After a tool goes live, something will need attention: a fix, an update, a new user or a change in how the firm works. Monthly support is meant to cover that.
This article describes what it should include and how to evaluate a provider, without naming one. Our earlier article explains why support matters.
The problem
Support agreements are often vague. The firm learns what is not covered when something breaks.
A provider who is hard to reach, or who is the only person who understands the system, is a risk of its own.
What is known
We found no independent study that compares support models, and we give no figure for what support should cost or how fast it should be. Those depend on the firm, the tools and the matters it handles.
What is certain is that a written agreement can state scope, response and responsibility, and that a firm can ask for these before it signs.
What to do
- List what the agreement covers: fixes, updates, small changes, training for new people and monitoring
- List what it does not cover, and how extra work is requested and priced
- Ask for a written response time for each kind of problem, and who answers
- Ask who has access to the firm's systems and data, how that access is limited and how it is removed
- Ask how changes are made and tested, and how they are undone if something goes wrong
- Ask for a short report each month: what was done, what is open and what is planned
- Ask what happens at the end: whether the firm can leave, and what it receives when it does
- Ask how the provider keeps the system understood when one person is not available
Warning signs
- The terms are verbal or too vague to check
- Only one person at the provider knows how the firm's systems work
- The provider will not say who can access the firm's data
- There is no way to export the data or to leave without losing it
- The provider promises results or legal conclusions it cannot control
What to look for when you implement it
- Whether the agreement is in writing and says who is responsible when something fails
- Whether the firm owns its data and can export it in a usable format
- Whether documentation of the setup exists and is kept up to date
- Whether the provider asks about your attorneys' confidentiality requirements and does not offer legal conclusions
- Whether the provider avoids promising results it cannot control
- Whether the agreement can be reviewed or ended with reasonable notice