Maintenance, not monitoring.
Kept Running
Kept Running is the plan that takes a First Workflow build and keeps it working over the months that follow. An automation nobody looks after slowly stops doing its job.
We treat the looking after as the product.
What we maintain
We maintain the seven things your First Workflow build handed you. As your business and your tools change, they have to change too. That's the work.
The workflow map gets updated as steps are added, removed, or reordered.
The named owner stays named. When someone leaves, we help you reassign.
The trigger stays connected. When the system that starts it changes, we reconnect it.
The approval boundary stays current. New kinds of actions get added as your comfort with risk changes.
The failure path stays reliable. Alerts go to the right person; fallbacks still work.
The runbook stays usable. We update it as the workflow evolves so a teammate can still operate the thing.
The evidence log stays readable. We make sure you can find what ran, when, with what inputs.
Failure modes we maintain against
These are the four reasons automations stop being useful after six months. We catch them in regular reviews and fix them when something goes wrong.
Silent failures.
A workflow that runs but produces wrong output. Nothing throws an exception; nothing fires an alert. The dashboard says green. The data is wrong.
Drift.
Your process changes step by step over months. The workflow was built against the old SOP. It still runs. It just isn't doing what you need anymore.
Tool changes.
A vendor renames a field, retires a feature or changes how you sign in. The workflow stops firing, or fires with bad data. Sometimes both.
New requirements.
Your business added a new tool, a new step, a new exception. The workflow doesn't know about it.
Monitoring vs. maintenance
Most shops give you the left column and call it done.
| Monitoring what most shops sell | Maintenance Kept Running |
|---|---|
| Sends an alert when something fails | Investigates why something failed |
| Dashboard you check | A person responsible for the workflow |
| Catches errors that throw exceptions | Surfaces silent failures that don't |
| Stops at "the workflow stopped firing" | Updates the workflow when a tool changes |
| Reactive | Active |
| Same workflow forever | Adapts to your business as it changes |
The Five-Minute Test
You own the workflow. You own the runbook. You own the evidence log. You can shut it off in five minutes without calling us. You keep us because the work is good, not because you're stuck.
What's in scope and what isn't
We agree the scope with you and confirm it in writing: which workflows we maintain, how often we review them, and how we handle problems. New workflows, major rebuilds and big scope changes get scoped separately. They don't get quietly folded into the plan.
In scope (typical): maintaining the operating packet for the workflows we agreed to; monthly review; updates when an API change affects an in-scope workflow; incident response when an in-scope workflow misbehaves.
Out of scope (unless we agree otherwise): new workflow builds (that's a First Workflow); 24/7 on-call; uptime guarantees; SLA-bound response times; compliance certifications.
How we scope and quote
Like First Workflow, there's no price on this page. We outline the scope with you, then send the written scope and the quote for your review. The price depends on the workflows we maintain: what they do, how often they run, and how much change they'll see.
FAQ
What's the difference between Kept Running and the cheap monthly maintenance plans other automation shops sell?
How often do you actually touch my workflows?
What happens when a tool changes?
Can I cancel?
What if I want to add a new workflow?
Start with the audit.
Book the AI Readiness AuditFree for now. Not forever.
Or see how the First Workflow build works → /first-workflow