Software rescue and ongoing care

We fix software and keep it running.

A lot of software is written quickly now, much of it with AI tools. Getting it to work once is the easy part. We take over applications other people started, make them safe to depend on and then look after them month after month, along with the hosting they run on. Most of our work is in C#, .NET, JavaScript and Node.js, on SQL Server and MongoDB.

In business since 2013 C#, .NET, JavaScript and Node.js SQL Server and MongoDB
C# and .NET JavaScript and Node.js SQL Server MongoDB Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and DigitalOcean
Apps built with AI tools

Written with AI and now people depend on it

An AI assistant can turn out a working application in an afternoon. What it rarely turns out is everything around the application that keeps it working next month.

The gaps tend to be the same ones. Passwords and keys written straight into the code. No backups. No record of how it was deployed, so nobody can deploy it again. Packages pulled in once and never updated. Code that works fine until two people use it at the same time.

None of that means the work should be thrown away. We read what is there and run it. Then we tell you plainly which parts are sound and which are not, fix the risky parts first and move it onto proper hosting in your name.

From then on it is looked after like any other system on a care plan. It does not matter to us whether a person or a tool wrote the first version.

What we work on

Systems that already matter to someone

Not every job starts from a blank page. Most of what reaches us is already running and somebody is already depending on it.

An internal application that three departments open every morning. An API a customer integrates against and notices the moment it changes. A job that runs overnight and has to be finished before anyone logs in. That is the kind of code we are comfortable in, and it is a different job from writing something new on an empty screen.

The range is wider than it sounds. We have built large C# systems for corporations, with all of the process and paperwork that comes with them, and we have built small websites for small companies where the whole thing started as one person's idea. Both get the same attention.

We are also not particular about whose code it is. A good deal of what we maintain we did not write, and some of it we would not have written that way. That stops mattering once it is in production and people are relying on it.

Quick facts
tektology since
2013
tektology stack
C#  .NET  JavaScript  Node.js  SQL Server  MongoDB
tektology clouds
Azure  AWS  Google Cloud  DigitalOcean
tektology never
C  C++  Rust
Software services

Rescue, care and development

Most work starts as a rescue and becomes a care plan once the system is stable. New development happens inside that when it is needed.

Project rescue

A build stalled, the developer left or the app was put together with AI and nobody is sure what is in it. We take over what is there, find out which parts work, make it safe to change and then carry on.

  • A review of the code and the infrastructure
  • Making it stable and safe to change
  • Picking development back up
How a rescue goes

Ongoing care

Software goes stale if nobody touches it. Dependencies fall out of date, certificates expire and an operating system upgrade breaks something that had worked quietly for six years. We handle that steady trickle so it never collects into an emergency, on software we built and software we did not.

  • Monitoring, updates and security patches
  • Upgrades off versions that are out of support
  • Older C# and .NET systems
C# and .NET support

Software development

New features on a system we look after, or a new build when there is nothing to start from. We write down what the software has to do and what it does not, because the second list is what keeps the cost in check.

  • Web applications, APIs and internal tools
  • C#, .NET, JavaScript and Node.js
  • Integrations, automation and data work
Managed cloud hosting

Software has to run somewhere

We set the hosting up, run it and keep it patched. Usually in your own cloud account rather than ours.

Most of what we run is hosted off site now, not on a server in the building. If your company has already settled on a cloud provider, we work inside that account rather than asking anybody to move.

Domains, DNS, certificates, backups and monitoring all live in the same account, so everything the software depends on is in one place and in your name.

How managed hosting works
Websites for community groups

Small sites for groups that are not companies

A club, a church, a youth league, a neighborhood association. A few hundred people who care about the site and nobody obvious to look after the hosting.

Who this is for

Volunteer groups, small nonprofits, clubs and local associations. There is no IT department, and whoever built the last version has usually moved on.

