We check at intervals — without being asked
A system nobody looks at decays quietly: extensions fall out of support, certificates approach their expiry date, an interface breaks overnight and nobody notices. So we do not wait for you to report anything. At agreed intervals we go through your system: core and extension updates, security status, backups and whether they can actually be restored, loading times and Core Web Vitals, error logs and interface logs.
What we find does not end up in an unreadable report, but in a short note with three categories: done, should be done, can wait. You decide — but you decide informed and in time, not under pressure after an outage.
Suggestions before you ask — if you want them
Anyone who looks after a system for months sees things that get lost in day-to-day business: a checkout step where noticeably many people drop out. A category page that has become slow. A search query you almost rank for. A process that could be automated. On request we raise such improvements ourselves — with the effort involved and the effect we expect, so you can judge whether it is worth it.
If you would rather we did not, we leave it. Some customers want a quiet operation and get in touch when something is due — that is a legitimate decision too. We ask at the start which kind of working relationship you want, instead of bothering you with offers you never asked for.
A maintenance contract with defined response times
A maintenance contract for your website is not a subscription for the occasional update, it is a commitment with a service level agreement (SLA). You know when we respond, what is covered and what work beyond that costs. For critical faults the response times agreed in the SLA apply.
We apply security updates for TYPO3 up to v14 LTS, WordPress and Shopware 6 promptly after release — core, extensions and plugins. Testing happens before they go live, not after. And because a CMS is only as secure as its surroundings, we keep PHP 8.x and MariaDB current as well.
One contact who knows your project
Your request does not land in an anonymous queue, but with a fixed contact who knows your project — the code, the history, the special cases. That spares you the most tedious part of many support requests: explaining everything from the beginning again.
You can reach us Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 16:00 CET, on +49 441 21 21 63 0 or by email to info@sharpness.de. In an emergency — an outage, a hacked installation, a shop that takes no orders — we reprioritise immediately. Planning, build and operation come from one team here; nobody has to go and find the department in charge.
Taking over a website, even without documentation
The previous agency was sold, changed its focus, or simply stopped answering. The case is more common than people think — and rarely a reason for a relaunch. We take over existing TYPO3, WordPress and Shopware projects from other agencies, even without documentation and without an orderly handover. The change of agency itself is unspectacular: access, repository, database — then the work begins.
It starts with an inventory: code base, installed extensions, PHP and database versions, how far updates have fallen behind, open security holes. The result is a prioritised list — what has to happen now, what can wait and what is no longer worth doing. Only after that do you decide about a maintenance contract, not before.
What you will not hear from us: that your predecessor's code is bad on principle and everything has to be built again. Since 1999 we have inherited enough other people's code in PHP development to know that most of it can be kept running — if someone looks at it seriously.
Ongoing development while the system runs
Go-live is the beginning, not the end. A new landing page, an extra form, an adjusted extension, one more field in the checkout — that kind of work does not need a project setup with a kickoff and a specification document. Within the maintenance contract we implement small developments directly, with short paths and no overhead.
When a requirement grows beyond the small format — an ERP connection, a shop of your own, a custom application — it becomes its own project with its own scoping. The advantage stays the same: the team that runs your website also develops it further.