Why this proposal
Following a productive engagement since December 2023 on a time-and-material basis, Raylytic has requested a transition to a fully managed service model. Under this model, Smartspot assumes complete, end-to-end responsibility for Raylytic's entire IT landscape — including planning, architecture, execution, and reporting — without the need for day-to-day oversight from Raylytic's management.
This transition reflects the growing scope of IT responsibilities and Raylytic's need for a single, fully accountable IT partner covering all aspects of infrastructure, operations, and strategy.
- Operational reliability, stability, and proactive issue prevention
- Full alignment between IT strategy and Raylytic's business goals
- Scalable, secure, and cost-efficient infrastructure management
- A single point of accountability for all IT matters, reporting directly to the COO
How the team is structured
Smartspot will deliver a dedicated two-engineer team of Senior DevOps Engineers covering all Romanian legal business days (Monday–Friday, 8 hours per day, excluding public holidays). The two-engineer structure is a deliberate design choice to ensure service continuity and resilience.
Full Coverage Guarantee
If one engineer is unavailable, the second provides full 8-hour coverage — no interruption, no exceptions.
Shared Knowledge Base
Both engineers maintain complete, up-to-date knowledge of all Raylytic systems — zero single point of failure.
Parallel Workstreams
Both engineers are actively engaged daily, enabling parallel delivery across multiple domains simultaneously.
The team operates with full autonomy over planning, prioritisation, and execution. Strategic direction comes from the COO; technical recommendations flow upward to inform those decisions. Regular collaboration involves the Product Manager and Senior Developers on the Raylytic side.
What's included
All service areas below are fully covered within the managed service. Everything is self-managed by Smartspot — planning, prioritisation, and documentation for certification audits included.
Infrastructure & Cloud (OVH)
- Full lifecycle management, incl. ordering & decommissioning
- Network architecture & firewall (OPNsense)
- High availability & disaster recovery
- Cost optimisation & capacity planning
DevOps & Platform Engineering
- CI/CD pipeline management (GitLab CI)
- Kubernetes & container orchestration
- IaC: Terraform, Helm, ArgoCD
- Deployment automation & release management
System Administration
- Linux server administration
- Database administration: MariaDB & PostgreSQL
- Backup management & restore validation
- Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki
Security & Compliance
- Security best practices & hardening
- Identity & access management
- ISO audit support & technical documentation
- Incident response coordination
Collaboration Tools
- Atlassian: Jira & Confluence administration
- Microsoft 365, Intune, OneDrive management
- Licence management & configuration
- Note: end-user laptops remain employee-managed
Strategic Advisory & Reporting
- Architecture decisions with trade-off analysis
- Cost optimisation recommendations for COO
- Monthly written status report to COO
- Ad-hoc IT strategy consultation
Response commitments
Commitments apply during standard business hours — Romanian legal business days, Monday–Friday, 8:00–17:00, excluding public holidays.
| Priority | Example | Response | Resolution Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 – Critical | Production outage, data loss risk | 1 hour | 4 hours |
| P2 – High | Significant service degradation | 4 hours | Next business day |
| P3 – Normal | Standard tasks, improvements | Next business day | Agreed in sprint |
Pricing & budget
Base Service — Daily Rate
The service is billed per working day. Raylytic pays for actual service days delivered, post-delivery, consistent with the existing working relationship.
| Item | Rate / Amount |
|---|---|
| Daily rate (8 hours per business day) | 680 EUR / day |
| Working days in 2026 (Romanian calendar) | 250 days |
| Maximum annual budget 2026 | 170,000 EUR |
The daily rate of 680 EUR corresponds to 8 hours at 85 EUR/hour. The 250 working days are derived from the full Romanian legal business calendar for 2026 (261 weekdays minus 11 public holidays falling on weekdays). The 170,000 EUR is the ceiling Raylytic can plan against; actual billing reflects days delivered each month.
Monthly Billing Reference — 2026
Working days and corresponding service cost per month:
Additional Hours (over 8h/day)
Work beyond the standard 8 hours must be pre-approved by the COO before being carried out:
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Additional hours beyond 8h/day (pre-approved by COO) | 100 EUR / hour |
Extended coverage OPTIONAL
An optional on-call arrangement extends coverage beyond standard business hours, into evenings, weekends, and public holidays. Separate from and additional to the base service.
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| On-call availability fee | 400 EUR / week |
| Intervention – weekdays (outside business hours) | 100 EUR / hour |
| Intervention – weekends & public holidays | 120 EUR / hour |
Illustrative Budget Sample
Based on: on-call activated monthly · one weekend intervention (1h) · one weekday out-of-hours intervention (1h):
Monthly estimate
Annual estimate
Actual costs vary with activation and intervention volume. On-call must be agreed in advance on a weekly or monthly basis.
The fine print, simplified
| Initial Term | 12 months from contract start date |
| Renewal | Automatically renews for 12-month periods unless terminated |
| Notice Period | 3 months written notice required from either party to terminate |
| Billing Basis | Per working day (Romanian legal calendar), post-delivery |
| Additional Hours | Pre-approval from COO required before any extra hours are worked |
| Invoicing | Monthly, post-delivery (arrears), net 14 days |
| Security Deposit | One month's service amount is payable in advance prior to contract commencement. This deposit is not an additional fee — it is held and offset against the final invoice at the end of the contract term. |
| On-Call | Optional; must be activated and agreed in advance (weekly or monthly) |
| Annual Review | Review of scope, SLAs, and commercial terms at end of each contract year |
Flexibility
Smartspot understands that budget planning is a key consideration. We are open to discussing adjustments to scope or phasing of services to align with Raylytic's budget expectations, while maintaining the quality and reliability this model is designed to deliver. Any adjustments would be documented and agreed in writing prior to contract signature.
Let's build something great together.
Smartspot has been a trusted IT partner to Raylytic since December 2023. Our Senior DevOps Engineers bring deep expertise across infrastructure, platform engineering, and IT operations — backed by extensive experience in support organisation leadership and systems engineering at a global level.
We're committed to a long-term strategic partnership where Raylytic's IT is fully in capable hands, freeing your team to focus on product and business growth.