Ad-hoc Support

Characteristics of Ad-hoc support agreements

Ad-hoc support agreements in software development are flexible, short term arrangements that can provide your business with on demand technical support or maintenance services without the need for a long term contract. These agreements are typically structured around specific requests or issues that arise in your business unexpectedly and are addressed as they come up rather than proactively. This could be technical issues, projects that exceed your existing resourcing capacity or urgent security updates. 

All that being said, let's take a look at some of the core benefits an ad-hoc support agreement could offer to your business:

They're inherently flexible

You only pay for support when you genuinely need it. No ongoing contracts and no paying for hours you’ll never realistically use. Perfect if your software rarely acts up or your team can handle most of the typical day to day stuff. Need a quick bug fix? Want someone to tweak a feature for a client demo? Or maybe run a one off script to clean up your data? All possible with ad-hoc support.

You pay as you go

Ad-hoc support usually works on an hourly basis. You either settle the bill in advance based on an estimate or once the work is done. This means you can call us in for anything from updating software for a regulatory change, fixing a broken automated report or deploying a small urgent feature. You pay only for the time we're actively working with you.

You can have as much or as little as you like

You'll already be well aware that workloads can fluctuate. Ad-hoc support lets you dial up your resources quickly without the hassle of hiring extra staff and scale back when things calm down. 

Expert access

Whenever a problem arises that is outside of your teams expertise, you can call on us for ad-hoc support to fill the knowledge gaps. That might be optimising system performance for a big launch, debugging a stubborn feature, performing a code review to catch hidden errors or guiding your team through a complex API integration. Effectively, you get specialist knowledge without committing to a long term contract.

Speed and responsiveness

Because ad-hoc support is on demand, you can get help when you need it. You'll not be waiting for the next monthly support window and there won't be delays caused by issues with your existing resourcing schedules. 

Why might you consider an ad-hoc support agreement?

There are a variety of different scenarios where an ad-hoc support agreement might be the logical choice for your business:

Consultancy

If you need guidance on an idea, proof of concept or new technology but don’t want someone sitting around waiting for work once that's done, an ad-hoc support agreement is worth exploring.

Maintenance and/or updates

Occasional fixes, enhancements or updates are also good candidates for ad-hoc agreements if your internal team is capable of most day to day work but lack the time or expertise for more technical tasks. Think running system patches, updating plugins, migrating databases or fixing unexpected bugs.

Project support

If you're working on a larger project that needs extra technical know, ad-hoc support can fill both skills gaps and capacity gaps from building a small module your team can’t tackle, implementing a third party integration or helping test complex workflows before launch.

Best for

Ad hoc support contracts are ideal for businesses that don’t require constant IT or software support but still want expert help to be available when needed. They're especially well suited to -

• Small businesses or startups - Where full time support teams cannot be justified

• Companies with in house teams - Business's that occasionally need extra hands or specialist knowledge

• Organisations going through change - This could include system upgrades, migrations or audits where temporary support is needed

• Businesses with unpredictable support needs - Where issues arise irregularly but need prompt resolution

• Cost conscious teams - Those looking for affordability and flexibility without the long term commitments

Final thoughts

These agreements offer flexibility for both parties and allow clients to manage their support needs more efficiently and have become a core part of the service offering here at Cool Code Company.

Our expert UK based team have extensive experience in all things bespoke software development and are well positioned to act as trusted advisers your business and current IT team. They can offer independent perspectives from outside of your organisation providing an external view that has been not influenced by your internal organisational environment. They can provide 'sanity checks' for ideas, concepts and roadmaps your current IT team may have developed and also take a hands-on lead to projects that may be complex or outside of your current IT teams expertise.