Website and App Maintenance in China

QPSoftware provides website maintenance services in China for companies that need a reliable technical team after launch, including for websites built by another agency. Founded in 2009 and based in Shanghai, our team maintains websites, online stores, CRM platforms and apps. Our work for LVMH Watches & Jewelry included the maintenance of its MYKE CRM, and for Baby International Blu, the installation and maintenance of an Apache server with backup tools and monitoring scripts.

Maintenance can follow a project with our web design company in Shanghai, or start on a platform that another team built, after a first audit.

What our website maintenance covers

Maintenance keeps a platform secure, up to date and useful. Typical requests include:

• Updates and security. Keeping WordPress, Drupal, Magento, PrestaShop or Drupal Commerce and their plugins up to date, and troubleshooting a platform that has been attacked.
• Bugs and urgent changes. Fixing front-end and back-end bugs, making urgent changes, and repairing a back office left in poor shape by a previous provider.
• Content and features. Updating content on a website, an online store, a Mini Program, a CRM or an ERP, and adding a page, a plugin, a feature or a new payment method.
• Performance. Speeding up a slow website, and adapting a website that is not optimized for mobile.
• Visibility. Improving a website that is poorly referenced and brings no contacts.

Backups come first. Before an update, or after an attack, a recent copy of the files and the database is what makes recovery possible: read how to back up a website and why it matters. Moving an older website to HTTPS is another common task, explained in our guide to converting a website from HTTP to HTTPS.

Corrective and evolving maintenance

We offer two approaches to maintenance:

1. Corrective maintenance fixes the existing bugs and issues of a platform or an application.
2. Evolving maintenance combines those fixes with other tasks that make the platform evolve, such as a new feature, a new page or a new design.

Maintenance for websites used in China

Websites that serve users in mainland China need a few extra checks:

• Blocked services. New themes and plugins can load Google Fonts, Google Maps or reCAPTCHA, which do not load reliably in mainland China and slow pages down.
• Speed. Hosting, images and caching need regular review. For a website hosted abroad, see how to optimize site speed in China with a CDN.
• ICP filing. A website hosted in mainland China must keep its filing up to date. The MIIT filing rules require changes to the filed information to be declared 30 days in advance, so a change of domain name or hosting provider needs planning.
• Online stores. Payment integrations such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay need testing after each update.

How a maintenance contract works

Every maintenance starts with an audit of your platform, to understand the technology it is built on. We then need the accesses to work on it: database, back office, FTP files and, when required, SSH credentials.

1. You send us the list of bugs or requirements, we create it with you, or we test the platform ourselves to detect the bugs.
2. We estimate the time needed to solve each issue or implement each change.
3. We propose a maintenance contract with a number of hours, which may or may not match the estimate.
4. Once you accept it, we start the tasks and track the real time spent on each one.
5. The time spent is deducted from the hours of the contract.
6. A report lists the completed tasks and the time spent on each.
7. When the hours run out, or if tasks remain, we suggest a new contract to finish them.

Websites, online stores and apps we maintain

We maintain corporate websites, e-commerce websites, ERP, CRM and BI platforms, WeChat Official Accounts, Mini Programs, web applications and native apps. Our team works with Drupal, WordPress, Symfony, Magento, PrestaShop and Drupal Commerce, and with WeChat, iOS and Android, so a single team can look after a platform built with several technologies.