Application Maintenance and Support Services for MES & APS: Keeping Delmia Apriso and Planning Systems Production-Ready

Andea provides application maintenance and support services for manufacturing software. We maintain MES and APS systems, the databases that run under them, and the integrations that connect them to ERP and shop floor equipment. We are a licensed Dassault Systèmes partner and we work exclusively on the platforms we implement – which means the team supporting your system already knows it.  

Talk to our maintenance team

What application maintenance and support means for manufacturing software

Application Maintenance Services is the ongoing work that keeps software operational after go-live. For a retail app or an internal HR tool, that usually means fixing bugs and releasing updates. For a MES running three shifts in an automotive plant, it means something harder: the system has to stay up when the line is running, and the people maintaining it have to understand what happens on the shop floor when it doesn’t.

We maintain Delmia Apriso and Delmia Ortems in production environments where downtime is not measured in lost productivity – it is measured in stopped lines, missed shipments, and scrap. That is the context we work in.  

Icon background People Icon
~35 application maintenance specialist
Icon background Gears
200+ years of cumulative experience
Icon background Hand Gear
L2 support level
Icon background Icon Real Time
24/7 coverage (up to)

Application maintenance vs. application support

These two terms are often used interchangeably but describe different activities. Knowing the difference helps set expectations.

The table below splits maintenance and support because that's how the industry talks about them, and that's how clients search for them. People ask for "application support" when they mean both.The terms describe different activities, and knowing where one ends and the other begins helps you scope what you actually need.  


Application maintenance Application support
Focus The software – code, configuration, integrations, performance The people using it – incidents and errors they hit in production
Trigger Scheduled or proactive – upgrades, environment changes, optimization Reactive – incidents escalated from the customer's first line
Output Patched, upgraded, optimized application Diagnosed incident, workaround, fix, or escalation



At Andea, the split matters less. Everything in the table below is part of the same engagement – the same team, the same Dedicated Support Consultant, the same way of working. Whether you call it maintenance, support, or both, what you get from us is one service covering the full picture.

The three types of application maintenance we deliver

Our maintenance engagements cover three categories of work. The mix shifts depending on the client and the maturity of the environment, but all three are necessary.


Type What triggers it What we do
Corrective A bug, error, or failure – reported by a user or caught by monitoring We identify the root cause and fix it. For a MES issue affecting the production line, corrective maintenance has to happen fast – sometimes within minutes.
Adaptive A change in the environment, regulatory change, new shop floor equipment, or a request to extend functionality. We update the application to stay compatible or to absorb new requirements. MES sit between ERP and shop floor hardware; adaptive maintenance is frequent in active production environments. New Delmia Apriso Process Builder workflows, new screens, or extended reporting fall under this category.
Preventive A working system that could run better – slow queries, accumulated technical debt, suboptimal performance. We improve the system without a specific failure or new requirement driving it. This includes optimizing slow database queries, refactoring code that has accumulated technical debt, and tuning performance under production load.

Support tiers: what L1, L2 and L3 mean in practice

AMS contracts are structured around support tiers, each handling a different class of issue. Andea provides one of them: L2, and nothing above or below it. Where that tier begins and ends decides what we cover and what stays on your side.


Tier Who handles it What it covers
L1 (first-line) Client's internal IT helpdesk or shared service center User access issues, password resets, basic navigation, incident logging. L1 does not touch application configuration or code.
L2 (application support) Andea – application specialists with configuration, integration, and code knowledge Functional issues, configuration changes, workflow problems, integration errors between Delmia Apriso and ERP or SCADA, complex bugs requiring code changes, performance root-cause analysis, database optimization, custom Process Builder development. This is where most incidents land.
L3 (vendor) Dassault Systèmes Confirmed platform defects requiring a product fix, version roadmap. We escalate to Dassault when needed and manage the communication on your behalf.



Different clients name their tiers differently. Some count from L0, others from L1, which is why one client's "L2" is another's "L3." The label matters less than the work behind it. Andea owns the application layer end to end: configuration, code, integrations, database optimization. First-line triage stays with your helpdesk. Confirmed platform defects go to Dassault Systèmes, and we run that escalation for you.

