Why Let Us Implement Administration?
- Reduce Risk
By choosing to manage your own HP ALM environment internally, you gain a new level of risks. A typical company does not deploy dedicated resources to solving problems that arise using ALM software. Most companies simply utilize the HP support portal for all of their issues. This is a slow process, and often the workarounds provided by HP are not the same quality as a consultant in the industry can provide. Do not expose yourselves to excessive wait time and risks by handling support internally.
- Managing problems
When handling problems internally, often times the solution will be to wait for a new patch, or to workaround the issue and ignore it. This is a massive flaw in almost every company's ALM maintenance schedule when done internally. When a problem is simply swept under the rug, it often generates a multitude of new problems down the road, especially when you least expect it. A single problem can lead to dozens of future issues and the cost of fixing those problems in the future can be substantial compared to fixing the problem as it arises. Utilize our team of engineers and consultants to stop the problems immediately when they occur.
- Support that is unavailable internally
Internal support can work great at first. There will be few issues and small issues can be ignored until later. But, when there is a production breaking issue often times internal support lacks the necessary knowledge to solve the problem. Relaying this information to HP support directly can cause delays and downed production time. When you rely on an external company to provide support, you can be assured that the engineers and consultants who assist you will not only be dedicated to the ticket 100% but they also have many years of industry experience which allows them to tackle even the toughest of problems. Let a specialized company handle your ALM technical issues.
- Free up internal resources
When utilizing internal resources to do ALM Admin/support, that person or group is typically not specialized in ALM. Too often we see IT professionals handling ALM who have little to no industry experience using the application. Or, we see QA teams or Project Managers in charge of making ALM work for their projects. This leads to a lack of enterprise reporting, little process, and can be expensive as users transfer between projects. Even dedicated ALM admins are typically not 5+ year experiences consultants/engineers in the product. When you decide to leverage outsourced ALM Administration, you not only free up your internal employee to utilize them in their area of expertise, but you gain a team of industry experts to solve all your ALM issues.
- Access to expert consultants
Our Engineers and Consultants who work with ALM are industry experts. We only hire Consultants who have a handful of years of experience, they have been through every possible scenario when it comes to ALM. These are the tip top of the industry when it comes to providing support for ALM. Customer feedback has encouraged this model, and enjoy having dedicated resources at their disposal.
- Divert company focus
Nobody has the skillset to be competent in their daily tasks AND be an ALM expert. It is impractical to ask that of somebody because ALM is such a vast piece of software. Diverting the problems that arise in ALM to a dedicated external support team is leaps and bounds more efficient and keeps employees focused on their projects. Don’t let ALM issues bottleneck your project, this is the #1 way that employees lose focus day to day if small issues are always arising and are not being handled in a timely manner.
- Reduce operating costs
Reduce operating costs by letting an external team handle ALM issues. When you dedicate administration and support to to a team, you do not have to worry about hiring an ALM support expert. An ALM expert will cost an average of $125,000 for a direct hire W2 (The Ladders, 2015). There are costs of 401k, payroll taxes, vacation and benefits which usually run about 18% of the employee's salary (www.staff.com) bringing the true cost to $150,000+. Unfortunately, most ALM positions are filled by staffing agencies which charge a fee of 30 per hour bringing that cost up to $185000+ for a 1 year contract. This is a fixed cost where the company is going to pay that fee whether ALM Administration or Support work is done or not. Then there are the retention costs of employees or contractors. With outsourced HP ALM Administration we have an army of vetted ALM consultants waiting to support your administrator and support needs. We have you covered as issues arise.
These are some of the top reasons to outsource your HP ALM Administration and Support needs. The benefits of choosing to do so are outstanding.
Benefits of Utilizing Our Resources
- Access to the latest solutions/knowledge
We provide the most up to date knowledge and best practices when it comes to ALM solutions. We have teams dedicated to using the tool, so when any issues arises we are first to know and first to find a solution whether it is on our own or working with HP engineers. We provide administration and support that is truly ahead of all our competitors.
- Cost savings
The cost savings of choosing to use an external company for support is phenomenal. You do not have any of the employee overhead and simply pay us an hourly rate to manage it all. We have such in depth knowledge of ALM that we can provide the best administration that would otherwise cost your company a very expensive salaried employee. Since we pull knowledge from a pool of ALM consultants you will always have the industry best solutions.
- High quality US based staff
All of our staff is US based located in Seattle, WA. We do remote work as well as onsite work when needed as long as travel expenses are reimbursed. We NEVER outsource any of our work to save on costs or fill schedules. We believe this comprises the quality of our ALM Practice.
- Flexibility
As noted above, we have many ALM consultants who we assign to administration and support work when they are not working with another client. Even if they are tied up with a client, we utilize an internal support ticket system so every problem you encounter is seen by countless consultants/engineers. This way, we can find the most efficient solution to meet your needs.
- Burden lift off current employees
When you decide to manage administration and support of ALM externally, you lift a tremendous burden off current employees. Most companies have their ALM Admin working on other applications as well as ALM, or a QA lead who works as an admin part-time. This is stressful for them and leads to an often overlooked cost of switching tasks. Ultimately, the output is inefficient work. Avoid this pitfall by utilizing Bienabee’s outsourcing solution of ALM Administration.
As you can see, the benefits of utilizing our company can provide value from a cost perspective as well as an immense amount of knowledge by leveraging a team approach. Aside from cost savings and flexible knowledge, your organization then lifts the burden and struggle of your current employees so they can work on tasks they have expertise in.
Services That We Provide
- Bronze -
Our bronze Administration Package offers an SLA of 24 hours for a tier 1 consultant, Monday through Friday 8-5pm Pacific. If no tier 1 consultant is available then a tier 2 consultant will be assigned to the ticket. This allows for flexible administration support for clients who don’t have immediate need for expedited delivery of basic ALM tasks. The bucket of hours is set at 150 hours per quarter with the option to purchase more hours before the quarter ends based on needs. See the Task Matrix for supported activities.
- Silver -
The Silver Administration Package offers an SLA of 4 hours for a tier 2 consultant, M-F 7-7pm Pacific. Our tier 2 consultants generally range from 3-5 years of hands on ALM expertise however if a tier 2 consultant is not available the ticket will be escalated to a tier 3 consultant. The bucket of hours is set to 150 hours per quarter. See the Task Matrix for supported activities.
- Gold/Platinum -
The Gold Administration Package offers an SLA of 1 hour for a tier 3 consultant. These consultants are the best of the best and have 5+ years of expertise in the art of managing ALM projects to industry best practices. The bucket of hours is set to 150 hours per quarter with the option to purchase more hours as needed. See the Task Matrix for supported activities.
Each hour is billed in 15 minute increments.
