Both Peter and Vadim have have been designing and implementing web applications for many years. We have extensive experience dealing with consultants and support organizations from various vendors. As a result, we know what we like and hate as customers. And because we spent years working for MySQL Professional Services at MySQL AB, we've been on both sides of the fence. We know how to deliver great service.

When you work with us, we want you to get the maximum value out of the transaction. We've spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to provide that value. The following are our guiding principles:

You Only Pay for Results

We have extremely high standards for ourselves, and we bill only the time an expert takes to solve a problem. If we need to learn or refresh our memory on something we should be expert in, that's not billable.

Efficient Consulting

We organize our services for maximum effectiveness, so you're getting the most bang for your buck. We do most of our work remotely, which minimizes waste. If a customer needs time to provide documentation or sample performance data, or if a backup job takes 3 hours, we simply switch to other tasks and stop the clock, so you don't get billed for time we're not actively working on your job. We can also mix onsite and remote consulting efficiently: we can come onsite for a short kickoff meeting, followed by working remotely, reviewing results, and giving advice.

We have high standards. You'll be surprised at how often we complete your job in fewer billable hours than you estimated. We achieve this by developing and fine-tuning our internal tools and procedures. Plus, we bill only the time we spend actually working. We do research on our own time, not yours. You're paying for competent advice, not our education.

Fast Response Time

When you need help, we try to respond as fast as possible and schedule the job soon. Typically we'll respond to your email in a matter of hours (or faster depending on timezone) and can start working on non-urgent tasks within 48 hours from your initial request.

If you have an emergency, we'll work around the clock if necessary. If you're not already a customer, we'll take care of the paperwork later. We don't try to force you to buy a support contract as insurance, which is what you'd get with another vendor who would force you to buy a support agreement before working with you.

Take Responsibility

Our consultants learn your business, take responsibility, and make things happen. That means we'll remind you if we're waiting for something from you. It also means we'll follow up on related issues. For example, if we set up replication for you we'll check with you to ensure your application is designed for replication. And we'll make sure we know why you want replication, so we can advise you about how to really achieve your goals.

Keep it Personal

We won't lose you in the shuffle like the big vendors do. You won't get a different person each time you call, and you won't get transferred or forced to tell your story again and again. You'll get a dedicated consultant who's part of a team of peers. This person will learn your business, saving you time and money. The other team members read all emails and review the progress. Of course, we have all your critical information on file, so when that consultant goes on vacation the rest of the group will be able to help.

Learn the Application

If we have a support contract, we'll make sure to take some time to learn the application and environment; and ensure we have the documentation that will help us resolve problems and answer questions quickly.

Hands-on or Advice

Exchanging emails back and forth is often the least efficient way to get to the problem. We're ready to login and take a look at the application or use instant messaging, phone calls, or skype for a quick turn around. Reduced downtime saves you time and money.

All customers Are different

Different customers have different processes policies and needs and we're able to give you just what you need. One man shops often would like us just to "make things work" which we're happy to do and provide report with things which were done. Other customers would like interactive iterative process of us giving advice they implementing changes and looking further. Other organizations would like nice report in Word/PDF which they can show to the management and decide which advice to follow. We can do that as well.

Satisfaction Guaranty

We would like to be Costco in the Consulting Business - providing great value services (does not mean cheap) and great quality guarantees - if you're not happy with services we've provided let us know and we'll adjust or will not bill you for them at all.

Software and Information wants to be Free

We develop software - tools and patches which help us to work efficiently or helps you to get most of your MySQL/LAMP applications. We also do a lot of research in field of performance for MySQL and LAMP applications. We never charge for any of these - they are available for free download or free to read.

Bill for Work

Businesses often try to increase the "leverage" - to get more money for same amount of hours put in by engineers. This is why many companies prefer to sell Support or Subscription instead of consulting. We take the opposite approach and charge based on amount of work we perform (with little on-call premium) and it does not matter how many servers you have and how much services you need. We think it is fair and it is how it should be.

Be Independent

We often get offers to resell products and get comission charges but we never do it. We can review certain products and recommend them if it is good. We have discounts with certain vendors and we will push them back to you if you decide to pick this vendor but we are independent and not compensated when we recommend you something. We think this is what you should expect while paying consultants - to have them work for your benefit rather than being someone elses sales person at the same time.

Buy What you Need

Different customers have different requirements and different budgets available. We have no minimum engagement, which is completely unique in our market. You can buy help in 15-minute increments.

Support Startups and Open Source

We love Innovation, Startups and Open Source and think these groups deserve special treatment. If you're in startup phase and can't pay for our services we would often be able to give you discount, or take delayed compensation or equity as a payment if we love what you're doing. If you're running non-commercial open source project we also would be willing to provide you free help in some cases. We also run Forums providing free help to anyone as time permits.

Reduce Sales Involvement

A thing many technical people hate is too much sales and marketing talk. We sell a lot on the technical level, so we try to to keep things technical as much as possible. We have NO sales staff! Your request will be answered by an account manager, with immediate access to a knowledgeable technical person who knows what he is speaking about and will understand the problems you're having. If there's a technical question, the account manager asks the consultant; if it's at all involved, you will soon find yourself on the phone with one of the world's leading experts in the field. If you need to talk about legal and admin topics, the appropriate people will be involved.

Work now Bill Later

We do not require advance payment for our services. As soon as we have contract signed we're ready to go and we'll bill you monthly or on project completion. Of course, you have control over the hourly cap to have no surprises.

Weekly Time Sheets

We send you time sheets weekly to keep you aware of the time spent to give you further control over your expenses, and so all time related questions you may have can be resolved promptly.

Review and Escalation

If you would like to get second opinion on the topic we're always happy to do so. Furthermore we make sure to review complex cases or when we do not see good solutions to the problem between us. If you want the case to be escalated to Peter and Vadim we'll do that on first request.

Deliver promises in time

We strive to deliver promises in time as you should expect it. If there are some unexpected delays you should expect us to get back to you with explanations and work with you on alternative schedule.