Support & maintenance
Support & maintenance
We provide support & maintenance as standard for all of our websites & applications. Even if your website is right today, the web and your business is likely to change very quickly. Support & maintenance helps to cover the unexpected and means we'll be there for you if you need us... and is a good way to avoid future unexpected costs. Think of it as insurance, but without paying any excess!
What support & maintenance covers
Firstly, it covers all sorts of technical stuff to ensure the best performance and operation of your site. We handle all the admin and techy stuff so your site or application is well cared for and won't just stop working one day because something else has changed.
Ok but what about little tweaks and changes?
We try to be as flexible as possible so our clients can get what they want done without worrying that it will cost extra. As a general rule, if it takes less than an hour, we will cover it under support regardless of what it is. We always work together with our clients and believe a fair approach works well for everyone.
That said, we also realise that individuals, companies, organisations sometimes need to plan ahead, budget for additional changes and understand exactly what their contracts entitle them to. As such, the following list details the inclusions and exclusions of our support & maintenance package:
Included
- Bugfixes (defined as unexpected behaviour resulting from a flaw, error or fault). Examples include (but not limited to): error screens, inaccessibility, incorrect navigation, broken links, spelling mistakes, incorrect data etc.
- Investigation into any potential issue, unexpected behaviour or error
- Missing functionality or behaviour from agreed scope, proposal or specification
- Performance or reliability issues
- Restore from available backups – files and/or database
- Reasonable requests for data i.e. exports, queries, business logic, mass-manipulation
- Reasonable requests for technical advice, recommendations and guidance – related to the project that the support/maintenance covers i.e. CMS tips, SEO advice, general website formatting etc.
- Minor content manipulation. Examples may include (but not limited to): image tweaks, text changes, label changes etc.
Excluded
- Changes from current, agreed or intended behaviour
- Deviations from scope, proposal or specification
- Additions, enhancements or functionality deemed to be further development
- Environmental or external factors which require significant development to overcome. Examples would include (but not limited to): Incompatible new browser, hosting changes, data/input changes, API updates from 3rd parties etc.
- Any change, modification, tweak or enhancement that involves an unreasonable or significant amount of development, testing or manipulation
- Excessive or repeated need for help or assistance in place of a chargeable training session/programme.
- Repeated failure to adhere to rules, guidelines, recommendations or training materials which results in incorrect or unexpected behaviour
Fair use policy
We always adopt a fair approach to providing support & maintenance, reviewing each request on a case-by-case basis and considering existing support requested. Clients with our support & maintenance will be given priority over ad-hoc requests and will be proactively looked after. If we can do you a favour and action something under support & maintenance, we will do our best. Where something falls outside of this agreeement, we will always let you know immediately, quote it and await your approval before proceeding.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Working hours
Monday to Friday - 9 - 5pm excluding bank holidays
Any time spent outside of these hours is at our discretion. The SLA only applies during these hours.
Response time
4 business hours
However we will always aim to respond within minutes to any client with a support/maintenance agreement.
Resolution time
The resolution will depend upon the severity, impact and priority of the issue or request. The following table provides our targets:
|
|
Low priority |
Medium priority |
High priority |
|
Low impact |
3 business days |
2 business days |
1 business day |
|
Medium impact |
2 business days |
1 business day |
5 business hours |
|
High impact |
1 business day |
5 business hours |
3 business hours |
The above figures are worst-case scenario. In all circumstances we will aim to resolve issues immediately or as quickly as possible and minimise or mitigate any disruption or inconvenience.
30 day grace period after go-live
We offer a 30 day grace period after go-live of a website/application which provides a similar level of cover as support & maintenance. This is to ensure that the website/application behaves correctly in a live environment in real-world scenarios. Within this period, we will make bugfixes and minor tweaks as covered under our inclusions/exclusions list above. After this period, a support & maintenance contract is needed to be covered thereafter. Support & maintenance is mandatory for most website/applications so we can provide the best level of service, be there for you when you need us and ensure the health & function of your website/application.
What support & maintenance costs
Support & maintenance is priced on an individual project basis as requirements will vary. However as rough guideline, we use the industry standard of 20% of the total project price per annum.
Support & maintenance contract duration
Unless otherwise agreed, all support & maintenance agreements are 12 months minimum from the date of go-live or delivery of a key phase or 1st working draft, whichever is appropriate for the project.
Will my support & maintenance increase?
There are two ways support & maintenance may increase:
- Growth / complexity – as an application grows in complexity and size due to new functionality, the amount of support & maintenance required naturally increases
- This is calculated as 1.5% (per month) of all additional changes/development which are deemed to be ‘support-affecting’. For example if £1,000 of additional changes/functionality are added, this would equate to a £15/month increase
- Time spent – if the amount of time / resources exceeds the amount charged
- We perform regular reviews on our support & maintenance to ensure the time spent providing this service aligns roughly with the amount charged
- Typically, these are performed over 12 months to get an accurate representation, but we reserve the right to carry out reviews during any time period
- Should we feel it necessary to increase your support & maintenance for this reason, we will write to you and can provide time log reports if required
Ticket support helpdesk system - Tixel
A key benefit to having support & maintenance is access to our awesome ticket support / helpdesk system which we lovingly call Tixel. We're always happy to hear from you via telephone or email too, but using the ticket system has tons of benefits. Firstly, you can report an issue with plenty of detail if needed - including providing screenshots. You'll also be able to see any other outstanding tickets you have, be able to respond to them and get an overview of how your project(s) are going - with all bugfixes, changes and updates all listed in one place. Any updates we make to a ticket automatically notifies you and/or others to keep them up to date.
Log in to Tixel or log a ticket
To access Tixel, you can either start from within your website/application CMS or visit http://www.tixelsupport.co.uk - just use the same email address and password that you have been given by us...if you need any help, get in touch.
Help us help you
Tixel is a tool for us as developers to provide better customer service and technical support - but it's often used by our clients to keep themselves organised and avoid things getting buried and forgotten in their email inboxes. We ask all our clients to log their issues directly onto Tixel as it's a time-saver for us and it keeps everything organised.
Want Tixel too?
We also offer Tixel to our clients, should they wish to use it for their own customers and business. To find out more, visit our mini-site about Tixel below:
Ticket support helpdesk system →
Remote website monitoring system - SENTRY
If you host your website with us and have our support & maintenance package, you are protected and monitored by our SENTRY system automatically at no extra cost.
All sites hosted on our platform automatically benefit from our remote website monitoring using our SENTRY system. This is a custom system we have developed for our hosting clients which allows us to proactively check and monitor your website to ensure optimum performance, and immediately alert us to any unusual activity for investigation. Using SENTRY, we can deliver an unrivaled level of support and administer lightning fast maintenance in response to any environmental variation.
SENTRY is yet another reason why our hosting is awesome and allows us to provide unrivalled support for your website