Services

Types of contracts

Dedicated offshore team

This is undoubtedly our most popular type of contract, as Pentalog currently has more than 40 dedicated production teams. The "dedicated team" contract has been specifically designed for customers who :

• do not have a project with a clearly defined scope
• want to coordinate their remote team themselves
• want to have a versatile team (development, maintenance etc.)

• Principle

We set up a team which is completely dedicated to the development of your activity, in the production center that is most adapted to your requirements. We undertake to offer you our resources and infrastructure. Moreover, this type of contract offers more flexibility and allows to make several changes to the project. Then, the project manager carries out an impact study in order to draw your attention to the differences in terms of workload and deadline. Finally, with a dedicated team you also have the possibility to participate in the project management in order to be as close to the development as possible.

The typical dedicated team is generally made up of :

• a project director based in France, in Romania or in Germany depending on your location
• a project manager located in the production center
• three developers
• a tester

A dedicated team can vary in size from 3 to 20 people and can be distributed on one or several production centers. Depending on the size of the team that we are going to set up, other roles will be added to the team, such as the team leader, the quality engineer etc. In case of dedicated teams of more than 20 people, it may be interesting to consider setting up a competence center, particularly if the project also includes maintenance and upgrades.

• Invoicing

Invoicing is done on a time-spent basis, each day of work is due, based on an activity report signed by you.

We can relate invoicing to performance criteria :

• Third-party application maintenance :

• The deadline for taking a bug or an upgrade into account,
• The deadline for solving a bug or carrying out an upgrade,

• Development :

• Observing the coding rules required by the client (code structure, comments, dead code etc.)
• Observing the workloads and deadlines

Fixed-price contract

The fixed-price contract, which is more restricting than the previous one, is particularly well suited for customers who :

• have a project with a perfectly defined scope
• want a fixed-price commitment
• do not want to take part in the project management, but can get involved in development
• want a guarantee for the developed application

• Principle

Based on your general conditions and your specifications, we provide a workload assessment and draw up a development schedule. Then we make a cost evaluation in order to offer you the fairest price.

Based on these elements, Pentalog commits to the project scope as it is specified in the commercial offer or in the corresponding specifications record, to the deadlines announced by Pentalog and to the estimated budget.

This type of contract is more restricting than the dedicated team as it involves the strict respect of what was defined at the beginning of the project. Any modification request related to the initial scope is subjected to an impact assessment (workloads and deadlines) by the project manager, followed by an update of the contractual schedule.

• Invoicing

The invoicing is done according to the bill-book defined in the commercial offer which generally includes a fixed advance before the beginning of the service, a percentage of the total price with each delivery and a reserve which is due at the end of the guarantee period.

Technical assistance

Technical assistance is the most popular type of contract among IT services companies. It consists in offering qualified staff either on your premises or in our production centers. This type of invoicing is particularly well adapted for clients who :

• have not defined the framework of their project
• want to have one or several qualified people in their office for development activities or tasks related to project management or the defining of needs
• want to have one or several qualified resources under their responsibility in one of our production centers and who do not want to formalize communication

• Principle

Based on a profile selection that Pentalog offers you during the commercial stage, the employees who match the profile you selected are made available to you either on your premises or in one of our production centers. The management of these people is entirely left to you, as Pentalog has a commitment to means.

• Invoicing

The invoicing is done according to the time spent, based on the activity report drafted by the Pentalog employee and signed by you.

SLA

SLA is a contract which imposes a commitment to service quality. This type of contract is especially designed for maintenance, facilities management or hosting services. It is particularly well suited for clients who want :

• A commitment to service continuity
• A commitment to service quality
• A commitment to response times

• Principle

At the beginning of the project, Pentalog's project director (or commercial director) and the client define the indicators (calculation method, data source) and the commitment values (level to be reached by Pentalog). In each steering committee, or at the end of each month, Pentalog's project manager calculates these indicators and enters them in a report which will serve as a basis for invoicing.

• Invoicing

The invoicing is done based on the monthly indicators calculated by the project manager.