Why quotes vary so much
Send the same brief to five suppliers and the prices vary widely. Usually that is not dishonesty — it is that each is assuming a different answer to the questions below.
Answer them in advance and the quotes converge, which makes them comparable and usually lower, because nobody has to price in uncertainty.
1. How many systems does it touch?
Each integration is design, build, error handling and testing. Two integrations frequently cost more than ten extra screens.
Name them specifically, and say which are essential for phase one and which could follow.
2. Do those systems have usable APIs?
Ask your vendors in writing: do you provide an API for this, is it documented, and does it cost extra? That answer changes a project price more than any design decision we make.
A system with a good API might be two weeks of work. The same functionality against a system with no interface might be two months, or impossible.
3. How many exceptions does the process have?
The happy path is a fraction of the work. The customer with two delivery addresses, the order that arrives as a photograph, the month-end variation — these are the project.
Write down at least five before asking for a quote. A supplier who is not told about them will price the happy path and discover the rest later.
4. How many user roles?
Each role multiplies the permission matrix and the testing. Launching with one role and adding the second later is frequently 30% cheaper than launching with both.
Be honest about what is genuinely needed at launch versus what would be nice.
5. Who inside your business will own it?
Not a sponsor who reads reports — an owner who answers questions within a day and makes decisions. Projects without one slip, regardless of who builds them.
If you cannot name that person, that is worth resolving before commissioning anything.
Two more that help
- What state is the data in? Suppliers find out anyway; disclosure gets you a realistic price rather than an optimistic one followed by a change request.
- What is the deadline and why? A real external deadline changes the plan; an arbitrary one usually costs money for nothing.