Application Support & DevOps

We provide full, ongoing third-line custom application support tailored to meet individual client requirements, including remote and on-site assistance.

Here at Ballard Chalmers, the engineers that wrote the software, support the systems once they are live. That means fully qualified and experienced engineers do the support, not help desk staff.

SOME OF OUR Application Support & DevOps ENGAGEMENTS

HOW BALLARD CHALMERS CAN HELP YOU WITH APPLICATION SUPPORT

We can provide custom software support for the systems that we develop and for your existing or legacy systems. Our expert software engineers offer third-line support. Providing you with deep expert support to work alongside your in-house team as a seamless extension.

Once the Service Level Agreement (SLA) is finalised, our dedicated in-house UK support team will be available to help you over the phone or by email, weekdays from 9 AM to 5.30 PM.

You will have an assigned Support Manager to assist you, and direct access to technicians when needed. This gives you consistent and dedicated support to keep your application running smoothly and in optimum shape.

Having invested in building custom software, keeping it running smoothly is vital and worth every penny. With a support package, you get full, uninterrupted help for any issues or queries that might crop up.

We can provide support for:

- Modern Azure applications
- .NET Systems
- SQL Server
- Xamarin Applications
- SharePoint Server
- BizTalk Server
- The Power Platform
- Bespoke Enterprise Software
- Legacy Systems

Since March 2018, they have been supporting and developing our product and we have already made huge advancements in a relatively short time. The care and attention that is applied to the work they have done, the ability to resolve issues quickly, first rate communication and outstanding approach to project management all contribute to the success.

Managing Director – AppCan

This gives us continuity at a reasonable cost and maintains the relationship with Geoff and the Ballard Chalmers team. It’s our software and we have the flexibility to add enhancements when we want, and we are well supported by Ballard Chalmers.

Director of Development – Ipes

If we find a bug in the product, we’re able to speak directly with the developers to correct issues quickly and easily. In our prior partnership, we didn’t have direct contact with developers, so that was a huge improvement in this engagement. It helped us complete tasks more quickly.

Director of Operations – The Care Database

Richard has been, and continues to be, a fantastic help with support to our client. He always takes the time to explain things as clearly as the situation allows and is very quick to fix problems when asked. I really appreciate all his help.

Manager – Mason Zimbler

We have been using Ballard Chalmers for support of our SharePoint intranet for over three years now and the level of service has been outstanding. They have also developed a number of bespoke applications for us. The solutions they have delivered have been reliable and solid and we have very rarely had to re-visit them. I find it difficult to find any criticism of the service they provide.

Application Support Engineer – Tokyo Electron

I’ve worked with a number of external companies with regards to support and development, all of whom have been professional, but I can honestly say that Ballard Chalmers have delivered their service to the highest standard of them all.

IT Program Manager – Plastic Logic

I’ve always had a good experience with them. They provide good support, and recently provided us with the ability to deploy developments weekly.

Project Manager – OVO Energy

They are integrated into our work communications. We have weekly phone meetings with the project manager and the developers, and it’s easy to email or message team members directly. They have their own support portal, but we can run through the budget, admin-related tasks, design specifications, guidance, or other criteria. Otherwise, they manage their internal processes.

Project Manager – OVO Energy

I have used Ballard Chalmers for website development, training and support in SharePoint. There’s no hard sell and within the terms of our contract, they’ve always got back to me with the information and support I’ve needed when I needed it which makes them very easy to deal with.

IS Manager – World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO)

Helpful and highly knowledgeable. Supported many of our systems for several years and continue to do so.

IT Network Supervisor – The College of Richard Collyer

Application Support & DevOps Case Studies

Queen Victoria Hospital

Evo Group

UK Member Association

Tokyo Electron

Square Marble Technology

OVO Energy

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

AppCan – Web Application

UK Trade Association Academy

Y.CO

Royal National Lifeboat Institution

OUR APPLICATION SUPPORT INCLUDES:

At Ballard Chalmers, we consider regular maintenance to be an integral part of the overall software application development cycle but it also covers all post-deployment emergencies.

