The accepted wisdom is that large-scale enterprise software solutions like CA PPM require skilled functional and technical resources. In my experience, most customers aren’t interested in spending too much of their time on an enterprise solution’s technical details or too much of their money on administrative costs. Rather, they rightfully focus on strategy initiatives, business process enhancements and portfolio delivery.
Application Management Services to the Rescue
I had the privilege of working as an AMS architect in EMEA. In doing so, I learned firsthand that AMS provides an extension of customers’ PMO teams, including many advantages such as:
How It Works
AMS provides customers with a full team of product experts (service manager, architect and consultant) for all issues and changes in their environments.
AMS architects (like me) are quickly able to develop a vision of a customer’s wants and needs as well as a view of all the “magic” that happens in the AMS technical background. Whenever possible, architects accommodate customer business requirements via smart usage of CA PPM’s out-of-the-box capabilities, applying best practices and developing less expensive customizations, especially since AMS customers have access to Global Delivery PWPs.
With AMS, all functional and technical details are managed by CA’s architect and consultants, so they are no longer a burden for the customer’s PMO. CA’s service manager supervises all approvals, SLAs, deliveries, escalations and reports. We also guide customers in building realistic roadmaps to the future.
But AMS is more than just having a team at your disposal—it’s a complete solution with 24/7 support that covers configuration and customization, too. Best of all, AMS offers many flexible working models, depending on the individual customer’s needs and requirements. It can be implemented for on-premise or SaaS solutions.
Just One Success Story of Many
In the first three years after a large multinational company adopted CA PPM, not much was deployed and the environment was heavily configured, which added complexity. The customer wanted to focus on business requirements, including several complex approval workflows and interfaces.
The customer had a very ambitious roadmap, but the company could not achieve it on its own. Once they adopted AMS, the roadmap was delivered, and unpredictable costs and lack of skilled resources weren’t issues any more.
For readers interested in more detail, contact your CA account manager or sales representative. I encourage you to participate in the best-in-class site, where you have access to your peers, events and support. You can also reach out to CA Services for information about CA PPM Release 15.2 upgrades/implementations, and individualized business outcome references and analysis. Feel free to post in the comments section of this blog or contact me directly via email and Twitter @aurora_ppm.