[AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Have a call-out charge including 2 hours work and travel each way.
That 2 hours could be 
sitting with the client  discussing of what is wanted - to be documented and a
specification/change set agreed, or maybe doing it as a prototyping effort.
Depending on the client - maybe charge enough to cover a 1 hour  'lunch' for 2
No alcohol, Reasonable food - Chinese, Italian, maybe fish, decent steak, or
burger.

And an hourly rate for tasks that take more than the couple of hours.

Do you provide telephone/working-from-home interactive type support - maybe a
couple of hours included in a basic annual support package.
 
And detail an uplift to charges in the agreement - maybe the larger of 3% or
RPI.

Also consider who owns the code and facility, do you license it to them, or can
they license it to others?
If they sell it on, then who does maintenance?
What warrantee is provided with the facility - PI - for how many years, from
initial licence, or from maintenance, or upgrade?
And remember you will have to get that PI - maybe 10 years insurance is a large
up-front commitment for a single maintenance invoice?
What will happen to ownership/maintenance if you die, or are unable to continue
supporting the facility?

Include copyright in the code and in the generated executable.

May seem like a lot to document - but documenting it will firstly present your
services as being done in a professional 'trading' manner, and hopefully avoid
ill feeling later when such points start to concern you, or the client's
management.
Do include a relatively unequal termination option - you give a years notice,
they give a month - looks good to management if they can get out of a commitment
fast, but you can't -  practicality is another matter

May also be worth a short set of example costs for work you have done, so that
they can get someone else to quote for that work.
Remembering that you know the facility and code - the 3rd party will have to
include costs to learn the facility - fun for them if the code is yours and
copyrighted.

If the 3rd party quote is much less than yours, then step back and let the
client see the difference in the service and results. 


JimB 


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 7:40 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

I always went on straight clock time.  Simple.  

R
 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Serrano
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2014 10:36 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Maintenance Fees?

Hello,

I have recently written an app in MS Access 2010.
Application went pretty easy, however I am getting calls about "tweaking"
the application or making enhancements. So I was discussing with them maybe
a maintenance fee?

Does anyone charge past clients a monthly maintenance fee? or is it a
straight bill rate time number of hours you work on "whatever"?
If you do, can you give me a ball park range for the east coast of the US of
A.
PA to be exact...

any help would be appreciated, thanks!
--
John Serrano
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