Terms & Conditions

Policy Statement

As a business performing project and contract based services, Rockware IT has developed business policies, which are strictly adhered to at all times, in all working relationships. They are as follows:

Work Flow

Rockware IT’s work flow during any contracted agreement and/or project is as follows:

1. Discovery Phase – During this phase the proposal and/or contractual agreement and Technical Requirements are developed, as well as deliverables expected**. Once this phase has been completed, the Technical Requirements signed off on and approved, the Discovery Phase and all work done within it, is frozen. Any further additions requested to be made to the Technical Requirements (or any other document/agreement developed during the Discovery Phase) at this point in the project life, will constitute a separate project, a separate price and a separate agreement. Work on another project started after the Discovery Phase will not begin until the current project is fully completed, accepted and paid for. During this phase we will be in heavy contact with you, as described in our “Discovery Phase” policy below, and you can expect to hear from us frequently until the phase is completed.
2. Design Phase – During this phase, the design aspect of the project, if applicable, is developed. During this phase, a design is made based on the agreed upon Technical Requirements. An approval will be obtained on either a mock up, or a test website, either of which will contain an exact view of the end design to be delivered. Once this phase has been completed, the design signed off on and approved, the Design Phase and all work done within it, is frozen. Any further additions requested to be made to the design at this point in the project life, will constitute a separate project, a separate price and a separate agreement. Work on another project started after the Design Phase will not begin until the current project is fully completed, accepted and paid for. During this phase we will be in reasonable contact, often and as necessary, in order to develop an agreed upon design. You will hear from us often until the phase is complete.
3. Development Phase - During this phase, the project is coded, tested, built and completed. No further approvas, requests, additions or changes can be made during this phase. All work done within the Development Phase is based entirely on work created, approved and designed in collaboration with you during the previous phases. Once this phase has been completed, the Development Phase and all work done within it, is frozen. Any further additions requested to be made to the project (or any other document/agreement developed during the project) at this point in the project life, will constitute a separate project, a separate price and a separate agreement. Work on another project started after the Development Phase will not begin until the current project is fully completed, accepted and paid for. During this phase our contact may fall to a minimum, consisting always, at least, of weekly and/or bi-weekly updates, and contact as the need may arise. You may expect to receive updates and needed contacts as they come up. This last phase of work is complex and involved, you will therefore hear from us only as needed, and within regular updates until the phase is completed.

Discovery Phase

Upon agreement for services to be performed, and at such time as a working relationship is established and Rockware IT is awarded the job, project or contract, the very first action to take place is the discovery phase. This is the phase in which investigation is made into the nature of the project, the needs of the project, the desired outcome of the project, the pricing plan of the project, the requirements of the project and the plan for completion of the project. This phase is extremely important and must take place before project work begins. Rockware IT requires any where from one to three telephone conversations to complete this phase, which can last anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes. Once this phase is complete, Rockware IT will deliver a copy of The Requirements for the project to the client, and the client will need to either sign and approve, or dispute any areas not agreed to, so proper changes can be made, as project can not commence until this approval has taken place. Until the discovery phase is complete, Rockware IT will require client’s total cooperation and communication in a timely manner (returning calls/emails, the same day).

Deliverables

In order for Rockware IT to perform all necessary tasks, there are certain types of information that must be received during the Discovery Phase of the project. These may include;

1. Log In to existing website with administrative privileges
2. FTP log in with root access/SSH root access
3. All copy and original images/artwork for all content within website
4. If ftp is not properly set up, or can not reasonably be retrieved, or for any reasonable circumstance, Rockware IT may deem it necessary to request a root log in for the main hosting control panel
5. Specifications of the system the website is hosted on (OS, IP address, DNS Information, etc.)
6. Database access, whether through phpMyAdmin or another client (depending on the way in which the database was originally set up, if remote access was not authorized, it may be necessary to request hosting control panel log in information in order to properly administer db maintenance)
7. It may be necessary for Cpanel to be installed on the machine hosting your website, in order for the above mentioned credentials to be established. If this is in fact the case, Rockware IT can install and configure Cpanel for you, however this will be an additional charge (this will be discussed before the installation is initiated, and in most cases will incur a nominal fee of $50.00 in addition to contracted price)
8. It may become necessary, for any number of reasons, for the client to authorize the hosting company to discuss the technical aspects of the account with Rockware IT, in which case we expect this authorization to be in place within 24 hours of our request for you to do so, in order to maintain a proper work flow and time constraints within both of our schedules

Please note, if for any reason, any of the above, or any other necessary requested information, is not/can not reasonably be attained by Rockware IT, the project will not be able to progress, and will either begin to incur additional hourly charges, or be cancelled altogether.

Payment Schedule

Rockware IT requires 50% payment up front on all projects less than or equal to $1,000.00, and 25% payment up front on all projects greater than $1,000.00. For larger projects, those with a 25% up front payment, there will be two milestones following this retainer, Phase 1 and Phase 2. Upon completion of Phase 1(a mutually approved point) an additional 50% will be paid, then Phase 2 will encompass all aspects left on project, therefore completion of Phase 2 will be equal to the completion of the project, and will therefore warrant the remaining 25% payment. For smaller projects, after initial 50% payment up front, the next (Phase 1) payment will be at a mutually agreed upon point, and will be a 25% payment, while Phase 2, will be the last payment, made after integration is completed, and will be the remaining 25%.

For all work client requests to be done outside scope of project (as laid out in the requirements) client will be charged the rate of $30.00 per hour (Rockware IT’s hourly rate). At the beginning of each week, every Monday, Rockware IT will hand over any time sheets needed to charge for any work requested outside of project requirements, billed at the hourly rate, along with an invoice, and payment will be due upon receipt.

