What does a website maintenance contract include, and what is an SLA?

What should a maintenance contract include?

• Hosting or server management: where the system runs and who is responsible for it.
• Monitoring: continuous monitoring and alerts if something goes down or slows down.
• Updates: security and version updates for the framework, libraries and server.
• Backup and restore: how often, where they are stored and how quickly the system can be restored.
• Bug fixing: what counts as a bug and what as a new requirement.
• Reporting: a regular overview of what happened and what the provider recommends.
• Further development: from a monthly hour budget or priced separately.
• Access and documentation: who holds the credentials, the code and the documentation, and what happens at the end of the contract.

What is an SLA?

An SLA (service level agreement) is a measurable commitment to a level of service. It typically sets three things: response time (how soon the provider starts working on a report), resolution time (how soon it fixes the issue) and availability (the share of time the system is up). Commitments are best tiered by severity: an outage needs a different response than a typo.

What SLA do you need?

It depends on the business. For a company presentation site, support on working days may be enough. For a webshop or customer portal, where downtime means lost revenue or customer complaints, faster response and even weekend on-call can be justified. We offer three tiers: Basic, when the system is stable and just needs to be kept secure; Standard, when it keeps evolving; Partner, when it is business-critical.

What to watch for in the contract?

It should be clear what is included and what is not, how to report an issue, and what happens if the provider misses its commitments. It should state that the code, the data and the access are yours and will be handed over at the end of the contract. Ideally the system is run by the same team that built it, because they know it best.