Solutions / 05
Support and consulting
IT consulting and ongoing technical support: we help you work out what to keep, what to replace and in what order, without upending what already works.
The problem
Every piece has its own supplier, every tool its own logic. Over the years, systems pile up that do not talk to each other, alongside suppliers that do not coordinate. Without the whole picture, every technical choice looks like a risk.
Examples
What it looks like once it is handed over.
Six concrete scenarios to see straight away what shape your project could take. If yours resembles one of them, we already have the groundwork to build on.
Assessment
What you actually have, put in order
Programmes, licences, data and integrations inventoried one by one, with what each one carries and what each one risks beside it. At the end, a list of things to do, in the order worth doing them.
- Inventory of systems
- Risks in order of weight
- A staged plan
Monitoring
The watch that runs through the night
Automated checks every few minutes on everything that has to stay up. When something stops answering the alert goes out, and more often than not the problem is closed before the office opens.
- Checks every 5 minutes
- Alerts straight away
- A monthly report
Releases
Updates that do no damage
Every change goes through the same gates and lands first on a staging environment identical to yours. Only what has been seen working reaches production, and it can be rolled back in a minute.
- A staging environment
- Released out of hours
- Rollback in a minute
Support desk
Support requests, tracked
One place to raise an issue and watch its state, instead of an email chain where it stops being clear who owed what to whom. With response times measured rather than promised.
- History of requests
- Response times measured
- One named contact
Remedial work
A plan to get out of it, not a list of complaints
Everything that needs putting right on one board, in columns that run from "seen" to "done". Every row carries a cost and a priority, so it is clear what happens now and what can wait.
- Priorities agreed
- An estimate per item
- Progress in the open
Takeover
Taking over from whoever was there before
Code, credentials, data and documentation taken on without stopping the company. The old system stays up until the new one has proved it holds, and the data moves across exactly once.
- Migration verified
- No downtime
- Credentials back in your hands
What we build
Process analysis
We map how the work actually flows, which rarely matches how it is supposed to flow, and point out where software can take friction away, in order of impact.
Choosing the solution
An impartial comparison between products already on the market and custom development, with licence, adoption and exit costs written down before anything is signed.
Reviewing existing software
A review of what you run today: soundness, security, performance, future maintenance cost, and the risk of depending on a single supplier.
Ongoing support
A steady technical contact for reports, fixes and small improvements, with response times graded by severity.
Taking over from another supplier
We pick up projects built by others, with an honest inventory of what is there and a plan to make it safe without switching the company off.
What we deliver
The result is a document you can decide with: issues in priority order, a documented comparison of the options and a plan broken into stages, each with its own estimate.
When the relationship continues as support, the contract states the service levels and the systems we take on stay documented. Because the knowledge has to live in the company, not in one person's head.
What is included
What comes with the work, and is not billed separately.
Software does not end on the day it is handed over. These are the terms we work under on every project, written down before signing rather than treated as an extra to quote for six months later.
6 months of support included
On every project we deliver, at no extra cost.
6 months of support included
Every project we deliver comes with six months of support in the price: defect fixes, security updates and the small adjustments that only show up once people are using it. It is not a separate retainer to sign.
Privacy and GDPR, in writing
Roles, responsibilities and data processing, defined
When a project involves processing personal data, we define the roles and responsibilities of each party and put the necessary agreements in writing. If LivenBit processes data on the client's behalf, we draw up the agreements the GDPR provides for and identify the relevant security measures. Any impact assessment is carried out when the nature and the risks of the processing call for one.
Protected data, European infrastructure
Encryption in transit and at rest, where provided
We protect communications with encrypted connections and take appropriate measures to protect stored data. For projects hosted on our European infrastructure, we check where the services used are located and the terms of the suppliers involved. The measures applied are set according to the project and the risks it has to be protected from.
Least access, and it is logged
Roles, permissions and a second factor on anything that touches your systems. Every access is named and recorded, and when the project closes our credentials are revoked: it is a line on the handover checklist.
Backups that are tested, not just taken
Backup copies and periodic restore tests
For the systems covered by the service, we provide backups with a set frequency and retention period. Copies are protected according to the risk and, where the management plan provides for it, kept on a separate environment. We check periodically that they can be restored, to reduce the risk of a backup turning out to be unusable just when it is needed.
Your data stays yours
Your business's data stays yours. We provide ways to export and hand over the project's data in usable formats, in line with the characteristics of the software and the contractual agreements. The terms of access to the source code, the materials and the infrastructure are clearly set out, with no surprises when the time comes to move to another supplier.
Related services
Get started
Is there something in your processes worth automating?
Describe the situation in a few lines. We come back with an assessment of feasibility, timing and the order of magnitude of the cost.