How to Manage Your Managed Services?

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In this blog, I run weekly post under the Label '2019ERPTop5'. Every week I post five articles on a selected topic related to ERP.  To select five articles, I surf the net in search of relevant articles related to the topic. I read a minimum of ten articles before I select five articles to be in the lists. Out of the remaining five, if I did not like any article I discard it and remaining articles find their place in the section 'Additional Reading' at the end of each post. 

The topic for this week's post is on ERP Stabilization. I read some good articles on this topic. One writer wrote about the 'Dos and Don'ts' while selecting managed services partners, another one spoke of the ten traits for a support consultant. While reading them, I realized that I also have a lot to say on this issue. 

(You must augment the lessons given below by reading the above post as well)

I have already written another blog post on how Fresh Foods  went about selecting an AMS (Application Maintenance and Support) vendor to manage their ERP Applications

Here are a few points to be considered while deciding on a strategy to handle your ERP Support.

1. Two different streams of activities: As your ERP Implementation reach the end of the SI driven 'Hypercare' phase, and the product has stabilized, you will see that there are two different streams of ERP Stabilization activities. One is the regular support activities including issues tracking, user creation, access provisioning, period end support, data backup, patch application etc. These are more operational in nature and can be outsourced to a managed services vendor. Then there are activities that are tactical and strategic in nature that cannot be outsourced. You will need an internal team comprising of SMEs to drive these activities. These activities include implementation of new features in the application that can add value to the Organization, Integrating application with external entities like Banks, developing critical reports, rolling our the ERP application to new business units and departments, meeting the expectations of Senior Managers and department heads etc.
2. Need for an internal IT Team: Flowing from point one above, depending on the size of the Organization and its future rollout plans, it is important for you to maintain an internal IT Team. As mentioned in point one above, the value added activities cannot be outsourced to the managed services vendor. You have to maintain a team of SMEs to extend the ERP usage in your company.
3. Dedicated / Shared: For support for critical and niche applications, you might want the vendor to dedicate resources for you. For example, in one Company OTM (Transportation Management) and WMS were critical and they decided that they needed dedicated resources. This decision can be relooked, and resources moved to a shared pool,  once the applications stabilizes and the users become more comfortable with the applications.
4. Onsite / Offsite: There is a misconception that Onsite resources are more expensive than Offsite resources. For many companies, offsite resources turnout to be much more expensive than if the resources are placed onsite in your premises. However, as soon as the resources are onsite, your headache of managing personal relationships starts. 
5. Handling Attrition: The paradox is that if you do your job well and build a world class support, attrition becomes another challenge that you have to face. Your internal resources become experts in the application and you may have to manage the elevated expectations. Soon you will find that letting people go is a better approach than trying to retain them against their will and your comfort. The best approach is to recruit young fresh candidates and train them quickly on support related issues so that you can manage the show even if the key resources leave your Organization. Another advantage is that you can identify some 'gems' who has the right attitude and ability to quickly learn and they become assets to the company. One company had a policy of recruiting freshers from MBA Institutions and train every year and train them rigorously. That paid rich dividends. 

Handling ERP Support is not easy. Any decision taken after considering the above points will turnout to be a good decision.