How we keep your line running: proactive monitoring and incident management

Waiting for users to report problems is not a maintenance strategy for manufacturing software. By the time a MES issue surfaces through a support ticket, the line may already be down. We monitor your environment continuously so we catch problems before they reach the shop floor.  

Proactive monitoring

Our monitoring toolset tracks Delmia Apriso environments in real time: application server health, database performance, interface queues between Apriso and ERP, scheduled job execution, and Apriso license availability. When a threshold is crossed, the on-shift team is alerted – not the client. 

What we monitor in a typical Apriso environment:    

  • Application server response times and error rates    
  • Database query performance and lock contention    
  • ERP interface queues – production orders, inventory, quality notifications    
  • Scheduled job execution status and failures  

Incident management

Most of Andea maintenance contract defines four priority levels, scaled from critical production impact down to minor requests. Response and resolution targets for each priority are agreed individually with the client – they depend on the support hours, production criticality, and scope of the engagement. 


Priority Definition
● P1 – Critical Core functionality or service down for multiple users. Production line affected or at risk of stopping.
● P2 – Critical Core functionality down for one user, or service degraded for multiple users. Workaround may be available.
● P3 – Major Core functionality or service degraded for one user. No direct production impact.
● P4 – Minor No degradation of service. Cosmetic issues, change requests, or low-priority improvements.



For P1 incidents, response is, in most cases, very fast – the dedicated phone number routes directly to the focus team member on shift. Resolution time depends on the nature of the incident and is defined in the contract.

Maintaining MES (Delmia Apriso) and APS applications

No two manufacturing environments are the same, but the problems that bring clients to us usually are. The system is running on an old version. An upgrade went wrong and nobody knows the environment well enough to fix it. The original implementer is gone. The in-house team doesn’t have the depth to maintain a platform this specialized.

We have seen all of these. Our maintenance team works exclusively on Delmia Apriso and Ortems – not as one product line among many, but as the only thing we do.  

APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) support – Delmia Ortems

Ortems is an out-of-the-box APS platform – unlike Apriso, there is no custom code layer to build from scratch. Andea configures it, maintains it, and helps clients actually use it. That last part matters more than it sounds. The planners who work in Ortems every day are often not getting full value from the system – sometimes because the optimization criteria were never tuned, sometimes because the data feeding the system is incomplete, sometimes because the team has not had the time to explore what the system can do. We help work through all three.  

Most manufacturing software failures are visible. Apriso goes down, the line stops, the phone rings. Ortems failures are quieter. The system keeps running, the planners keep working – but the schedules are suboptimal, half the functionality goes unused, and nobody is quite sure why the plan never matches what actually happens on the floor.

Scheduling optimization and planning criteria

Ortems schedules production by optimizing against a set of criteria: on-time delivery, machine utilization, sequence-dependent changeovers. The weights you assign to these criteria determine what the plan looks like. Most clients have never revisited them since go-live – or never had the criteria fully defined in the first place. We sit down with the planning team, understand what they are actually trying to achieve, and configure the optimization model to match. When the criteria are not yet defined, we can help build them from scratch together with the client, working from how production actually runs day to day.  

ERP data feeds and integration

Ortems is only as good as the data it plans with. When ERP data contains errors – a missing field, a malformed value, a production order in an unexpected state – Ortems can refuse to open or produce a plan that cannot be executed. We diagnose and resolve these issues. For SAP environments, Dassault Systèmes provides a certified SAP Adapter that handles the connection; we configure and maintain it. For clients running other ERPs – Microsoft Dynamics, custom systems, or even structured Excel files – we build and maintain the data connection.

If a client wants to add a new data source mid-contract – a new plant, a new system, additional planning parameters that were not there at go-live – we scope and build the connection. And if the data does not exist anywhere yet, we can model it directly in Ortems. Clients who have the operational knowledge but not the system data do not have to wait for an ERP project to start planning properly.  

Technical documentation for Ortems environments: OT/IT, ERP, SCADA, and PLC integration support

Delmia Apriso sits between two worlds: the IT layer (ERP, databases, reporting) and the OT layer (SCADA, PLCs, machine controllers). Both sides have to work for the MES to work. When they don’t, the failure looks like an Apriso problem – but the root cause is often in the integration.

