Maintenance Phase

These playbooks outlines the different types of project management and software development processes we can offer clients, dependent on their needs. The goal is to price projects in a way that’s profitable, manages client expectations effectively, and reduces day to day stresses on everyone.

Projects are typically structured as follows:

1. Discovery Phase Learning, consulting, designing and scoping

2. Delivery Phase Development, testing and deployment

3. Maintenance Phase Bug fixing, maintenance, support

Novatura has always struggled with the issue of recurring revenue. Specifically, hosting and maintenance fees have long been too low and the scope underspecified. When customers pay the minimum, the necessary jobs aren’t completed, and often when changes are requested, we lose out from inflexible pricing and mounting customer expectations.

We need our retainers to:

• Scale with demand for services
• Cover necessary fees
• Provide customers with choice and flexibility

Structuring the Retainer

When retainers are simple and clearly scoped, they become easier to sell, easier to deliver, and far more profitable.

Productising

“You need to turn your agency into a bakery, not a building site.”

A building site is different every time. Every project is custom, timelines move, scope changes, walls get moved. Profit gets squeezed.

A bakery runs smoothly because it sells a defined set of products. Everything has a repeatable recipe and each item has predictable margins because the cost to ‘bake’ it is already known. Agencies can mirror this structure by standardising their services the same way.

Instead of selling hours, you sell a fixed, profitable solution with clear boundaries, making retainers easier to deliver, scale, and maintain month after month. For example, instead of ‘10 hours of security auditing’, you might sell:

“Cybersecurity Retainer: We deliver and manage a proactive security program designed to reduce risk, prevent incidents, and maintain continuous protection for your software system.”

The only caveats to consider:

• If flexibility in the amount of effort to apply is needed, i.e. demand for bug-fixing fluctuates, use a time based solution.

Three-Tiered Approach

The three-tier model: Good - Better - Best

This gives clients the flexibility to decide an option, and psychologically 3 is the optimum. Good should be the baseline sell, better should be the option we want the client to go for, and best is for companies who want the works and aren’t afraid of spending some cash.

1. Entry-level package
   • Baseline requirements
   • Lower price, limited scope
   • Great for smaller clients or those testing the waters
   • Foot in the door
2. Flagship package
   • Highest alignment with profit, expertise and outcomes
   • This is the package you lead with in sales conversations
3. Premium package
   • For clients with bigger budgets or more complex needs
   • Adds extra services, higher SLAs, deeper strategy or more volume
   • Gives you room to upsell when clients outgrow the middle tier

Retainer Packages

1. Essentials

The Essentials package is designed to provide foundational support and peace of mind. It covers the critical aspects of software maintenance and security.

Issue diagnostics and Reporting We’ll identify and resolve platform issues with fast, accurate diagnostics.

Downtime Monitoring 24/7 monitoring for immediate downtime detection.

Baseline SLA Response Times Guaranteed X hour response during business hours.

Software Updates Monthly updates to keep your project secure and up-to-date.

Tip

Idea: We can have different dependabot configs per retainer package, for monthly vs weekly updates.

Database Backups Regular database backups to protect you from data loss. TODO: should this cover other types of backups, i.e. code backups

SSL Certificate Management Free SSL certificates, ensuring platform security and compliance.

Cybersecurity Baseline Baseline cybersecurity measures designed to reduce risk, prevent incidents, and maintain continuous protection. Audited on a quarterly basis.

2. Standard (recommended)

All of Essentials, and;

Performance & Speed Maintenance Optimised performance and speed for a smooth, fast user experience.

Standard SLA Response Times Guaranteed X hour response during business hours.

Third-Party Resolutions Resolve issues with third-party systems and integrations as they arise.

Cybersecurity Standard Increased cybersecurity measures to continue to reduce risk, prevent incidents, and maintain continuous protection. Audited on a quarterly basis.

Advanced System Monitoring Real-time reporting of errors and performance, allowing proactive maintenance.

3. Enterprise

All of Standard, and;

Zero Downtime Deployments Real-time reporting of errors and performance, allowing proactive maintenance.

Cybersecurity Standard Tightened and proactive cybersecurity measures to continue to reduce risk, prevent incidents, and maintain continuous protection. Audited on a quarterly basis.

Dedicated Channel Support Have a Novatura team member join your Slack, Discord or Teams channels to facilitate better inter-team communication.

Priority SLA Response Times Accelerated response to technical issues for minimal disruption.

Out-of-Hours Support Support for platform issues outside regular business hours.

Retainer Pricing

After delivery costs (staff + tools), we should still have at least a 50% gross margin.

For a maintenance retainer, we’re going to define which services can be productised and which need to remain flexible:

Flexible Services

• Consulting and design work
• Bug fixing and maintenance (under SLA)
  • Includes software updates
  • Includes performance maintenance
• Cybersecurity labour (under cyber policy)
• Out of hours support (under SLA)

Productisable Services

• Dedicated channel support
  • “Faciliate better inter-team communication”
• Cybersecurity policies
  • “Reduce risk, prevent incidents, and maintain continuous protection”
• SLA (base fee, depdending on level)
  • “Guaranteed availability of the team in response to issues”
• Active monitoring
  • “Real-time reporting of errors and performance, allowing proactive maintenance.”

Pricing Calculator

For flexible services, we need to specify a pool of hours set aside each month (and paid for) by the client. This is billed at a standard hourly rate. Any usage outside of this pool is billed at a higher hourly rate.

For productisable services, these will contribute to the retainer’s “base fee”, which should reflect the productised services going into the retainer, as well as the amount of time we predict the retainer will use, and the perceived value add to the client.

Here’s a pricing calculator for each package.

Hosting

Add it all up, and add a 50% markup, then invoice the customer.