Ask HN: Development shops, How do you structure your services post delivery?

7 points by bglenn09 13 years ago | 3 comments

I am shifting from a one man consultancy to a formal product development shop. I am currently working on the first version of a mobile and desktop SaaS product for an enterprise client which I have priced on a fixed price basis. I am struggling with how to structure and price my services beyond delivery of the first version of the product.

There will be incremental iterations with new features and I would like to pitch my client on having me operate the service for them (basically hosting it and taking responsibility for security patches, database backups, performance monitoring and optimization, etc.). I am curious how development shops and consultants would structure such an agreement.

A few questions I have:

- Do shops typically operate a SaaS service for their clients and how do they typically price that?<p>- I typically offer a 90 day warranty on fixed price engagements for bug fixes. Does a warranty make sense when we will be changing the software within the warranty period to build out new features?

- How do you typically structure your maintenance agreements in a case of ongoing development like this?

I have searched around a bit but if anyone can point me to standard agreements that would be very helpful to me. I learn a great deal from this board and am very interested in hearing all your thoughts on this.

Thank you.

centdev 13 years ago |

We typically only do 15 or 30 day post launch warranties at no cost especially with native mobile apps as things can break with OS upgrades that may be unforeseen.

For our retainer (maintenance) agreements, it's based on a black of time per month. We usually have a few options proposed with one of them recommended. The client determines which tier they go with based on their budget. Otherwise we charge a flat per hr fee (rounded to nearest 15 min). Hourly is more expensive since it may fluctuate from month to month. For our clients having a fix fee means no surprises for them and they get faster support. For us, it's a guaranteed rev per month.

As far as structure it will vary per customer based on their needs.

bglenn09 13 years ago | |

When you say fixed fee, am I correct to assume that the number of hours is capped on that? Do your maintenance agreements cover additional features?

I will follow your lead and downgrade to 30 days. Thank you.

centdev 13 years ago | | |

Correct. It may be 20, 30 and 40 hrs a month with each for a flat fee. They receive detailed accounting of how that time was used and if they no over that time it's X per hour.