Developer Support Plans

Development Plans form one of the services provided by the Mercurytide Aftercare team, which handles any improvements, add-ons, changes or fixes you might need to apply to your project after it has been signed off and has gone live.

After projects go live, any work that is carried out upon them – especially work needing creative input from designers or code input by developers - is outside the scope of your project business requirements and is considered Development or Maintenance.

Why have a Development Plan?

If you know that you are going to be making regular changes or updates to your project over time – especially when keeping in touch with technology changes - then having some provision for these changes is always sensible. Similarly, if things aren’t working as expected or something needs fixed then some first-aid might be in order, so it's always wise to have something in place to look after, what is after all, a very valuable business asset.

The Development Plans

Mercurytide offers three Developer plans - Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Bronze is ad-hoc (pay-as-you-go) where we carry out work at your request and only invoice for the hours used to complete the instructed work. The Silver and Gold plans provide a fixed cost each month to allow a consistent budget and include development hours to use, alongside beneficial extras.
 

Do clients need to have a Development Plan?

No. If a Silver or Gold plan is not chosen, clients will automatically be placed on the Bronze plan and work will be charged at the default hourly rate.

Maintenance Plan or Development Plan – what’s the difference?

Maintenance plans and Development Plans are both services provided by Mercurytide’s Aftercare team.

Development Plans

Gold and Silver Development plans are geared towards providing development developer time for changes and updates but will also be used for fixes if necessary. If you would rather not have development hours used for fixes, consider a Maintenance plan instead of - or in addition to - a Development Plan.

Maintenance Plans

Maintenance provides fixes and resolutions to issues but does not have a limited number of hours like a Development Plans. Fixes are applied by Mercurytide regardless of hours required. Maintenance does not cover the addition of new functionality or change requests.

For more information on what’s covered by Maintenance please speak to our Aftercare team.

What limitations apply?

Silver and Gold support plans cost the same each month, regardless of whether you use greater or fewer hours than are included within your plan each month. The expectation is that over the plan period (12-month contract) you will use more some months and less in other months. Mercurytide will provide ongoing statements of usage to allow you to manage hours if usage is over or under

Ad-hoc Development Packs

Bronze support is charged by the hour for the work completed, however additional support hours may be purchased in the following bundles. Bundled hours may be used for future work and saved hours will be valid for 12 months from purchase.

Can I combine Support Plans and Maintenance plans?

Yes. If you are a current Mercurytide Gold, Silver or Bronze customer, you can combine your current Support Plan with a Maintenance Plan to provide maximum cover for your system.

Response Times

Mercurytide’s Aftercare team will respond to all Support requests from clients within one business day via email, telephone or ticketing system with a confirmation that the request was received and, where possible, an estimated completion date for each action item in the request. Tickets marked as Urgent will be responded to within 2 business hours

Turnaround and Priorities

Non-urgent requests received after 5:30pm will not be actioned until the next business day unless prior agreements have been made. Coverage may be affected on public holidays but Mercurytide will communicate any planned changes to service. If Mercurytide has any issues in delivering on a quoted deadline, clients will be notified via ticket, email or telephone of the reasoning for any change.

If urgent tickets are received after 5:00pm, best efforts will be made to respond before close of business but may not be actioned until the following business day. If requests are considered urgent, Mercurytide recommend clients contact the Aftercare team immediately by phone on 0333 666 7007.