Ongoing Site Maintenance

Like any piece of software, a website needs support, ongoing maintenance, and enhancements to improve its overall performance. Our clients partner with us to provide ongoing site maintenance long after a website is launched.

We hear consistently from prospective clients:

"The company that built our Sitefinity site...

...does not want to maintain it."
...does not respond quickly enough."
...gave us something that is not user-friendly for administrators."

Common Support and Maintenance Requests

 
Sitefinity Performance 

When built using best practices, Sitefinity sites are fast. Sometimes, performance problems can be solved with coaching about better content management practices. Other performance problems may require more technical research. Regardless, Smooth Fusion is equipped to troubleshoot any performance issues. 

Speed of Response 

One of the most common challenges we hear is vendors not responding to work requests promptly. Our CSMs, PMs, and SAs are available by email and phone and typically respond to most requests within a few hours. Our ability to complete work is based on the total amount of work in the pipeline, but maintenance requests can often be completed well within our clients’ desired timeframe. 

Easier Content Management 

It is not uncommon for a Sitefinity site to have “monolithic” widgets. These widgets allow for essential content management but in a very inflexible way. Sitefinity is a powerful and flexible CMS that should allow non-technical marketers to create dynamic, beautiful content with ease. If you cannot create custom landing pages, for example, talk to us to see if some coaching or potential development work could be done to increase your power. 

What You Can Expect

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Weekly Reporting 

Every maintenance account will receive weekly reporting which contains information about budgets, schedules, and pending work. PMs manage the process of report creation with our internal systems.

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Deployment Pipeline

Each site we maintain, including sites we do not host, has code tracked in source control and an Azure development environment. Once the code has been tested in the development environment, we use software tools or Sitefinity’s SiteSync feature to deploy changes to the live site.

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Local Network Engineers

Our network engineer who manages Azure hosting is in the same building as most of the developers. This gives us the ability to efficiently collaborate on deployment or other hosting environment challenges. 

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Around-the-Clock Access

Digital marketing veterans have learned that unexpected things happen at unexpected times. Smooth Fusion is ready to help during Sitefinity emergencies.

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Software Engineers on Call

One of our in-house software engineers is on call at all times to resolve whatever issues may arise.

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Responsive Team

To ensure a fast response, we also provide an email address that contacts the entire project management team and executive team. 

24/7 website support

Call us 24/7

Smooth Fusion maintains an emergency phone number if the need arises to contact us after hours.

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Short, Bi-Weekly Meetings

The Sitefinity team meets twice weekly to communicate about projects. These meetings move quickly and give all team members the ability to learn from each other. These meetings also allow us to meet schedule demands and efficiently discuss any challenges.

Why Smooth Fusion

Most sites have unique needs and setups:

  • Some are hosted on Azure, whereas others are hosted internally
  • Some have source code control, whereas others do not
  • Some have deployment pipelines, whereas others do not
  • Some were built with Sitefinity conventions, whereas others were not

The Smooth Fusion team will work with your IT, previous vendor, marketers, or other stakeholders to assess the needs and create an onboarding plan.

Most Smooth Fusion maintenance clients choose to use Smooth Fusion managed hosting with automatic Sitefinity upgrades and security patches. When Progress releases a new version or security patch, Smooth Fusion developers will upgrade your site or apply the patch, and our quality assurance specialists will test the upgrade before it is deployed to your live site.

Smooth Fusion can automatically upgrade and patch sites we do not host as well. Talk to us to figure out a plan that makes sense for you.

Smooth Fusion can work with a wide variety of budgets for Sitefinity maintenance. Let’s talk about your needs so that we can craft a plan that makes sense for your organization.

Smooth Fusion is equipped to tailor a maintenance plan to suit each client. Generally, maintenance engagements fall into one of the categories below:

  • Continual
    These clients are working with Smooth Fusion on a near-daily basis. Some clients contract dedicated development resources and maintain a consistent backlog of work. For these clients, the sites often deploy new updates on a weekly basis.
  • Recurring
    Some sites need frequent updates, but not quite to the level of daily discussion. These sites may have bi-weekly or monthly deployments.
  • As needed
    Some sites simply need a maintenance partner who can be available when the rare request for help comes up.

Before we begin maintaining your site, a Smooth Fusion solution architect and network engineer will assist with the migration. Migration may include moving the site into the Smooth Fusion Azure environment. Or, it may simply mean gaining access to deploy to your existing environment. Regardless, our team will work with you to ensure the migration is as smooth as possible.

A Smooth Fusion software engineer will analyze your site to understand how it was built. Were Sitefinity APIs used? Was custom code used when out-of-the-box functionality would have been sufficient? Is custom code organized? Does the site allow for non-technical-user content management? Our analysis of your site will allow us to give you more accurate estimates for maintenance work. It will also allow us to work with you to develop a roadmap to ensure the site can handle future needs

While we do excel as Sitefinity developers, our services also include consulting, UX/UI design, support, and training.

The Smooth Fusion team is large enough to handle most maintenance work with our in-house staff, most of whom work from our office in Lubbock, Texas. All Smooth Fusion employees are equipped to work from home in the event of emergency.

Smooth Fusion publishes resources, including tutorials, tips, and advice, which are useful for minimizing costs and working together more efficiently.

Our team processes are structured to allow for efficient handling of maintenance requests.

We offer managed hosting on Microsoft Azure. Combined with Smooth Fusion maintenance, our managed hosting makes your Sitefinity experience truly turnkey.

Every maintenance account receives weekly reporting with hours, budget, and work status. Of course, if more frequent or custom reporting is needed, your Smooth Fusion project manager is here to help.

Smooth Fusion employs Sitefinity Certified developers and managers. Our team has been maintaining Sitefinity sites since version 3.2 back in 2009.

Smooth Fusion offers you flexibility. Whether you need updates once daily or once quarterly, Smooth Fusion can craft a maintenance plan to fit your needs.

Every Smooth Fusion client has a Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, and Solution Architect. This team is here to get you a quick response and turnaround time on strategy, design, and implementation work.
case study image for customer sales portal on sitefinity

Featured Sitefinity Case Study

Sitefinity CMS Allows Biamp to Deploy Campaign Pages at the Speed of Business

Each week, marketers at Biamp build bespoke, data-driven landing pages for products and conferences without developer intervention. How? Progress Sitefinity CMS with support from Smooth Fusion. 

Read Case Study

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR

A Sitefinity Maintenance Partner?

We want you to find the right Sitefinity Partner for your organization. A good place to start is to ask your current partner or any potential partners these questions to help you make a well-informed decision. Send us a message and we will help you determine if Smooth Fusion is the right fit for you.

 

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