Support - Onboarding

Start support with shared expectations

We prepare the access, responsibilities, recovery checks and ways of working needed for dependable Drupal support.

Why support onboarding matters

Most handovers miss the engineering basics that make support efficient: local dev, real test data, automated checks, and a clean pipeline. We fix that on day one so incidents are easy to reproduce, improvements ship faster, and change risk stays low.

What we do during onboarding

Access & security readiness
Set up secure team access (hosting, DNS, SSL, repos, VPN if required). Confirm roles and contacts so incidents route fast.
Codebase & repository alignment
Migrate or mirror to GitHub when needed, align branching strategy and standards, and clean up secrets handling.
A reliable working environment
Prepare a consistent setup, use a recent sanitised copy of site data and document the steps our teams will follow.
Repeatable checks and releases
Set up relevant automated tests, security and accessibility checks, and a consistent path to stakeholder review.
Documentation & licensing
Create a concise site summary, capture integrations, track paid licenses and renewal dates, and map data flows.
Monitoring & response readiness
Check backups, records and alerts. Agree escalation paths and test the response process against your support level.

How we work with your team

Clear ownership and comms
Define primary contacts and responsibilities so triage, approvals and deployments move without wait states.
Joint backlog & triage
Agree a ticket intake path and prioritisation model that suits your cadence and risk profile.
Data-safe collaboration
Use sanitised production snapshots for reproducible fixes while protecting sensitive information.
Enablement when you need it
If you have in-house developers, we align workflows and conventions so both teams ship as one.

What we need from you

Primary contacts & SLA level
Names, email, phone for key stakeholders and your chosen support plan.
Access & credentials
CMS, hosting, repo, DNS, SSL, VPN details where applicable.
Integrations & licenses
Third-party services (e.g. CRM, mail, data APIs) and any license keys.
Testing scenarios
Existing test cases or a short list of critical user journeys to cover first.
Recent production snapshot
A sanitised database/file snapshot so we can reproduce issues locally.
Prior maintainers (if any)
Who worked on the site before, which is helpful for context and knowledge transfer.

What to expect in the first month

• A reliable working environment for our support team
• Agreed safeguards for changes to your website
• Repeatable checks working before stakeholder review
• Essential user journeys covered by initial tests

• A website summary covering key systems and licences
• Monitoring and alerts checked against your support level
• Agreed priorities and release schedule
• A shared backlog with the first improvements underway

Typical onboarding effort is 10 to 20 hours. Complex websites or significant setup work can require more. In Priority Support, onboarding up to 10 hours is included; in Critical Availability, up to 20 hours is included. Additional onboarding time is simply drawn from your pre-purchased support hours. If time remains after enablement, we use it to build automated tests for your highest-value user journeys.

Preparing for support, not adding features

Onboarding does not change your website’s business features. It prepares access, working environments, documentation and repeatable checks so support can begin safely. These foundations help routine updates move to review with less manual effort.

We align the website with our supported ways of working so both teams can collaborate consistently. If you already have equivalent standards and tools, we reuse them rather than replacing them.

* Included onboarding applies to our support retainers: Priority Support (up to 10 hours) and Critical Availability (up to 20 hours). Onboarding is for support enablement, not project feature delivery. When onboarding requires more time, such as repository migration, delivery automation or work to repair an environment, additional hours are deducted from your support block.