- Original Poster
- #1
I wondered how you guys and girls calculate your support and maintenance fees when you have completed a software project for a customer? I'd be interested to hear any innovative approaches that I've not considered. Here's how we do it over at my business Atlas...
Over the years my software company has put forward a number of ways for charging for support and maintenance. In the past we used to break it down in to gold, silver and bronze (yuk!), and our customers would be entitled to a number of hours of support based on what package they're on. So for example, the silver package was £350 and included up to 15 hours of support and bug fixes. Anything over that was charged for at a discounted hourly rate.
Giving the client a set number of hours each month in return for a monthly fee placed my business and their needs at direct odds. The customers were always looking for ways to use up their hours (but obviously not go over) every month. Conversely we recognised that the more support hours we provided, the less we earned per hour and so it wasn't in our interests to use the hours up.
So, we recently we changed our approach, and we now charge 10% of the overall cost of the build divided by 12 months. So on a £100,000 project we would charge a monthly support fee of £100,000 / 10 * 12 = £833.00. We no longer sell this support structure on the basis of hours, instead we simply charge this fee to be available to answer support calls according to an SLA. This is better for both parties, and if the client spends another £50,000 on their app, we amend their support fee accordingly.
Over the years my software company has put forward a number of ways for charging for support and maintenance. In the past we used to break it down in to gold, silver and bronze (yuk!), and our customers would be entitled to a number of hours of support based on what package they're on. So for example, the silver package was £350 and included up to 15 hours of support and bug fixes. Anything over that was charged for at a discounted hourly rate.
Giving the client a set number of hours each month in return for a monthly fee placed my business and their needs at direct odds. The customers were always looking for ways to use up their hours (but obviously not go over) every month. Conversely we recognised that the more support hours we provided, the less we earned per hour and so it wasn't in our interests to use the hours up.
So, we recently we changed our approach, and we now charge 10% of the overall cost of the build divided by 12 months. So on a £100,000 project we would charge a monthly support fee of £100,000 / 10 * 12 = £833.00. We no longer sell this support structure on the basis of hours, instead we simply charge this fee to be available to answer support calls according to an SLA. This is better for both parties, and if the client spends another £50,000 on their app, we amend their support fee accordingly.
