AI Engineering
Ecommerce Engineering
Product Engineering
Product Design
Platform & Integrations
Managed EngineeringStill Here Years Later
Most agencies build it and leave. We stay on as the engineering team behind our clients' platforms for years, on retainers with defined response times, not a maintenance contract nobody remembers signing.
We Treat Retainers Like a Relationship, Not a Support Queue
Most retainers start as a support contract and quietly become insurance nobody expects to use, until something breaks and the response time in the contract turns out to be aspirational. The tooling and the ticket system were never the hard part. Staffing it consistently is.
We keep the same engineers on an account for years, not months, so context doesn’t reset every time something goes wrong. Response times are defined by severity, in writing, and tracked against what actually happened, not what the contract promised.
Then we show our work. Monthly reports cover what came in, how fast it was resolved, and what’s changed on the platform since the last one. A retainer run this way is the reason clients stay for years instead of quietly shopping for a replacement.
Most “Maintenance Plans” Are a Line Item, Not a Team
A retainer that nobody staffs consistently is worse than no retainer at all: you’re paying for coverage that isn’t there when something actually breaks. Most of what goes wrong with retainers isn’t the work. It’s who’s actually on the other end of the ticket.
A different engineer every time you call
SLAs with no teeth
What a Retainer Actually Covers
Six things included in every retainer, roughly in the order they get used.
Defined Response & Resolution SLAs
Severity tiers with response and resolution windows in writing, not a vague “we’ll get to it” buried in a contract.
Dedicated Engineering Hours
A block of engineering time each month that rolls into real work (bug fixes, small features, upgrades), not just firefighting.
Emergency & After-Hours Support
A defined escalation path for the 2am problem, so “critical” means someone’s actually paged, not a ticket waiting for Monday.
BST Group, three storefronts on one install
Version & Dependency Upgrades
Core platform, framework, and dependency upgrades handled on a schedule and tested before they ship, not left until end-of-life forces the issue.
Monthly Reporting & Reviews
A written readout of what came in, how fast it closed, and what’s trending, reviewed with you every month, not filed and forgotten.
Scope That Flexes With the Account
Retainer hours that can shift from support to a small feature build some months, without renegotiating the contract every time priorities change.
BST Group, three storefronts on one install
How a Retainer Actually Runs
Four stages, each with something you can check before we move to the next one.
Onboarding And Baseline
We document the stack as it exists today: what’s running, what’s fragile, what needs fixing first. You get a written baseline before the clock starts on any SLA.
Severity Tiers And Response Times
We agree what counts as urgent versus routine, in writing, with response and resolution windows for each. Nobody has to guess what “critical” means when a ticket shows up.
Dedicated Engineers, Not A Queue
The same one or two engineers stay on your account, so the third ticket doesn’t start from zero. Continuity is the actual product; the ticket system is just where it’s tracked.
Monthly Reporting And Review
You get a written readout every month: what came in, how fast it closed, and what’s trending. Changes to scope or SLA happen at this review, not mid-crisis.
Managed Accounts, Not One-Off Builds.
Rental and lease-to-own commerce on Magento
A musical instrument retailer that sells, rents and leases. Standard Magento sells a thing once, so we built the rental, lease-to-own and school-programme side, and we have run the store since 2020.
2020built, and maintained by us since
Six years keeping a supplements store fast and current on Magento
A direct-to-consumer supplements store we built on Magento in 2020 and have maintained entirely in-house since, through every upgrade since.
2020built, and maintained by us since
Where Continuity Matters Most
Five sectors where losing institutional knowledge costs more than the retainer does.
Healthcare
Ecommerce & Retail
Fitness & Sports
Business Solutions
On-Demand Solutions
What Clients Say
Teams on a retainer with us, on what changed once the same engineers stuck around.
I have been working with Sookshum Labs directly and indirectly for over two years and very much recommend this company. We have been commissioning apps and websites for our clients in the UK using Sookshum Labs development services.
Our journey into the world of eCommerce started around eight months ago. We knew what we wanted but had no idea of how to get there. Sookshum-Labs patiently guided us and worked with us, at our speed, to build an eCommerce store we are proud of. Right from the start we found them to be professional and efficient. They did what they said they would do, on time and as agreed. We never had to push them for deliverables. Their project management was tight, and I felt we were always in control of our project. I would not hesitate to work with Sookshum-Labs again.
We have been working with Sookshum Labs for close to two years and they are outstanding. We have a fairly complex ecommerce site and regardless of the problem, Vipin and his team are fast to respond, fix, and offer solutions that have really helped our company. They are incredibly strong communicators, do excellent and fast work, and I could not recommend them more highly.
I had the pleasure of working with the Sookshum Labs on various projects (Magento – mobile development) and I recommend them for their attention to details and ability to deliver high quality web design. The team went above and beyond our expectations. I would strongly recommend them.
Wonderful experience with Sookshum Labs team. Projects were estimated accurately, team was responsive and clear, launches were smooth and they were able to accommodate some complex customizations and commerce rules. Thank you!
Moved our whole mobile and web build here after our last vendor missed the timeline and blew the budget. Three stores then, five now.
I have worked with Sookshum Labs many times now. I am always impressed by their professionalism, the high quality of their work, and their timeliness in completing work by the due date. I highly recommend them to anyone in need of engineering and development services. Keep up the great work!
Sookshum Labs team are very good at what they do. I recommend them strongly.
Talk to the practice, not a sales queue.
30 minutes with an engineer who has shipped this exact problem before.