It Application Software Business Service

With the rapid development of IT software industry, the application software market in China has changed from seller's market to buyer's market, and the competition has been focused on software service after software product functions, technology and price. Furthermore, the enterprises informationization in China is stepping into the stage of deepening application after large scale infrastructure construction, and customers are attaching greater importance to software maintenance service. Besides, for Europe and America software companies which have been in advanced stage of software industry, maintenance service is one of the main sources of total revenue. In China, however, the proportion of maintenance revenue is very low, comparing to that of Europe and America software companies.Therefore, it is an urgent task and big challenge for application software companies to enhance maintenance service ability to keep more valued customers.This thesis describes the current situation of the maintenance service of application software in China. It summarizes the existing problems and analyzes the reasons systematically from different aspects of cost, benefit and service management. Furthermore, based on the studying of theoretical research on service management by Parasuraman and Heskett, this thesis explains the inherent characteristic of software maintenance service and reveals the benefits for software companies. Besides, it proposes that the goal of maintenance service is delivering value to customers. With the successful practice of foreign companies, this thesis elaborates how to enhance maintenance service ability by building a competitive service system, including establishing service criterion, applying information technologies, building service team, optimizing service process, and monitoring service.