What is “support and maintenance”?

In the context of your website, “support and maintenance” embraces any activity, communication, and interaction by and between you and the Agency that is necessary to maintain a live website or web-based application and support your administrative users. “Support” includes (but isn’t limited to) phone calls, email communications, research, and any efforts by the Agency to meet the your ongoing needs. Finally, “support” applies to requests you make that pertain to overall health and stability of your website or web-based application.

Why is support needed?

For basic websites – static HTML websites – support will most often mean assistance in changing copy and images on the site. This basic need for content maintenance and updates is driven by the site administrator. However, if a website owner is not skilled in HTML and CSS (that is, hypertext mark-up language and cascading style sheets), then support from an HTML professional will be needed for any updates or modifications.

For dynamic and transactional websites, support will most often mean assistance with using the back-end administrative console. While these interfaces are generally easy to use, they do have some intricacies that can be challenging even for experiences users. Furthermore, each site is often configured very specifically for the business and administrative needs of its owner. Therefore, It can be difficult to use generic instructions for administering the site; instead, custom instructions or tutorials are necessary for best use. Finally, a dynamic or transactional site typically has much more traffic and usage than a basic site – and that means a much higher likelihood that issues or encumbrances may arise.