When any Phases or milestones are completed, an invoice will be sent to client and will be due upon receipt. If the invoice has not been paid within 5 days of receipt, a late charge of 2% of the amount due, will be added to the balance on the 6th day from invoice submission date. Should client make payment within 2 days of receipt of invoice, a 2% complimentary discount subtraction from amount due is allowed.

Multiple Projects

If client contracts with Rockware IT for more than 1 project, each project will have a separate discovery phase, each project will have a separate price, each project will have a separate payment schedule-adhering to the payment schedule section of this document, and client will understand that only one project will be worked on at a time, therefore for multiple projects, schedules will be made allowing a certain number of hours per day for project 1, project 2, and so on. Rockware IT will contract for multiple projects at the same time and will work continually at the same time, but certain blocks of time, whether by hours or days, will be dedicated to each, as this is best for organization and making sure each gets equal attention. However, if client requires one project to take specific precedence, and for that one to receive more attention than others, client must inform Rockware IT of this and we will certainly comply.

Client Contact

Rockware IT outlines specific contact needs from client in the discovery phase section of this document. This section refers to all communication outside of that scope, after discovery is complete. Rockware IT is available to speak on the phone with client each day, for a reasonable amount of time, and expects the same from client. Email communication is acceptable for documentation, sharing documents, updates, and the like, but Rockware IT requires client to be available for a phone conversation if challenges or planning specifically call for it as clarification, efficiency and time constraints may dictate. At any time within any contract entered into, Rockware IT reserves the right to terminate contract due to lack of cooperation from client, or client’s representative, without any further obligation.

Development Procedure s

Rockware IT has a very strict management policy for handling site development when other developers and/or site owners have log in access to the site during our development contract. As discussed here in our FAQ section , our procedure for handling this situation is as follows:

1. Rockware will set up blocks of time for our staff, during which we will be the sole developer allowed into the site and all other log ins will be blocked.
2. Before Rockware begins a particular block of time, the state of the site will be documented, and agreed upon by site owner.
3. After we have made any/all edits for that block of time, the changes will be submitted for approval/acceptance by site owner.
4. Once approval/acceptance of all changes made by Rockware has been granted by site owner, site back end will be unlocked and opened for development/log in by anyone other than Rockware.

Under no circumstances, whatsoever, will Rockware Staff perform any edits/changes/maintenance/development on a website, when any other person(s) have log in access available to them.

Rockware IT’s policy is to deal directly with our clients, or their employee delegates (referring only to delegates within the company we are under contract to). We will at no time allow third parties to offer any input into the project, unless these parties are disclosed before work is engaged, before a contractual agreement is reached and Rockware IT approves of each party. If contractual agreement is made with provision for third party input, Rockware IT requires name, contact information and position of all such parties at the beginning of the agreement. Allowing provision for third party input into the project will require a reevaluation of cost and timing, as these types of inclusions can increase the complexity and cost of the work.

Approval and Support

Rockware IT submits all works to client for approval before posting live as finished product. Rockware IT will address any issues client has with submitted work, however, re-writes and re-designs are limited to two sets per submission. Rockware IT is committed to customer satisfaction through-out the project completion process, however re-writes and re-designs must be kept reasonable in order to preserve time constraints, deadlines and work hours.

Monthly Support Plans

Rockware offers three different support plans, all of which are subject to the following terms and conditions;

1. Rockware will automatically bill the monthly amount on the one month (28 – 31 days) anniversary from the initial date of payment. Membership can be cancelled at any time, however, NO REFUNDS WILL BE MADE ONCE THE NEW MONTH THRESH-HOLD HAS PASSED.

Policy Acceptance

Upon acceptance of a written proposal and/or set of Technical Requirements, or hire through any other third party (i.e. Elance.com) by Rockware IT for a project, contract or agreed upon task assignment, all policies, terms and conditions contained within this website are fully accepted and agreed to. These Terms & Conditions are subject to change without notice.

Client Information (Also See Privacy Policy)

Rockware takes the handling and protection of clients’ personal information very seriously. We do not spam, we do not send emails unless receipt of the emails has been specifically signed up for, WE DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH ANY THIRD PARTIES. Due to the nature of our work, and the fact that we handle extremely sensitive data, we do not provide references (personal information (email, phone numbers, etc.) of our past clients) to prospective clients. We do offer live website views, of sites we have built and/or worked on, as well as extensive client testimonies, on both our website located here, and on Elance.com, located here, the latter of which are verified by a third party to be submitted by the person(s) named.

Cancellation

Rockware reserves the right to cancel services based on non-cooperation, untimely payment or terms violation at any time. If the agreement is cancelled during the project, by either Rockware, Client or due to contract violation, any money given for the 1st Milestone is considered a deposit and is NONREFUNDABLE . Rockware will, at our discretion, decide if there is an amount due back to the client, minus our fees for work done to date.

** PLEASE NOTE AS LAID OUT ABOVE, IN “WORK FLOW” AS WELL AS IN “DELIVERABLES ”, THERE ARE CERTAIN DELIVERABLES WHICH MUST BE RECEIVED IN ORDER TO COMPLETE NEEDED TASKS – IF THESE ITEMS ARE NOT RECEIVED, ARE DELAYED/ETC., THIS WILL LENGTHEN PROJECT LIFE AND ALL/ANY ESTIMATES MADE BY ROCKWARE IT WILL NO LONGER BE PROMISED OR EXPECTED! PLEASE BE SURE TO PROVIDE THESE DELIVERABLES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO AVOID DELAYING THE PROJECT COMPLETION DATE AND/OR INCURRING FURTHER COSTS!