A Website Maintenance Agreement is a document by which your service provider undertakes to provide you with services related to the maintenance of your website.
To be valid, it must define some important items, such as the maintenance works that will be performed, the time frame by which they will be, and the remuneration of the service provider.
Often, the website is maintained by the same service provider who was with you during its creation. Maintaining your website is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended.
What is a Website Maintenance Agreement?
While creating your website, you have definitely worked hard with the help of your service provider to ensure that the result is of high quality and honestly represents the image of your company.
However, a website must be maintained to continue to function properly and it is possible that small operating discrepancies may appear depending on its use. No one wants to be left without a solution when the website crashes when you start your sales. This is why the website maintenance agreement is paramount, although it is not mandatory.
Two types of contracts can exist: It is important to be able to choose between the two with confidence in order to find the most appropriate formula for your needs. The Application Maintenance or Third-Party Application Maintenance (TMA) agreement simply includes updating your Site and its components.
Bug fixes may be charged extra. The Corrective Maintenance Agreement includes updating the Website, as well as the correction of bugs and any operating discrepancies. This is obviously more expensive but may prove necessary depending on how you use your website.
What should be in a website maintenance contract?
To be valid, a website maintenance agreement must contain a number of mandatory information. In fact, it is a document of legal importance which is a mutual commitment between you and your service provider for pre-determined remuneration. In the website maintenance agreement, you therefore need to find:
- Legal notices of the service provider and your company
- Reference to software and/or website for which the service provider is required
- You have an obligation to allow the Service Provider access to the premises where the Software is located, as well as to provide it with materials and human resources to guarantee its interventions run smoothly.
- remuneration and periodicity of the service provider,
- for which he has been authorized.
legal reference.
To be valid, a website maintenance contract must accurately indicate the contact details of the parties that undertake to honor it. In the context of a company, it is above all legal notices that must be mentioned on the document.
More specifically, the service provider must include in the contract:
- Name of the company of the maintenance firm which employs it, its legal form, amount of its share capital, head office address, RCS registration number and city where it is registered with RCS;
- Your service provider’s contact details, the nature of his work and the date on which he was authorized by his company to sign the contract, as well as the name and work of the person who authorized him, indicated by ” Has gone. ,
Under your designation of the customer, the contract should state:
- The name of your company, its legal form, the amount of its share capital, your head office address, your RCS registration number and the city where the RCS keeping registry is located, where you are registered.
- The name, function and date on which the person representing your Company was authorized to sign this Website Maintenance Agreement.
The website on which the service provider works.
It is in this part of the Agreement that the Software or Website shall be defined on which you mandate the chosen service provider to intervene. The website or software must be defined very precisely as the service provider cannot interfere with any computer other than the computer equipment specified in the agreement. Therefore it is necessary to include in the contract:
- Company name of software/website manufacturer
- seller’s business name
- Software reference and URL address if it is a website
- Date of purchase of software or date of creation of website
- Key functionalities of your software or your website.
The URL address of your site must be mentioned, otherwise the service provider will not be able to identify the device on which it has to intervene.
Missions assigned to the service provider.
The actions for which the chosen service provider is mandated should be precisely mentioned so as to ensure the commitment of the professional in the cases cited. Often, cited missions include:
- Ensuring the continued proper functioning of the website mentioned above, by respecting the maintenance instructions given by the manufacturer or professional who assisted you with the creation of your website and of which you must provide a copy to the service provider.
- Service provider intervention on operational discrepancies noticed on the website
- Support in the event of an incident resulting from a website failure
- Notice of any modifications that may be made to your site at the time of maintenance and delivery of documents relating to the intervention.
These specific missions can be supplemented by additional services upon your request. A response time may also be mentioned.
Services that you will not be able to demand from the service provider.
Mutually binding to the two parties, like any contract, the document contains a portion that provides details on the actions that the service provider will not be obliged to perform. Often, it is up to the service provider to protect itself from disputes in the event of its client’s misuse of the website for which it operates and which may cause damage, such as the deletion of a file.
It is also customary to mention that the service provider cannot, for obvious reasons, interfere with computer equipment other than the subject of the maintenance contract.
provider compensation.
The contract also stipulates the remuneration requested by the service provider and the means of payment. The workings of the website maintenance contract will also be mentioned here: subscription, flat rate of few hours per month, pay on intervention, etc.
Mutual obligations of both the parties.
This part will state the obligations subject to which the service provider and you, as a customer, are. Often, this is a reminder of the privacy rules that apply to a service provider when they interfere with your website. If you fail to disseminate the service provider’s information which may be required to perform the tasks assigned to it, the liability is not specified.
As a Customer, you must undertake to provide the Service Provider with access to your Site as well as to give it access to all necessary information. As a reminder, your service provider is subject to an obligation of confidentiality, which allows you to give them access to your company-related information with complete confidence.
You should also ensure that your service provider has qualified personnel available to perform maintenance work on your website.
Legal notice of website maintenance agreement.
Your website maintenance agreement is subject to French law. This should be mentioned at the end of the contract, which makes it possible to forfeit the relevant jurisdiction in the event of a dispute.
Finally, the contract must be signed by both the parties and the date and city of the signing should be recorded. These are the elements that will make the maintenance document valid.
Our tip for choosing the right website maintenance contract.
Choosing a reliable service provider is essential for the maintenance of your website. It is largely the trust placed by you that will allow you to work in partnership in the most effective way possible to ensure the maintenance of your website and prompt resolution of any problems you may encounter.
Always working with a freelancer specializing in website maintenance can be interesting, in order to benefit from services that are always complete and done with the greatest care.
At Codeur.com, we work with qualified freelancers and ensure to successfully complete the missions assigned to them.