The Authorized Service Provider (ASP) network is a dedicated team of web site design and development experts who can help you get the most out of your online presence. Members of the ASP network are a lot like you. Fiercely dedicated and
passionate, mostly small independent business people who earn their
living applying their experience to help you accomplish your goals.
If you are a developer or designer interested in becoming an ASP,
please click here.
For TennisConnect customers, your membership in the Tennis Industry Association provides for the use of the TennisConnect software which is focused on the interactive functionality that helps you grow your business. The design, organization, and content of your web site is up to you.
The ASP network can help you achieve your design goals as well as provide any ancillary web site services and customization of your web site.
Work is not limited to design. The ASP network can help you:
- Implement an online shopping cart
- Manage email accounts
- Create custom forms for data capture "your" way
- Search engine optimization
- Provide general support for video, slide shows, surveys, etc
- ... pretty much anything you would like your web site to do for you.
Everybody wants to set you up for success, so please consider the following when posting a project or requesting a quote:
Project types
Do you have a specific task that needs to be accomplished? Or are you looking for a longer term content manager? You'll find both types or resources in the ASP network. No task is too small when you need help. Understanding the nature of the relationship you are looking for will help us and help you engage the best resource for your needs
Drivers
What is driving your project request? Is it to coincide with a grand opening? A recent expansion? A local event? An internal business goal? How will you measure success? We will be able to help you better once we know what is driving your project request.
Lead times
It helps to have dates or time frames (even deadlines), and to know the reasons for the time frame. Most development projects work backwards from critical dates to ensure the lead times can be met and the deliverables stay on schedule. Please discuss the dates and deliverables for your project request
Cost ranges
Service costs are in line with general market pricing. The ASP network will often be able to complete a request in less time than someone is totally unfamiliar with the TennisConnect platform. Most providers offer a fixed bid provide based on an estimate of hours, and then an hourly rate for ongoing maintenance, followup requests, or expanded project requests.
When discussing costs with your ASP, it usually helps to share your budget or range that you are comfortable spending. This will allow the ASP to "work with you" to expand or contract the project scope to fit into your budget.
Generally, rates will be approximately:
- Custom programming, forms, secure payment forms, etc $80-125/hour
- Creating a brand new custom theme or modifying an existing theme that involves CSS $70-$100/hour (modifying an existing theme will take less time but it requires the same skill set)
- Design, graphics, cascading menu's, creating layouts - working on a part of your web site (instead of the whole overall site) $40-60/hour
- General site maintenance, converting documents, creating pages, optimizing graphics etc $30-50/hour.
Please note: most project requests will involve a blend of skills at different rates, so the "ongoing maintenance" rate will not always tie out directly to the initial project estimate.
Scope creep
The hardest part to meeting your expectations arises when the details of your request start to expand. There may be underlying prerequisites to the project request that are not readily apparent. Your ASP will be pro-active in the vetting process. There are acceptable degrees of ambiguity however that may affect the final project delivery and/or cost.
Payment terms
Ordinary payment terms for project requests are 50% payment upon project initiation and 50% upon project delivery. All ASP work is warranted by the ASP against errors, omissions and typographical errors for 30 days during which corrections are not billable.
Our role
Most tennis providers are expert buyers when it comes to tennis equipment. It is relatively easy for you to make an informed decision in your area of expertise. Contracting for web site services however is probably not your area of expertise and you may fell a bit uneasy before committing to a project.
This is actually one of the reasons for creating the ASP network; to provide you with a group of credible, authorized service providers with whom we have a relationship and can assist you if a discrepancy arises.
We are here to help you understand your choices, and to provide objective input or feedback as required.
Warrantee
ASP's warrant their work for 30 days. If something stops working after 30 days of working correctly, it is most likely that some variable outside of our control has changed (new browser, browser new release, even minor operating system patches). If you need your ASP to update their work due to some outside factor, it is reasonable to expect to pay for it.
Independent relationship
While we recommend that you explore the use of the ASP network to meet your online presence needs, any resulting work order or engagement is between you and the ASP.
Related Articles:
Using the Project Board
Becoming an ASP
Article ID: 136, Created On: 9/27/2010, Modified: 10/11/2010