As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, software solutions don’t just fly off the shelves and into our businesses with little resistance.
Software maintenance, however, can help you ensure you’re using your system as effectively as possible, and continually improve on timeliness, ROI, and more.
There are 4 types of maintenance you can use to refine the efficiency of software.
1. Corrective Maintenance
This is the most common form of maintenance, and is focused on addressing bugs, faults or other problems found within your software.
Issues addressed with corrective maintenance are usually design, logic or coding errors that have appeared unexpectedly and will need to be resolved by the software provider.
2. Adaptive Maintenance
Adaptive maintenance is about adjusting your software to suit the conditions of the environment and business it’s operating in.
This means regularly testing and customising your software build to ensure it is going to effectively support operational workflows and KPIs as they evolve with your business.
3. Perfective Maintenance
This maintenance is focused on enhancing your software so you can invite even more efficiency, organisation, timeliness and other benefits to your business.
Perfective maintenance is about the additional features, tools and integrations that can be introduced to make workflows and processes more effective.
4. Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance ensures the stability and scalability of software through regular updates to technology and functionality.
Software providers will regularly release updates as part of preventative maintenance. It’s important to ensure you’re running them as required.
How do I incorporate maintenance into my business workflows?
To be most effective, maintenance needs to be occurring regularly and consistently.
Try incorporating these tasks into your weekly to-do list to stay on track:
1. Record and notify your software provider of unexpected errors.
These problems are usually due to coding or design errors, and can only be properly addressed and resolved by a software developer.
Corrective maintenance is about resolving issues ASAP, which is why when you discover an error, you need to contact your provider and get them onto it.
Even if it’s something you think you can fix, it’s important to still contact your provider’s customer assistance team so they can walk you through it and avoid further problems.
2. Make sure your software is up to date.
Get your admin team to check that all of your business systems are running with the latest software release from your provider.
This means software on desktop computers, applications on tablets and smartphones, and wherever else you're using the system.
3. Ask your team how the software is going and if they have any input.
Whether it’s a dedicated time in your weekly meeting, or a regular message you’re sending your group chat, it’s important to ask how your team is finding the software.
Creating this space for staff to highlight where the software may not be fitting effectively into workflows can determine the focus of adaptive maintenance.
It also invites employees to contribute ideas they may have about other uses for the software’s features or tools, which will help shape perfective maintenance processes.
Where do I start with adaptive and perfective maintenance processes?
You call us! Our team of specialists at Modus Operandi are experts in helping tradies and contractors optimise the use of software in their businesses.
We’re experts in a range of software solutions, from simPRO and ServiceM8, to GroundPlan and VoIPStudio, and more.
You can learn more about us here, or have a chat with us about your needs on 1300 446 682.