Purpose and Management

Production support assists business areas across an organisation after core systems or enhancements go live, such as IT service desk tasks, system maintenance, and minor changes from service requests. It maintains smooth operations, resolves incidents, improves IT service performance, and meets service level agreements (SLAs). Sponsored by the business and managed by IT service management teams, production support follows frameworks like ITIL to ensure service stability.

Focus Areas

Production support includes the following focus areas:

• Service request management: Processes user requests for information, advice, or standard service changes.
• User support: Provides assistance and resolves technical issues for end-users to improve their experience.
• Incident management: Resolves IT service incidents quickly to restore normal operations.
• Problem management: Identifies and corrects root causes of incidents to prevent recurrence.
• Knowledge management: Maintains a collection of information to assist IT service tasks.
• Change control: Manages all changes to minimise disruption to IT services.
• System maintenance: Applies updates, patches, and upgrades to ensure systems run securely and efficiently.
• Service performance monitoring: Monitors system performance to detect and address issues proactively.
• Data management: Corrects or improves data in live systems to maintain accuracy and quality.
• Security maintenance: Updates security controls to protect live systems, such as fixing vulnerabilities.  

Value Proposition

Production support impacts IT operations and user experience across business areas. It delivers value by:

• Resolving issues quickly to reduce downtime and maintain business operations.
• Improving system performance and reliability for consistent service delivery.
• Managing minor changes to address new needs without major overhauls. 

The ongoing benefit lies in maintaining system reliability and supporting users as requirements evolve.

Example of a Production Support Initiative

An example of a minor initiative completed by production support is cleansing policing data in an existing RMS to improve data accuracy and quality without introducing new features or changing the system.

Project Overview

The Ironclad Police Department needs to fix data issues in its Copper RMS records management system. The Copper Purge initiative cleans 1.2 million policing records across 12 precincts while meeting security and privacy rules. It aims to improve operational efficiency and maintain compliance, supporting better decisions with accurate data.

Project Justification

Inaccurate data in Copper RMS causes 200 monthly errors (e.g., wrong case numbers) and slows report generation to 10 seconds from a 5-second target. Reliable data matters for public safety and transparency. Copper Purge corrects these problems, speeds up operations, and keeps IT services compliant.

Current State Process Analysis

A one-week review of Copper RMS data finds 5,000 duplicate records, 3,000 incorrect entries, and 10,000 outdated items from 600,000 incident reports. These issues back the need for a cleansing plan.

Requirements

Service tickets from 20 officers set Copper Purge needs. They list:

• •erge 5,000 duplicate records into single entries.
• Fix 3,000 errors in names, addresses, and case numbers.
• Update 10,000 outdated records to current status.
• Add rules to check 500 daily data entries. 

Selecting the Technology

Copper Purge uses Copper RMS’s built-in data tools. This keeps the fix simple and tied to the live system.

Building the Team

Four RMS administrators, two data analysts, and three IT support staff form the team. They audit 1.2 million records, clean the data, and monitor quality ongoing.

Implementation

A two-week effort starts with a three-day audit of 1.2 million records. It flags 5,000 duplicates and meets Data Protection Regulation (DPR) and ISO 27001 standards. The cleansing process then:

• Merges 5,000 duplicates into 2,500 unique records.
• Corrects 3,000 errors in 48 hours using scripts.
• Updates 10,000 records with current details.
• Sets rules to flag errors in 500 daily entries.  

Organisational Change Management

No formal training occurs. The team sends a one-page guide on new entry rules to 400 users and answers 15 queries over three days. This keeps changes simple and quick.

Monitoring and Feedback

Weekly scans of 600,000 incident records flag errors (e.g., 1% rate target). Metrics track accuracy (98% goal) and report speed (5 seconds). Feedback from 20 officers monthly spots issues like missing updates, fixed in days.

Outcomes

Copper Purge cuts data errors by 80% (200 to 40 monthly) and report time by 50% (10 to 5 seconds) across 600,000 records. It saves 8 minutes per case (20 to 12 minutes) for 50 officers, boosting efficiency and decision-making while meeting DPR audits.