The Standing Arrangement Behind a Business Platform That Keeps Changing

The challenge

A business platform is never finished. Processes change, someone finds an edge case the original design did not anticipate, a form needs a new field, a workflow sends an email nobody wants any more. Handled as a series of small projects, each of those is mostly overhead. Handled as nothing, the platform slowly stops matching the business.

Where we came in

This is deliberately a retainer rather than a project. A fixed monthly block of senior time means small changes get made in the week they are asked for, and it removes the incentive to inflate a two-hour fix into something worth quoting. It is the least dramatic engagement model and the one that keeps a platform alive.

What we did

• A fixed block of hours each month covering administration, configuration and development
• System administration: user management, security roles and general configuration
• Bug fixes against the live platform, prioritised with the client rather than by us
• Enhancements to forms, views and workflows as processes change
• Maintenance of the integrations between the platform and the accounting system

Where it landed

• The platform keeps pace with the business instead of drifting from it
• Small changes are made as they arise rather than accumulating into a re-implementation project
• A predictable monthly cost rather than a series of separately quoted small projects