The following document covers the agreement as well as the terms and conditions for Tecology Consulting Group’s website maintenance plans.

These terms and conditions lay out, in as simple language as we can, our expectations. They are intended to protect you and us from anything unexpected happening when we are working together. These terms are in addition to our standard terms & conditions and associated policies.

For the purposes of these terms and conditions, “we”, “us”, “Tecology” and “our” refers to Tecology Consulting Group Limited., and “you” and “your” refers to you or the organisation that you represent.

1. Our agreement

You are entering into a contract with us, as a provider of website(s) maintenance, hosting and consultancy services, which are outlined below. Services not considered standard maintenance and/or development tasks that form part of this agreement are subject to additional charges, and will not be considered part of this agreement.

For the duration of this contract, you agree that we will be the sole provider of the services outlined in this agreement, for the website(s) and no other party, other than yourself, will have access or the rights to change the website(s) codebase or content.

2. Scope of services

The scope of services include but are not limited to:

1. Hosting: Tecology will be hosting the client’s site(s) using (dedicated shared cloud hosting and/or virtual private servers (VPS) – depending on your chosen maintenance plan). We will be managing the client’s server to maintain optimal server health.
2. Backups: Tecology will be providing full site, and database backups (daily or hourly – depending on your plan), and all backups are stored in the United Kingdom unless otherwise specified by the client for a period of 90 days. We take two copies each time, one onsite and an offsite backup using another preferred cloud hosting solution at our discretion.
3. WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates are performed weekly. After updates are completed, Tecology will inspect the client’s site(s) for bugs and breaks, and any found will be fixed as part of Tecology’s maintenance plan.
4. 24/7 Security Monitoring: Tecology is notified and alerted to all login attempts, password changes, brute force attacks, file changes, and security vulnerabilities. Tecology will respond immediately to suspicious activity and security vulnerability alerts. Tecology has put in place advanced security software, protocols and runs daily malware checks. If a malicious attacker hacks the client’s website, Tecology will notify the client immediately and provide details of the nature and severity of the website hack. Tecology will also clean malware left by the attacker and take immediate action to mitigate damage and harm caused by the hack. Because it is impossible to prevent all hacks, Tecology can not make guarantees to prevent all hacks and takes no responsibility for loss or leaked data, website downtime, loss in sales, leads, and conversions. Note that backups will not be harmed from hacks, and all backup data will be safely stored off-site. Tecology will take all preventive measures to protect the client’s data. And for websites with especially sensitive data, Tecology will recommend additional security plans to the client.
5. 24/7 Uptime Monitoring: Tecology is notified and alerted when the client’s website is down for more than 5 minutes. Tecology will take immediate actions when the client’s site is down and offline.
6. Daily Performance Monitoring: Tecology will run daily tests on the client’s website performance to prevent a dramatic decrease in site speed. In case of a significant spike in decreased performance, Tecology will take immediate action.
7. Website Health Reporting: On [the last working day or earlier] of each month, Tecology will provide the client with a PDF report displaying the current condition of the client’s website.
8. Dedicated Support: Support includes: 1. Client report for bugs and breaks in the client’s site and to be fixed by Tecology. 2. Client to have direct and immediate communication with Tecology for any questions, queries, and concerns. Note support does not include additional development services, new requests for features and items added to the client’s website, and fixing errors caused by the client. The Agency may bill the client an hourly rate for these additional services. Or the client may purchase an additional Retainer Package that covers development services outside this maintenance plan’s scope.
9. Access to a library of Premium Plugins includes plugins to build the client’s site and keep it running optimally. The plugins included are all under Tecology’s license, which covers multiple websites. Tecology’s license is included with the maintenance plans, and once a plan is cancelled, the license will be removed from the website, and it is the client’s responsibility to provide their license. Please contact us if you would like to receive an updated list of our available plugin software.
10. Anything else as advised in your chosen plan or individually agreed / bespoke services.

Important notes

1. We will check for any updates once a week and apply these updates to our local site first, then your staging site and finally, the live site should no issues occur. If problems do occur with an update, we will inform you of the issue. We can then formulate a plan in order to apply a fix, before proceeding to push the update to your live site.
2. Our daily backups are stored on a designated off-site cloud storage solution, you can request a full backup of your data and website at any time and this will be provided within 48 hours. If your site does need restoring from a backup, we will always do our best to help immediately, but we guarantee to look into the problem within 3 working days.
3. We will endeavour to do our very best to migrate sites to other hosts, however, sometimes things are out of our control and we need assistance from such hosts in this process. We are not repsonsible for the level or timescales of that assistance.
4. If your site is down for a set period of time you will receive an email indicating this is the case. We also receive the same email and we will endeavour to assist you to get your site back online as fast as we can. It is important that we cannot guarantee your site will be brought back online in a fixed time period.
5. Automated security scans happen daily and will report back to you of any problems found.

3. Deadlines & Deliverables

We will respond to all requests from you within 24 hours on weekdays and within 48 hours on weekends, via email or our preferred project management tool of choice, usually Plutio. Maintenance requests received after 17:00 Singapore standard time (GMT+8) may not be completed until the next business day unless prior arrangements have been made. We will aim to complete the work as fast as possible and will give you an indication of this time frame once we have agreed on a solution.

4. Authorisation

You hereby authorise us to host a local copy of your site, and a remote staging server (protected via WordPress user logins) of the website site which will be used to test functions and changes on, if we deem it appropriate. Updates to the site’s code will be pushed to your live site using our deployment tools and require access to the live site with appropriate credentials, either FTP, sFTP or SSH.

5. Third-party developers

From time to time, other developers may need to have access to and to make changes to the codebase. You agree that in order for us to carry out our duties under this retainer, any changes requested by a third party must be done so using our development setup process and the changes reviewed by us before going live.

6. Payment details

Payment can be made monthly via our payment processor, Stripe, and we will provide the instructions and services to facilitate this payment method. All payments are made upfront before work begins.

Your first payment may be slightly more than recurring payments as it could include part of the current month or from the date on which the agreement was first made.

7. Cancelling your contract

There is no long-term contract, and Tecology’s clients are free to cancel their website maintenance plans at any time. We do not believe in locking our clients on a plan but allowing them to use our service as long as they need it. 

Condition for cancelling a plan: The client must give at least a 30-day notice and the final 30 days payment. The 30-day notice and final payment cover all current hosting and management service expenses and provide ample time to prepare the client’s website to be transferred to the client’s hosting. 

Please note, transfer for the site will take place after the final payment. If, after 30 days, the payment has not been made, an additional 30 days will be billed for the following month. 

8. Migration Terms

Website migrations and transfers: There will be no additional costs or transfer fees if the client decides to cancel their plan. Migrations and transfers are free for clients under Tecologys Maintenance Plans.

9. Bug Fixes

Tecology is responsible for fixing bugs and breaks on the client’s website caused by plugin, theme, WordPress core updates, and normal wear and tear. However, Tecology is not responsible for bugs and breaks caused by the client and non-agency user error. Tecology will need up to 5 business days to fix bugs and breaks reported by the client.

10. Additional Development Terms

Additional development services include requests for new features to be added to the client’s website, new content, images, and webpages, change in website structure and design. For these additional development services, there will be additional costs that will need client approval before proceeding. This can be agreed via a standalone contract for services or via one of our retained service plans.