Application support & maintenance
Software rots if nobody tends it. Dependencies go end-of-life, certificates expire, platforms force upgrades. This is the unglamorous work that keeps things running.
We provide ongoing application support under a defined SLA: proactive monitoring and alerting, security patching and dependency upgrades, incident response with agreed response times, backup verification, and a monthly allowance for small changes and enhancements.
We support software we built and software we inherited. For inherited systems we start with a paid audit so we can commit to response times honestly rather than discovering the state of things during your first outage.
What this covers
- SLA-backed application support
- Proactive monitoring and alerting
- Security patching and dependency upgrades
- Incident response and root cause analysis
- Backup and disaster recovery verification
- Monthly change and enhancement allowance
What we deliver
Defined response times
Severity-based SLA with real targets. A production outage and a cosmetic issue are not the same ticket, and neither should be answered 'when we get to it'.
Proactive monitoring
Uptime, error rate, response time, queue depth, certificate and domain expiry, disk and database growth. The aim is that we notice before your customers do.
Patching & upgrades
Framework, runtime, library and OS updates on a scheduled cadence with regression testing — including the mandatory annual SDK bumps that iOS and Android force on mobile apps.
Incident response
Triage, fix, restore, then a written root cause analysis with the preventive action. Recurring incidents get engineered out rather than absorbed.
Backup & recovery assurance
Backups verified by actually restoring them on a schedule. An untested backup is a hypothesis, not a recovery plan.
Change allowance
Included hours each month for small changes, content updates and enhancements — so minor improvements do not need a new statement of work each time.
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ExploreFrequently asked questions
What does a support agreement cost?
It scales with the criticality of the system and the response times you need. Business-hours support on a single application typically starts around £600-£1,200 a month including a change allowance. Extended-hours or out-of-hours cover on business-critical systems costs more. We quote against your actual estate, not a package tier.
Will you support an application you did not build?
Yes, after a paid technical audit. We need to understand the code, infrastructure, dependencies and deployment process before we can commit to a response time. The audit output is yours regardless of whether you proceed.
What are your response times?
Standard business-hours SLA: 1 hour for a production outage, 4 hours for severe degradation, 1 business day for a functional defect, and 3 business days for minor and cosmetic issues. Faster tiers and out-of-hours cover are available where the business case justifies them.
Does support include new features?
The monthly allowance covers small changes and enhancements. Anything substantial is scoped and quoted separately so it gets proper design and testing rather than being squeezed into a support ticket.
Can you take over from our current supplier?
Yes. We run a structured transition: access and asset inventory, code and infrastructure review, documentation of what we find, then a defined handover date. Where the outgoing supplier is uncooperative — which happens — we plan for that rather than assume goodwill.
Talk to an engineer, not an account manager
Send us the problem and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right team, what a sensible first step is, and roughly what it costs.