We can hold the hosting

For a site this size we can run it on our own account, so there is no login for a committee to pass around and no renewal that lapses because the treasurer changed. A site like this costs very little to run.

Still yours to take back

The domain, the content and anything we write stay yours. If the group wants to move it or run it themselves, we hand over the files and the logins and answer questions for whoever takes it on.

Why TEKTOLOGY

What working with us is like

No account managers and nothing that ties you in. We are not trying to become permanently necessary to you.

You talk to the person writing the code

There is nobody in between. Whoever answers your email is the one who will be in the code that afternoon, so nothing gets softened or lost on the way through. It also means you get a straight answer when something turns out to be harder than it looked.

Built so you can leave

Everything goes into source control you have access to from the first day, and it gets documented while it is being written rather than in a rush at the end. If you want to bring the work in house or hand it to somebody else, you should be able to do that without asking us for anything.

We stay after it goes live

Going live is not the end of the job. We keep looking after what we build for as long as you want us to, so nobody new has to learn the system when something needs fixing.

How we work

How a project runs

You always know where things stand, and you get working software to look at along the way instead of one delivery at the end.

1

Discover

We work out what you are trying to do, which is not always what the first email describes. What happens today, what goes wrong, who has to live with it and what would count as finished. If software already exists we read it and run it before we say anything about it.

2

Design

Then a plan. What gets built, in what order, roughly what each part costs and which parts carry the risk. Written in plain language, so you can question any part of it. If the budget does not fit, we would rather cut scope now than find out halfway through.

3

Build

We deliver in small pieces and each one goes somewhere you can log in and use. If we read a requirement differently than you meant it, you see it early, while it is still cheap to put right.

4

Support

Once it is live we keep it running. Updates, patches, monitoring and the small changes that only surface once people are really using it.

Care plans

One monthly arrangement for everything after launch

Support is the larger half of this business, and most of it is not dramatic. It is the ordinary work of keeping a system healthy. Watching it, updating it and fixing the small things while they are still small.

A care plan puts all of that under one agreement, the hosting included. The monthly amount is settled before it starts, so the cost does not depend on how hard a month it was.

How ongoing support works
Questions we get asked

Before you email

The things people usually want to know first.

How do you charge?

There is no rate card, because the jobs are not alike. A rescue is quoted as a piece of work with a clear edge to it. A care plan is a monthly amount. Both are agreed before anything starts, so you get a number rather than a range that quietly moves.

Can you take over an app someone built with AI?

Yes. We review it the same way as code a developer left behind. Some of it is sound and only needs the gaps around it closed. Some of it needs parts rewritten. We tell you which before any money goes into fixing it.

Who owns the code?

You do. The code, the documentation and the accounts the software runs on are yours, not kept on a machine here that you have to ask us about.

Is our project too small, or too big?

Probably neither. Our work has run from large corporate systems down to websites for companies with a handful of staff. If a job really is wrong for us we will say so early rather than take it and struggle.

Will you work with developers we already have?

Yes, and it is common. Sometimes that means taking one piece nobody has time for. Sometimes it means covering a system the team inherited and does not want to own. We are not trying to displace anybody.

Is there anything you will not take on?

We do not work in C, C++ or Rust. A project that needs one of those is better off with people who specialize in it. If your system needs one, we tell you in our first reply.

What if we have not picked a cloud provider?

Then we suggest one that fits the size of the job and tell you what it will cost to run before anything is built on it.

Do we have to have our own cloud account?

For a company, we would rather you did. It is a cleaner arrangement to end when the accounts were never ours to begin with. A small community group is the exception. Keeping a cloud account alive is more than most committees want to take on, so we can hold that one.

What if we want to bring it in house later?

Then you can. We hand over the code, the documentation and the logins, walk your people through it and stay reachable while they settle in.

Have software that needs looking after?

Tell us what it does, what it was built with and what worries you about it. We will come back with questions, then an answer on cost and timing.

Get in touch Or email sales@tektology.com directly.