This section contains definitions for a number of the
terms used throughout SupportStep. Different companies may use different
terms to refer to the same thing. The purpose of this section is to describe
how the terms are used in SupportStep.
Application support: This refers to the general
process of supporting internal business applications. It may also be called
production support, systems support, or just support. (If your company sells
software or services, you may have external customers as well. The support
of the external customers that use software that your company sells does not
fall under the heading of application support. Application support refers to
internal applications only.)
Business applications (or just applications):
These are computer systems that facilitate or automate one or more business
processes. These systems can be developed internally, developed with third
party resources, or they can be packaged solutions. However, they have a
direct connection back to business processes that would otherwise be done
manually. For instance, General Ledger Systems, Billing Systems, Marketing
Systems, Inventory Systems, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Systems are all business applications. Computer servers, databases, and
facilities are not considered computer applications since they are not
associated with specific business processes. They are more typically
considered a part of the IT infrastructure since they enable people and
applications to perform their functions better. However, they do not
automate a business process by themselves.
Clients: Everyone has customers, and in some
companies they are called by different names. In SupportStep, the term
"customers" refers to the external customers who purchase the products and
services your company produces. SupportStep uses the term "business client"
or "client" to refer to the internal customers that are the direct
beneficiaries of the services provided by the support team.
Support: The term "support" is the generic name
being used to describe the care and feeding of production applications,
tools, systems, and processes. There are other terms that might be used in
your company, such as "operations", "maintenance” and "baseline." The term
"support" is used in SupportStep.
Support Analyst: This term is used to describe
the person or persons responsible for supporting a particular application.
The primary support person for an application is called the Primary Support
Analyst. The backup is called the Backup Support Analyst. It is possible
(and likely) that a person could be the Primary Support Analyst on one or
more applications and be a backup on others.
