Reserved monthly hours
A fixed block of senior-consultant time, blocked on our calendar for you. Used or not, the capacity is yours every month.
F · Retain
PowerBuilder Continuity Retainer
Reserved senior capacity for a PowerBuilder application you cannot afford to be without. Named consultant, documented secondary, guaranteed response time — insurance against key-person and vendor risk, billed monthly.
- Reserved hours
- Same-day response
- Named senior
- Quarterly review
What's included
Concrete deliverables in a Continuity Retainer
A retainer is not an open-ended commitment — it is a fixed monthly package with explicit deliverables. Every item below is part of the contract, not a vague promise.
Guaranteed same-business-day response
First substantive response within one business day, every time. For production incidents, much faster — agreed in the run book before anything breaks.
Named senior consultant
One senior consultant owns the relationship from the first call. Not a rotating queue, not a shared inbox. You know who picks up the phone.
Named secondary for continuity
A documented secondary senior who can pick up the system if the primary is unavailable. Stays current via the run book — no warm-up time when you need them.
Run book maintained by us, owned by you
Plain-language document describing the application, its dependencies, recent changes, known risks and operational notes. Maintained continuously — handover-ready at all times.
Quarterly health review
Every 90 days: written summary of what we did, what is stable, what is drifting, what to plan for the next quarter. Executive-readable.
Annual roadmap workshop
Once a year: half-day workshop with your team to align on the next 12 months — system risks, planned changes, infrastructure shifts, modernization triggers.
Standing communication channel
Slack, Teams, email, ticket system — your choice. Single agreed channel so requests don't get lost between tools. Response SLAs apply.
When this engagement fits
Typical situations behind a Continuity call
Continuity retainers are less about today's problem and more about tomorrow's. They suit organizations that cannot afford the system to be uncovered — but cannot justify a full-time senior PowerBuilder hire.
We need senior PowerBuilder access without hiring one
The application is critical, but workload doesn't justify a full-time senior. Hiring a junior creates a different risk. A retainer fits the actual demand curve.
The system is stable — but we can't risk being uncovered
Months go by without incidents, then suddenly something breaks. A retainer is the difference between an inconvenience and an outage.
We had a vendor lockout and won't risk it again
A previous consultancy or solo developer left abruptly. The retainer with a documented secondary makes that scenario survivable by design.
Insurance against key-person risk
One internal expert holds critical knowledge of the system. The retainer is a parallel safety net while you address the underlying dependency.
How we work
Onboard, reserve, use, review
Retainers fail when nobody uses them or when expectations drift. We invest in onboarding upfront and in quarterly check-ins so the retainer stays aligned with what the business actually needs.
01
Onboard
Read the system, write the baseline run book, meet your team, agree communication channel and response SLAs. One-off, fixed-fee, usually two weeks.
2 weeks · fixed fee02
Reserve
Monthly capacity is blocked on our calendar. Billing starts. You can use it for incidents, small changes, advisory calls — anything within scope.
monthly03
Use
Single channel for requests. Tracked in a shared backlog. Priority and timeline agreed per item. Run book updated as we go.
ongoing04
Quarterly review
Every 90 days: utilization, what worked, what didn't, what the next quarter looks like. Scope and hours adjustable each cycle.
every 3 monthsFrequently asked
Answers to common questions about PowerBuilder Continuity Retainer
What if we don't use the hours one month?
The reserved capacity is the point of the retainer — you are paying for availability, not just consumption. We don't refund unused hours. In a typical engagement, usage is uneven (busy months and quiet ones) and averages out over a quarter.
Can hours roll over?
By default no, because rolling balances erode the meaning of 'reserved'. In practice, if utilization is unusually low for two consecutive quarters, we re-scope the retainer downward rather than carrying a balance. You only ever pay for what you actually need going forward.
What's the minimum commitment?
Three months minimum so the onboarding investment makes sense for both sides. After three months it rolls month-to-month — 30 days notice to cancel or to change scope. Most retainers run for years; the short notice is a quality control on us, not a planned exit for you.
Is a retainer the right shape for our situation?
Often yes, but not always. If you genuinely need only occasional help, ad-hoc consulting is cheaper. If you need a large block of structured project work, fixed-scope is cleaner. We will tell you honestly in the intake call which shape fits — including 'not us'.
How does the secondary work?
The secondary is a named senior consultant kept current on your system via the run book and quarterly handovers. If the primary is unavailable (illness, holiday, longer absence), the secondary picks up with no warm-up time. You are never relying on one person.
Contact
Considering a continuity retainer?
Send a short description of the system and the risk you're trying to cover — key-person, vendor, post-vendor, post-incident. We'll reply within one business day with a practical retainer scope sized to your needs.
What we need first: PB version, database, current support model (in-house developer, ex-vendor, none), and the risk you're insuring against. That tells us the right retainer size.
NDA-friendly · MSA-ready · GDPR · References on request · Hourly or fixed-fee
Other services
Adjacent engagements
Retainers commonly start after a fixed-scope rescue, modernization assessment or technical-leadership review — once the immediate work lands, the retainer keeps the system safe afterwards.
A · Support
PowerBuilder Legacy Support
Production support, troubleshooting, small fixes, stabilization and continuity for systems that are running but no longer easy to maintain in-house.
SLA · incident · monthly
B · EvolvePowerBuilder Modernization
Upgrade planning, PowerBuilder 2022 / 2025 readiness, UI improvements, deployment modernization, PowerServer / PowerClient strategy.
scoped · phased · safe
C · ConnectEnterprise Integrations
SAP, REST APIs, reporting systems, PDF/document workflows, external platforms — bridging PowerBuilder cleanly into the wider enterprise stack.
SAP · REST · reporting
D · DataDatabase & Performance
Oracle PL/SQL, SQL Server T-SQL, stored procedures, packages, triggers, views and performance tuning of data-heavy enterprise applications.
Oracle · SQL Server · PG
E · LeadTechnical Leadership
Architecture review, code review, mentoring, project coordination and rescue consulting — senior eyes on the difficult decisions that protect the system.
review · mentor · rescue