We maintain the full stack:

  • ERP interfaces – production orders, inventory transactions, quality notifications between Apriso and SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft Dynamics
  • SCADA and PLC data feeds – machine status, production counts, quality readings
  • Interface queue management – identifying and resolving stuck or failed transactions
  • Adaptive maintenance when ERP or SCADA versions change on either side of the integration

We debug across application, database, and integration layer. Clients do not get handed back a problem with “it’s not Apriso.”

A male and female manufacturing professional with lanyards examine data on a tablet in a server room with glowing server racks, representing digital transformation and MES solutions.

DELMIA Apriso performance services: diagnose, fix, and prevent MES slowdowns

DELMIA Apriso performance issues rarely have a single cause – they build up across the application, database, integrations, and infrastructure as production volumes grow. Andea's Application Maintenance team runs a deep-dive analysis of your Apriso environment, identifies the actual bottlenecks, and delivers a tailored action plan that restores system speed, stability, and reliability.

Apriso is built to accelerate production. But over time, most environments start to slow down. Screens take longer to load. Background jobs stretch from minutes into hours. Critical operations get scheduled earlier just to guarantee staff availability. These are not isolated issues – they are symptoms of a system under strain.

The reason is usually growth. New users, new data, higher concurrency. The MES was scoped for a smaller use case, and nobody has reconfigured it since. Original capabilities were not designed to support current production demands.

Where DELMIA Apriso performance problems come from

Performance issues rarely live in one place. Identifying the actual source requires a comprehensive, methodical approach. The causes are usually distributed across four layers:

  • The MES layer – Apriso configuration that no longer fits current use cases
  • The database layer – overloaded, poorly indexed, or running on outdated infrastructure
  • The integration layer – interfaces with third-party systems sending or requesting data inefficiently
  • The infrastructure layer – operating system and underlying applications not configured for high performance

Who feels DELMIA Apriso performance degradation first

Performance issues rarely start in the boardroom. They surface on the shop floor first:

  • Shop floor operators, who experience delays during production
  • Warehouse users, who face lags that slow down inventory management
  • Business users, who work with delayed data and reporting
  • Machines integrated with Apriso or third-party systems, which start experiencing interruptions or failed communications

If not caught in time, the effects ripple through the entire enterprise.

How Andea restores DELMIA Apriso performance

We start with a deep-dive analysis – of your Apriso implementation and of how your teams actually use the system day by day. Our specialists identify the bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and pain points across all four layers.

Then we build a tailored action plan for your environment. Depending on what we find, that can include:

  • Reconfiguring the MES, OS, or related applications
  • Archiving historical data to free up system resources
  • Redesigning and improving SQL code
  • Improving database performance through index management and administrative parameters
  • Implementing targeted system optimizations

SLAs, KPIs, and service transparency

Most of our clients have been with us for years. We ask them every year whether we are still worth it.

For manufacturers, unplanned downtime costs average \$260,000 per hour according to Aberdeen Group – and in automotive, the figure reaches \$2.3 million per hour (source: Siemens, True Cost of Downtime 2024). A MES that goes down during a production shift is not an IT inconvenience – it directly affects OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), output, and on-time delivery. The numbers below reflect how we perform against that standard.  

2025 results across all active maintenance contracts

100%
SLA Achievement Rate
+84
NPS
9.56 / 10
Avg Client Satisfaction
12 yrs
Longest Active Client Relationship

Application maintenance KPIs 2025: SLA achievement, NPS, and client satisfaction across Andea maintenance contracts

For critical incidents, response is immediate. Clients call a dedicated number that routes directly to the on-shift focus team. There is no generic helpdesk between you and the person who knows your system.

3 clients have been with us for 10 years or more. 12 have been with us for 5 years or more.

Every contract defines response and resolution times per priority level. We report on SLA performance, incident volume, resolution times, and open change requests on a cadence agreed with the client. 

