Even a small or mid-sized BtoB company with no dedicated web staff can keep its site running continuously. The key is not to hire a full-time specialist but to embed an outside party as a function within the company. tentus enters as a member of your web team under a quasi-delegation (junin'nin) contract, and for our longest-standing clients we have kept operation running for five years.
What follows are the questions we often hear from BtoB companies that cannot staff a dedicated web role.
Q. We're a small-to-mid-sized BtoB company with no dedicated web staff in-house. Is running a site continuously simply out of the question for us?
No, it isn't out of the question. In fact, you'd do well to assume that companies without dedicated staff are the majority. On BtoB frontlines, in most cases it's someone in general affairs or sales planning who looks after the web as a sort of 'de facto duty.' The problem is less the absence of a person than the fact that the structure isn't built around that absence. If you convince yourself that hiring a full-time specialist is the only answer, you end up stuck—unable to hire, and so nothing moves forward. Just changing that makes things considerably easier.
Q. I don't really understand what quasi-delegation web operation even is. How does it work?
Quasi-delegation web operation is a form of contract in which we take on the work continuously as a function within your company, rather than a deliverable-based contract (ukeoi). At tentus, in this form, for our longest-standing clients we have kept operation running for five years. Whereas a deliverable-based contract draws the line at 'once this site is built, we're done,' quasi-delegation takes on the very act of keeping things running. That's why it doesn't end at delivery. The closest image is that, instead of hiring one full-time specialist, you continuously add that function from outside.
Q. If we don't hire a full-time specialist, there's no one who'll take responsibility for looking after it, right?
tentus comes in not by 'placing one person inside the company' but by 'embedding an outside party as a member of the in-house team.' Because it takes the form of quasi-delegation, we can work within your chain of command. In other words, we create a state in which we occupy one of the seats on your web team. The difference from hiring a full-time specialist is that you gain the practical skill set immediately, without bearing the risks of recruiting, training, and turnover.
Q. Without anyone in the role, I don't even know what to ask for in the first place.
That's perfectly fine. In fact, many people start from exactly there. tentus makes sorting out the 'I don't know what should be done' the very first job. What state the site is in now, where things have been left untouched, and which high-priority improvements matter most—we take inventory of this together and turn it into a to-do list. You don't need to firm up what you'll ask for before coming to us. Coming empty-handed is perfectly fine.
Q. Will things be all right if the person holding the role alongside another job is reassigned or leaves?
If anything, that's the greatest strength of embedding an outside party. Because the context and history of operation remain on the tentus side, things don't stall over handovers even when your internal contact changes. The work becoming dependent on one person until 'only they understand it' and turning into a black box—this is the classic pattern by which web operation breaks down. But if the memory of operation remains outside, that thread isn't cut. It becomes a structure that's resilient to personnel changes.