Many people are interested in exactly how we price and what they get for their money as a client at each stage of the project when they choose Arteries.
We now answer this in a relevant post.
You get more for your money than you think!
Our clients who work with us pay far more than just for a piece of software, but first and foremost for years of hard work, knowledge and wisdom. We give you a diverse team of experts with a broad spectrum of knowledge whose value is hard to estimate.
We also put the technology behind the team: expensive development software, carefully prepared and configured servers, expensive development workstations, infrastructure, developer offices, analytics and testing software, AI assistants, project management software… etc. All of which you get licensing fees and maintenance when you hire our team for a project.
At the beginning of the project, we will give you a few hours of free advice on how to get started, our professional opinion on the feasibility and our technological proposals. We do not charge extra for this.
Careful planning – an essential part of projects, the foundation of everything
You can plan if you know what you can get out of it. Who knows what the end result should be and what tools and how to use them optimally. These are the colleagues we train in our team, and these are the colleagues who will support you with their best professional skills.
Design is usually done on an hourly basis: you pay an expert hourly rate for the engineers and managers working on the design. Good quality design work pays for itself many times over during the project. Skimping here will cost you dearly later. We strongly recommend that, if anything, this stage should be done by good professionals, with integrity. We are a full partner in this.
Once a system design for the desired solution has been developed, we estimate the labour and material requirements and prepare an accurate estimate for the subsequent stages of the project.
During the design process we also provide a valuable “product”, the specification, which becomes the basis of the project.
The development phase – the deep professional work
With a system design in hand and excellent programmers, a software solution can be created efficiently.
At the start of the development phase, we will ask you for a certain deposit. We will therefore put our capacities on the project and prepare all the necessary tools for the work. With the advance you buy this investment and assure us that you are serious about the order. In return, we dedicate the necessary capacity to the job.
Of course, changes, changes of direction, new requests are also possible at this stage of development: we modify the system plan (with the colleagues who prepared it) and prepare cost estimates based on the change requests (we call them CRs, or “Change requests”). If these are accepted, the development work continues along the new, modified system plan.
The development phase is usually priced on the basis of the resources invested (labour time, value of built-in sub-components, software modules). We ask you to pay in phases, linked to pre-defined milestones (the completion of well-defined sub-solutions of the product to be built), so the project is risk-free: you pay for actual results.
The handover phase
The length of the transfer and the resource requirements vary from project to project, but generally require significant energy. The cost of this is included in the post-planning calculation. During the handover process, we will show you the finished product, talk you through how to use it and, if necessary, train your staff to use it. The completed system will be deployed on the prepared server and other running environments, tested, necessary domain and DNS changes will be made…etc.
This is the stage where the completed system is delivered to your users (we call it the initialisation stage). If necessary, we will optimise the system after the initialisation stage. Usually, based on user feedback, we run additional CR development rounds and continuously tune the system to make it perform as ideally as possible.
If the system implementation is a long period, we also contract a “babysitting” period, during which we provide expert support to all staff and users using and learning the system.
Further development and maintenance of the system
The longest phase of the project is when we are running the completed system, supporting its use, managing change requests and developing the system according to needs. We do this under a support contract, usually on an hourly developer fee basis.
If the development and operation of the system requires high availability – the handling of possible incidents, modification or development requests need to be carried out with a fast response time – then we usually charge a so-called availability fee on a monthly basis. This varies from project to project. For this fee, we will keep the engineering specialists you are likely to need on standby and involve them in the project work as soon as required. Here, you pay for this extra attention, our ready-to-go attention, with the availability fee.
If availability is required, if not: we will deal with any needs, changes or requests for improvements that arise. In all cases, we investigate the requests, prepare a plan for a solution and implement the modification/improvement request with the appropriate experts.
Guarantees – repairs
We offer various guarantees for our systems. Generally, within 12 months of delivery, we guarantee that the system will operate according to the system design, that its intended functions will work and that it will perform its intended function. If there is a shortcoming, we will correct/change it as soon as possible. There is no cost for warranty work. We must, however, have a member of staff on standby who is capable of carrying out the repair work. When you pay for the system, you get this in the process.
Dedication, attention, enthusiasm
What is priceless, but we give it to you: that we think with you, live with the product, and make suggestions for improvements and changes where necessary to make the product as useful as possible for you. We give you our dedication, our attention, our enthusiasm. When you choose us and accept our offer, we can promise you these things.
At the same time, if we have any criticisms or suggestions for improvement, we will say so. It is in our common interest that the systems we produce should deliver as much value as possible and bring joy and satisfaction to their users. That is part of our vision, and that is what we are trying to do.
Summary
I hope I’ve shown you how much you get when you choose us. We don’t just give you a bundled software, but a team of experts with all the tools and skills + careful planning, conscious development, responsibility, guarantees, attention and enthusiasm in return for your reward. Our hourly rates are average for the industry, we are neither expensive nor cheap. We do all this at normal, average prices.
We are waiting for you among our clients, here there is no bagatelle, in exchange there is a conscious process, reliable construction, guaranteed results!
Contact us, ask for a quote for your idea, software or IT system challenge!
