Put your support commitments into writing

A general services contract often does not deal with the operational detail that matters once software or IT support begins. Ongoing support usually raises questions about response times, service windows, what counts as a fault, what is excluded, who can request support, and what happens if third-party systems are involved. If those points are not documented properly, clients may assume broader obligations than you intended. A dedicated support and maintenance agreement lets you define the support model clearly and allocate responsibility for recurring issues, updates and service limitations.

These agreements commonly cover the support services being provided, service levels or response targets, maintenance windows, incident handling, exclusions, fees, client dependencies, access requirements, confidentiality, intellectual property, data handling, liability limits and termination rights. Some also deal with software updates, version support, subcontractors and whether on-site work is included. The document needs to line up with your actual privacy practices, including how information moves through the business, so data-related clauses need to match what your team actually does when accessing systems, logs, user accounts or hosted environments.

That depends on your support model, the systems you touch, the sensitivity of the information involved, and whether the service is reactive, preventative or tied to a broader software subscription. We will usually need to know your service hours, target response times, escalation paths, exclusions, use of subcontractors, and whether you access customer environments remotely. Your data collection points, internal use and third-party sharing arrangements all affect the way this should be drafted, because those real-world practices affect what the contract should say about permissions, responsibilities and risk allocation.

A template may help with structure, but it often misses the points that create friction in live support relationships. For example, generic wording may not explain whether support includes bug fixes, user training, feature requests, third-party integrations, after-hours incidents or security-related work. It may also gloss over how customer data is accessed during troubleshooting. A tailored agreement is usually more useful where your support process has defined service levels, technical exclusions or privacy-sensitive workflows. You receive practical guidance on the issues in scope, while any broader risk position depends on your documents, conduct and implementation.

Not in a full operational sense. We can draft or review the contractual wording dealing with data handling, confidentiality, access rights and related responsibilities within the agreement, but this service does not include technical implementation, security remediation, system hardening or a full cyber response plan. If your support model involves sensitive data or elevated security expectations, that may affect how the contract is written, but the legal document is only one part of the overall picture. Separate technical and operational advice may still be needed depending on the service you provide.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Support And Maintenance Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.