Annual maintenance contract
Koha AMC: A Signed Annual Maintenance Contract for Your Library
One contract, twelve months. We upgrade, back up, monitor and fix the Koha you already run, and send you a written report, so looking after it is somebody’s job.
Why libraries sign one
Maintenance is a responsibility, not a favour
Most Koha systems do not fail loudly. They drift, and the cost arrives months later as a missed notice or a failed upgrade. A contract is what puts a name against that responsibility.
“Our finance office wants one contract and one invoice, not a favour from whoever is free.”
“The person who set Koha up has left and nobody has a signed responsibility for it.”
“Everything works, so nobody checks. Then the fines stop and a term’s worth of overdue notices never went out.”
“We call a freelancer when it breaks. By then it has been broken for weeks.”
“The auditors asked who maintains the library system and the honest answer was “nobody, formally”.”
“We are several Koha versions behind and no one owns the upgrade.”
What the contract covers
What an AMC includes, and what it does not
The scope is the same at every level. What changes between levels is how often we check, how fast we respond, and how much is included rather than quoted.
- Koha version upgradesRehearsed on a copy of your data first, scheduled around your term dates
- Backup monitoring and restore testsRestored to a scratch system and checked, not just “backups run”
- Scheduled jobs verifiedFines, overdues, holds queue, message queue
- Notice deliverySMTP, SPF/DKIM, bounces: a notice in spam is a notice that did not happen
- Security patching and TLS renewal
- Troubleshooting and fixesCirculation rules, fine rules, patron categories, reports
- Z39.50 and SRU target maintenance
- Staff questions answeredBy someone who already knows your configuration
- A written reportWhat we checked, what we found, what we changed
- Moving to a new systemA project, quoted separately
- New custom featuresA project, quoted separately
- RFID and other hardwareQuoted separately
How the year runs
Proactive, on a schedule you can see
A ticket queue waits for you to notice. The failures that actually hurt a library are the ones nobody notices, so the contract is built around going to look.
A scheduled check, all year
The contract is a calendar, not a ticket queue. At each checkpoint we verify the scheduled jobs ran, restore a backup to a scratch system, test that notices reach inboxes, and apply the security patches that are due. Checkpoints are quarterly on Managed and Managed +, and yearly on Essential. We find the failure; you do not have to notice it first.
A written report you can file
After each checkpoint (or the annual review on Essential) you receive a short report: what was checked, what passed, what needed attention and what we changed. It is the paper your library director, your IT office and your auditors ask for, and it exists because we did the work, not because we wrote it afterwards.
Levels
Three levels of Koha AMC, no price list
What a library needs varies more than any published tier could capture, so the quote follows a conversation. What is fixed is what each level includes.
Essential
A single-branch library with a working system and no in-house technical staff.
- Security patching and TLS renewal
- Backup monitoring
- Koha version upgrades once a year
- One annual review, with a written report
- Email support, next business day target
Managed
The common choice. A library that wants the system to be somebody’s job.
- Everything in Essential
- Scheduled jobs verified: fines, overdues, holds
- Periodic restore tests, results sent to you
- Notice template changes included
- A quarterly checkpoint, with a written report each time
- Priority response during your working hours
Managed +
Multi-branch or university libraries where an outage stops a service desk.
- Everything in Managed
- Named contact who knows your configuration
- Report writing and custom queries included
- Upgrade scheduling around your term dates
- Fastest response target, agreed in writing
Response targets are agreed in writing for your library rather than published as a number. A commitment we cannot keep is worth less than one we can.
The document
What is written into every contract
Your office should know what it is signing before it signs. These four things are stated plainly, in the contract itself.
Scope in writing
The system covered, its version, the number of branches, and exactly what is in and out. No argument later about which side of the line a request fell on.
Response targets you can hold us to
Agreed for your library and written into the contract, not advertised as a number we might miss. Anything that has stopped circulation is urgent at every level.
Access, documented before anyone connects
A named account, not a shared one, key-based and scoped to the work. You can revoke it at any moment without asking us.
