Subcontractors & Third Parties Used in Your Delivery
Progressive Robot occasionally engages specialist subcontractors or relies on third-party tools and platforms to deliver your project. This article explains how we manage this transparently and what it means for you.
When We Use Subcontractors
We may use trusted subcontractors for highly specialist work — for example, a specific cloud security audit, a niche technology integration, or surge capacity on larger projects. When we do:
- The subcontractor works under a formal written agreement with Progressive Robot that includes confidentiality and data protection obligations
- Progressive Robot remains fully accountable to you for the quality and delivery of all work, including that done by subcontractors
- You deal with Progressive Robot as a single point of contact — you do not need to manage the subcontractor directly
- Where your contract requires our prior written consent to subcontract, we will notify you before engaging any third party
Common Third-Party Platforms & Tools
Many projects involve commercially available platforms, SaaS tools, or cloud services. We will always recommend tools that are fit-for-purpose, cost-effective, and appropriate for your needs. Common examples include:
- Cloud hosting: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, DigitalOcean
- Payment processing: Stripe, GoCardless, PayPal (PCI-DSS compliant; card data is never stored by us)
- Email & communication: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Mailgun, SendGrid
- Project management: Internal tools including this CRM portal
- CDN & security: Cloudflare
- Monitoring & observability: Datadog, Grafana, Sentry, PagerDuty
Where a third-party platform is central to your project, its costs (licences, subscriptions) will be clearly itemised in your estimate.
Third-Party Licence Costs
If your project requires paid third-party licences or subscriptions, you have two options:
- We procure on your behalf and pass the cost through to you (shown on your invoice with no markup, unless otherwise agreed)
- You procure directly under your own account and grant us access — this is often preferable for ongoing subscriptions so billing goes directly to you
Your Project Manager will advise on the best approach for each tool during project planning.
Vendor Support & Warranties
Third-party platforms have their own support channels and SLAs. Where an issue is caused by a third-party platform (not our code or configuration), Progressive Robot will liaise with the vendor on your behalf and provide guidance, but resolution timelines are governed by the third party's own SLAs.