Our ongoing support service is designed to be flexible and uncomplicated, covering all the technologies in our portfolio. Support is managed by our Service Delivery Manager and Assistant utilizing an online ticketing system, with registered client contacts authorised to raise support tickets.

Support is typically pre-purchased in quarterly blocks of 25, 50, 100, 250 or more hours depending on individual requirements and is called off as it is used up and topped up when the hours run out. Support hours do not lapse and can be used at any time. Our response times are governed by SLAs based on the severity/category of the support request.

UK-based engineers
Dedicated support team
Upgrades & patches
Data bottleneck reduction
Microsoft Gold Partner expertise

Troubleshooting & root cause analysis
Fast fixes
Disaster recovery strategy
Help & advice
Remote or onsite support

WHY YOU NEED APPLICATION SUPPORT

Keeping your enterprise software effective is essential to avoid costly disruptions. Your applications are critical for productivity, and outages or bugs can have far-reaching effects.

Maintaining applications in an optimum condition can be complex, and hard to support internally, that’s why many companies choose the cost-effective method of outsourcing to us for software application support.

Common benefits from outsourcing software application support:

Increase products lifetime
Free up in-house resources for new software development
Avoid in-house time-wastage on legacy systems
Increase company productivity with reduced slows and bugs

Without a robust application support strategy, you could risk:

Needing costly repairs
Reduced productivity from slows
Reputational damage from outages
Business continuity disruption
Compromised effectiveness
Disrupted routine caused by emergencies

Application Support can be used for all purposes, including:

Bug fixing
Updates
Strategy & planning
Informal mentoring & consultancy
Routine maintenance
Background system maintenance
Database maintenance and analysis
Rolling data back or merging data from previous versions, when needed

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU WITH DEV OPS

The key to an effective DevOps process is that the developers are focussed on the ongoing running of an application.

We plan for the live running of our applications from the very earliest inception stages of development and automate as much of the testing and deployment as possible.

We can build scalable and stable applications for you using techniques like Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), requirements agreed as human-readable automated acceptance tests and unit testing.

Our DevOps Methodologies

Unit Testing

Applying quality assurance from the first lines of code

Our code is written with a high coverage of testing to ensure that the code is delivering what is expected of it. This allows a very high degree of confidence that changes made to one area of the application will not cause a bug further down the line. We make use of frameworks such as NUnit, Microsoft Unit Test Framework and NFluent.

Automated Acceptance Tests

Creating human readable UI tests

Acceptance tests are written in the Gherkin language so they are easily understood by all users. These tests are supported with Specflow and Selenium to create a set of coded UI tests that perform the same actions as the user would themselves and confirms that the application works from the front-end as well as from the code itself.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment

Increasing the speed from keyboard to running application

Azure DevOps is used to build code from the first check-in, compile it to a deployable format, and then deploy that code to the appropriate servers and serverless services in Azure. Unit tests and acceptance tests are automatically run as part of the deployment to the test environment so we can also be confident that changes made have not broken any functionality.

Why Ballard Chalmers

Ballard Chalmers specialists will work with you and your team to maintain, support and enhance your custom software both efficiently and cost-effectively. A vital requirement for business continuity, effectiveness and productivity.

HERITAGE

We were established in 2005, though our heritage is much longer. We have decades of industry experience used to bring you the right solution in every support ticket.

EXPERTISE

As software engineers, we are technical problem solvers. We bring that expertise to you in every support ticket so your team don’t have to worry.

MICROSOFT GOLD PARTNERS

Only the top 1% of Microsoft Partners have attained Gold Microsoft competencies demonstrating best in class — we have five.

EXPERIENCE

We have a long track record of successfully supporting both SMP and enterprise systems. Your support tickets don’t run out, our experience is always available to you.