The Underscore Archives

>> I'm working with a design agency to build a B2B ecommerce site using
Magento
>> and we're not sure how best to charge for ongoing support of it.  We
don't
>> really know how much money will be going through the site but suspect
that
>> it could be quite big, in which case we don't want to undercharge for
>> hosting or support.
>> 

I find it best to be upfront about it, I've been in pretty much the same
boat with a couple of sites I manage. Basically just state that while the
site launches you're prepared to offer x level of hosting space / bandwidth
/ guaranteed uptime for Y amount of cash, but as the site grows the server
requirements will change and more will need to be spent. - I find it pays to
help if you point out that this will be sa a result of their success, and
there are much worse problems to have.

I'm currently moving one client of a shared box to a 5 server cluster, there
was no real argument they could make as they can see how traffic has
increased, they want guranteed uptime and redundancy and these things cost
money - a serious business should anticipate and accept the cost factors if
you present the facts well and they have any business sense.

>> How do people generally charge for support, both in terms of general site
>> maintenance if a hosting is handled by a third party or combined hosting
and
>> support if I host it myself [*]?  Should the cost be relative to how much
>> revenue it is generating for their business? 

Only in a very abstract way - they could get a million hits an hour but no
bugger buying anything - you would still need to charge more for support
though. I would have thought your charges should be relative to YOUR
business needs and associated costs, not to someone elses.


>> If I I'm also considering what
>> the implications are if the site is unavailable either because of a site
>> specific problem, or a hosting outage, resulting in lost sales?
>> 

Do you have indemnity insurance?  If not, get some quick.