ensure their employees enjoy high levels of application availability, scalability, usability, security, and job satisfaction.
Don’t let your complex and ever-evolving applications drain valuable company time and resources. Take the right step towards achieving top business goals with confidence! Partner with an Application Management Service Provider, like Synoptek, today to achieve high levels of productivity, scalability, and ultimately, business value.
Original Article posted on IT Business Net
About the Author
David Tinucci serves as Synoptek's Practice Director of Growth Services. With ample IT experience in service delivery, operational execution, managed service planning and execution, software development and strategic organizational planning, Tinucci has prove abilities in building and leading high-quality, responsive, SLA-driven business units of significant size and scope in the areas of infrastructure/AMS and customer support.