Standardize your existing processes and methodology and deliver quality and reliable services uniformly and repeatedly.

Application Managed Services practice at Tavant
We follow a systematic methodology for our AMS execution called T³ (Tavant Transition and Transformation). Our AMS practice will include applications which were developed by Tavant as well as applications which were transitioned to Tavant for maintenance.

Tavant's goal is to build a consistent AMS practice, which would standardize the methodology and processes. This is required to deliver quality and reliable services uniformly and repeatedly.

The diagram below gives a brief insight into the Lifecycle of AMS projects in Tavant Technologies:

Life Cycle of AMS projects - Transition
The Transition phase is the make-or-break phase of AMS projects. It involves the transfer of in-scope activities from current customer delivery organization structure to the new shared model of delivery, without impacting the customer business. It involves a lot of knowledge transfer and application transition, setting up infrastructure/connectivity for the customer as well as Tavant. Usually 20-30% of the offshore delivery team travel to customer location for 2-3 months for the knowledge transfer process. This is also an expensive phase involving customer and Tavant teams working in parallel and onsite travel expenses as well as infrastructure/connectivity issues. All major challenges and risks faced during the Transition phase can be overcome by following the T 3 processes and proper planning.

Contract Engagement Phase:
This phase will be executed mainly by the customer facing team of Tavant and it involves several stages such as:

• Selling Offshore Delivery, Frontline Business Development
• Due Diligence - Interview Stakeholders
• Quantitative Application Assessment
• Scope Definition &Vision Alignment
• Contract Development

Transition Phase:
Overall Transition planning Phase:
The overall transition planning phase is the joint responsibility of the customer and Tavant and it involves several steps such as:

• Conduct application survey
• Conduct application evaluation
• Build staffing model
• Prioritize applications for Transition and create Master Transition list
• Plan for application transition schedule
• Build application transition review teams
• Identify various roles and their responsibilities during transition
• Define various Phase End Gates, i.e. deliverables and their reviews
• Plan for the necessary infrastructure and connectivity (I&C). All the necessary I%C must be completed latest by the midpoint of Mentored Perform Phase

The following diagram depicts the Lifecycle of the Transition phase of the AMS projects:

Application Detail Plan Phase:
The application detail plan phase is mostly the responsibility of Tavant. The customer reviews the deliverables and approval for phase completion. This phase involves several stages such as:

• Identify the type of support services required for the application
• Develop an application training plan which is to be followed in the next 2 phases
• Implement agreed to support processes
• Begin preparation and validation of infrastructure and connectivity
• Establish framework and the team to progress and monitor the transaction of the application to Tavant's remote location
• Start developing Application Information Document (AID)
• Start developing Application Support Control Plan (ASCP)
• Plan for upcoming releases site during the transition period

Knowledge Acquisition Phase:
During this phase, the performance of the Tavant team is quantifiably measured. The results during the end of the phase are compared with the goal for phase completion. E.g - Tavant team will handle 20% of the service requests individually on Week 5 of this phase. This phase involves the following stages:

• Around 30% of the Tavant project team (both US and India ) travel to customer's location for Knowledge Transfer
• Customer's staff act in a lead and guide role
• Application specific training covering application, tools, architecture/design and support processes
• AID and ASCP is updated as KT progresses

Mentored Perform Phase:
Performance of Tavant team is quantifiably measured. The results during the end of the phase are compared with the goal for phase completion. E.g. - Tavant team will handle 50% of the service request individually on Week 5 of this phase, 30 % with Customer assistance etc. Some of the key stages of this phase are:

• Around 25% of the Tavant India team return back in phases to mentor the remaining Tavant India support staff
• Customer staff will play the primary role but will delegate responsibilities to the Tavant staff
• Tavant staff is to perform activities such as application enhancement, bug fixes and assist customer staff in production support activities
• The support activities are performed at both India and the US
• All the required infrastructure and connectivity are up and running

Parallel Production Phase:
Tavant will take primary responsibility of supporting the application. However customer staff will be available to assist Tavant whenever required. Some of the key stages are:

• AID, ASCP completed and delivered to the customer
• Finalize service level agreements (SLAs), Communication plan and escalation path
• Measurement and margin goals are set for every week
• All offshore resources are in India by the second week of this phase
• Tavant starts providing program and project management activities in parallel with customer management team

Steady State:
After successful of completion of all the goals and deliverables of Parallel Phase, the application "Cuts Over" and moves to "Steady State" mode. Tavant is responsible for all the Development & Maintenance needs of the application. Customer Management team will help, monitor and review the status on a periodic basis. Some of the stages of this phase are:

• Tavant will be responsible for the Project-Program management
• This phase involves a mix of Tavant and Customer resources
• Tavant may not support some of the functions like Deployment, Production environment, DBA activities etc.
• This phase involves the following
  • Workflow management - Service request management system
  • Release management
  • Production support - Level I & II
  • Metrics and Quantitative process management and reporting
  • SLA adherence and helpdesk
  • Continuous process improvement (Transformation)