Invest in systems support

I have just taken on a new client whose system has been unsupported for the last year. I first spoke to them at the end of 2008 when they asked us to quote for supporting their business critical CRM system. However other more urgent issues got prioritised and it is only now that they have taken up my proposal.

It is all to easy to drop support for business systems now that we are all looking to reduce expenditure. However this can be a false economy. In many respects software support is like insurance - you don't need it until something serious happens.

People that know me will say that I am the first to recommend saving unnecessary costs. So I suggest asking yourself a number of key questions:

• How critical is the system?
• Can I manage without it?
• What would happen if I am without the system?
• How many users and processes would be effected?
• What is the cost of support compared to the cost of down time?
• Are we pushing the limits of what the system can do?
• Do I have good internal resource to manage the system?
• Does this resource have the right skills and time to apply them?
  

I would also suggest that there are a number of less relevant but still important questions such as:

• Did I use support last year? - that is no guarantee that you wont need it this year. You probably pay for fully comprehensive car insurance and are glad you didn't use it last year.
• Am I planning to replace the system soon? If it is currently a critical system that you can not do without then support should be maintained.
• What is the cheapest support option I can get? Cheap is not always cheerful.

There are certain situations where costs have to be dramatically reduced in a hurry and I am not talking about these. However, in most circumstances system support should be viewed as an investment to manage a business risk. Talk to your provider to get the most out of a support contract and they should respond by working with you to get the most out of your system.