Term, renewal and leaving
Twelve months, renewing automatically each year so your cover never lapses. You can end it by giving notice before the renewal date, and the notice period is stated in the contract before you sign. If you leave, you take MARC21 and CSV exports of everything, and we help hand it over.
How it starts
From first conversation to first checkpoint
You do not have to have installed the system with us, and you do not have to explain how it got to its present state.
Step 1
A short conversation
What you run, how many branches, who looks after it now, what has been going wrong.
Step 2
An audit of the system
Version, configuration, scheduled jobs, what the backups actually contain. Nothing is changed at this stage, and it is why the quote follows a conversation.
Step 3
A contract sized to you
The level we recommend, the scope, the response targets and the term, in a document your office can approve.
Step 4
Fix, then maintain
Anything urgent is repaired first. After that the system moves onto the schedule and stops being an emergency.
Something broken right now and no contract yet? See Koha support. Want your own staff to run it day to day? Koha staff training gives them live sessions on your own Koha.
Or let us host it
On Koha Cloud there is no contract to sign
An AMC is for the Koha you run yourself. If we host it, upgrades, backups, monitoring and security patching are simply how the service runs.
FAQ
What libraries ask about an AMC
What is a Koha annual maintenance contract (AMC)?
A signed agreement under which we look after your Koha for twelve months. It names the system covered, what we do on a schedule (upgrades, backup restore tests, checks on the scheduled jobs and on notice delivery, security patching), how you reach us, and how quickly we respond. You get a named service instead of finding someone each time something breaks, and your finance and procurement office get a single document to approve.
What is the difference between an AMC and one-off support?
One-off support fixes the problem you have today. An AMC is for the problems you do not know about yet: we check the jobs, the backups and the notices on a schedule, so a failure that would have run quietly for months is found by us first. If you only need one thing fixed, say so and we will quote that; if you want the system to be somebody’s standing responsibility, that is what the contract is for.
Can you take on an AMC for a Koha that someone else installed?
Yes. Most contracts start that way. We begin with an audit of what is running (version, configuration, what the backups really contain), write it up, fix the immediate faults, and only then does the maintenance schedule begin. The audit is why the quote follows a conversation rather than a price list.
What does an AMC not cover?
Work that is a project rather than maintenance is quoted separately: moving to a new system, a new custom feature, RFID or other hardware, and a large data clean-up. Everything that keeps the system you already have running (the list on this page) is in the contract. The scope is written down when you sign, so there is no argument later about which side of the line a request fell on.
How much does an AMC cost?
It depends on how many branches and users you have, how fast a response you need, and the state the system is in when we start, so we quote after a short conversation instead of publishing a number that would be wrong for most libraries. Tell us what you run and we will reply with the level we would recommend and its price.
Do we need an AMC if we host with Koha Cloud?
No. On Koha Cloud the upgrades, backups, monitoring and security patching are part of how the service runs, so there is no separate maintenance contract to buy. An AMC is for the Koha you run yourself, on your own server or with another host.
What happens when the twelve months end?
The term is twelve months, and the contract renews automatically each year so your cover does not lapse. To end it, you give notice before the renewal date; the notice period is written into the contract you sign, so you know it before you commit. If you leave, you take your data with you: MARC21 for the bibliographic records, CSV for patrons, holdings, circulation history and fines, and we will help hand it over. Nothing in the arrangement is designed to make leaving hard.
Related reading
Before you sign anything
Whether you choose us or someone else, these will help you ask for the right things.
How to choose a Koha support provider
What to ask, what to ask them to put in writing, and the answers that should worry you.
Read the guideThe Koha cron jobs nobody checks
Fines, overdues, holds: the scheduled jobs that fail silently and take months to notice.
Read the guideKoha backup and restore
How to take a backup that actually restores, and how to prove yours does.
Read the guideOther services
Get a quote
Get an AMC quote
Tell us what you run and what you need looked after. We reply with the level we would recommend and its price.