Security, compliance, and regulated manufacturing environments

Security in a MES environment is not a separate workstream we run on the side. It is part of how we maintain the system every day. We review database permissions and access logs, we keep an eye on authentication between Apriso, ERP, and SCADA, and we track known vulnerabilities in the Apriso versions you are running. When patches need to go in, we plan them with you – your release calendar, your change management process, and your team's capacity for end-to-end testing decide the timing. We do not push a patch on Friday afternoon because a CVE dropped.

Regulated manufacturing adds another layer. For pharma, medical devices, and food and beverage clients, a change to a validated Apriso environment is not just a technical decision – it triggers impact assessment, validation documentation, and traceability under frameworks like FDA 21 CFR Part 11 or GxP. We have worked in these environments long enough to know that the maintenance plan has to fit the validation strategy, not the other way around. Around upgrades or major changes, we run hyper-care periods with tighter monitoring and faster escalation until the system is back to a stable baseline.  

Application maintenance and support: pricing and engagement models

We match the pricing to your project. How much support you actually need, how steady that need is, and how much capacity you want us to keep ready for you – those three things shape how each engagement runs.

It usually works one of two ways. When the support load is hard to predict, you buy a package of hours and draw on it as the work comes up. When the scope is clearly defined, we run it as a managed service on a fixed ongoing arrangement. Many clients start with a package while the load is still unclear, then move to a managed service once the first few months show what the actual load looks like.

With a managed service we hold capacity for you on an ongoing basis, so we begin with knowledge transfer and let the team learn your system before touching anything. Either way, we scope it to your situation.  

Who is on your maintenance team

Role What they do
Dedicated Support Consultant Owns the relationship, coordinates all requests, escalates when needed. One person who knows your account.
Focus team (2+ specialists) Engineers who completed knowledge transfer and maintain your specific environment. They stay on your account.

Team

Why an implementer makes a better maintenance partner

The fastest way to fix a Delmia Apriso problem is to work with people who already know how it was built.

When we maintain a system we implemented, the knowledge transfer is short. The documentation is ours. The design decisions are ours. The people who built it sit next to the people who will support it. You will not see the KT happen – but it does.

When we take over from another partner, the KT takes longer. We read the documentation. We map the production processes. We walk the shop floor. We run a kick-off meeting before we touch anything. It takes 2 to 6 weeks, depending on what we are walking into.

Either way, you end up with the same thing: a team that knows your system well enough to keep the line running.

Our consultants work only on Delmia Apriso and Ortems. Nothing else. Over time, your focus team becomes one of the most knowledgeable groups about your specific environment – which is what you need when the line stops at 2pm on a Tuesday.  

Frequently asked questions

Meet our application maintenance leaders

Black and white headshot of Jacek Żurek, Director — Solution Maintenance, a smiling man with short dark hair wearing a collared shirt.
Jacek Żurek Director, Solution Maintenance

Jacek is responsible for Delmia Apriso, Data Warehouse, and Business Intelligence maintenance. He handles urgent production, Data Warehouse, and BI issues, database administration, and system enhancement design. His expertise includes MS SQL Server performance analysis, C++, SQL, and web technologies. He holds a Master of Science in telecommunications from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.  

Read more
Headshot of Łukasz Wicher, CEO of andea, smiling and wearing a white dress shirt. He is a key figure in providing MES and APS solutions for manufacturing.
Łukasz Wicher Director, Solution Maintenance

Łukasz oversees MES service delivery and software development. He has over a decade of hands-on experience with manufacturing software, including Delmia Apriso and Wonderware environments. His technical background includes T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS, and front-end technologies. He holds a Master of Science in computer science from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.  

Read more
Headshot of Marcin Doliński smiling, wearing a collared shirt. Black and white image with split background.
Marcin Doliński Director, Solution Maintenance

Marcin leads the Maintenance department at Andea, overseeing support during rollouts and post-deployment maintenance of Delmia Apriso. His background covers database administration, web development, and application programming. He holds a Master of Engineering in software engineering from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.  

Read more
Baner CTA Background
Talk to our application maintenance team

Andea is a licensed partner of Dassault Systèmes. Our application maintenance team works exclusively with Delmia Apriso and Ortems, and with the databases that support them.

If you are evaluating AMS providers or looking to move from your current provider, we are straightforward to talk to.  

Contact our application maintenance team