Application
support and
software
maintenance
Software nobody maintains gets slower, less secure and harder to change. Usually so gradually that nobody notices until a release becomes frightening.
* Application support services and software maintenance after launch. Monitoring, fixes and improvements, with code and documentation kept in your accounts.
After launch
Launch is the start of the work, not the end of it
We stay involved after launch so that doesn’t happen. That can be an agreement with a guaranteed response time, a block of engineering days each month, or an occasional specialist when something specific comes up. Application maintenance and support services, in other words, sized to the software rather than sold as a fixed package. Website support and maintenance works the same way, whether what needs looking after is a platform, an application or a storefront.
What it includes depends on what your software actually needs.
What support covers
01
Updates and security
Dependencies, patches and platform upgrades
02
Monitoring and alerts
Problems surface before your customers find them
03
Fixing things
With an agreed process and response time
04
Speed and running costs
Performance work and what you spend on hosting
05
New features
Continuing development based on how the product is used
06
New integrations
Connecting systems as your operations change
Ownership
You own the code
we write for you,
by default
Software you can’t leave isn’t an asset. By default, everything we build is yours: the platform, the source code and the documentation needed to run, maintain and extend it. All in your own repositories and accounts, handed over as we go rather than at the end.
If an engagement works differently, we agree that in writing before the work starts. Either way, the goal is software your company can understand, operate and build on. With us or without us.
Related: Custom software development · Website and online store development
Clear
answers
What people ask before any of this starts — including what we cannot promise.
They are two different things, and most agreements blur them. Maintenance keeps the software current — dependency and security updates, patches, platform upgrades. Support is what happens when something is wrong: a route to report it, an agreed process and a response time. Our guide to what application support covers sets out what is normally included and what to agree before launch rather than after something breaks.
Three usual shapes: an agreement with agreed response times, a monthly block of engineering days, or occasional help when you need it. Which one fits depends on how much the software changes and how much it costs you when it stops.
Often, yes. We start by reviewing what exists and telling you honestly what state it is in, including when the right answer is a piece of remedial work before anyone promises a response time on it.
It can. Continuing development based on how the product is actually used is part of how we work rather than a separate contract you chase us for, and so is connecting new systems as your operations change. What is in scope is agreed rather than assumed.
They stay yours. The code and documentation live in your own repositories and accounts throughout, which is also what makes it straightforward to take the work somewhere else if you ever want to.
Next step
Discuss your
project
Tell us what you're trying to do. We'll tell you what it would take and how we'd approach it, and plainly if we're not the right people for it.