Pricing
The first, and most important, aspect of understanding Second Star pricing is to understand that reaching an agreement on cost with us is simple because you are talking to the principals of the company. No lawyers, no board of directors, no CFO, etc., are involved. No salespeople worrying about their commission. This means we have the flexibility and capability to immediately adjust our pricing methods to meet your needs. That said, we have to have a base from which we adjust.
Hourly rates: Our hourly rates are lower than most firms that work with BizTalk, often 50% lower.. Since we own the company, we can immediately adjust the rates to fit your project. Our rates most often correlate to length of the project (more hours less cost) and the difficulty of the project (heavier integration more cost).
Mapping: Well, we’ve officially lost our minds by going to fixed pricing for most maps we do – especially when you consider these prices for BizTalk 2006 R2 or BizTalk 2009:
$500 - New maps
$100 - Clones
Heck, we’ve even fixed-priced migrating maps to BizTalk 2006 R2 or BizTalk 2009:
$300 - Covast Accelerator Maps
$200 - Older versions of BizTalk
How can we offer these prices, you ask? Well, in our book Pro Mapping in BizTalk Server 2009 we gave most of our mapping decoder ring secrets away. Now everybody thinks they can map, and we have to stay ahead of them.
What’s the catch? We’re happy to say there are no catches. Caveats, maybe. Catches, none. The main caveat concerns new maps – the fixed cost requires you to provide the schemas, mapping specifications, and test data. For clones, the modification must be done to an existing map and must consist of no more than minor changes.
That’s all? Well, there may a few more discussion points before we accept an assignment. Some EDI transactions such as the 811 and the 837 can be very complex and might require more effort. We’ll want to make sure we can do the work within our model for these prices first.
Ah! So we contact you because of these great prices, then you look at our mapping requirements and raise the prices? It could happen. But we’re betting if you give us a block of mapping, say twenty maps, that these prices would be okay. We’re not going to up the rate for more difficult maps in that block when the rest are simple enough to pull our average time down.
What’s the advantage of fixed price mapping? That’s simple – you know the cost of the mapping project before any mapping is done. This helps you plan and cost your overall project. No more guesswork.
How can you afford to offer these prices? Still having trouble buying this, huh? Well not only have we been focusing on BizTalk mapping for many years, but we also wrote the book. Really – look at www.apress.com/book/view/1430218576. Better still, buy a copy. Or ten. We’re fast, and good.
So, what’s the catch? Really, there isn’t one. We’ll need to talk with you to make sure that you and we are speaking the same language, of course, and to reach an agreement as to the meaning of terms such as mapping specification, test data, clone, and so forth. We want to make sure that we set your expectations correctly and to ensure that you can supply the information we need to create your maps.
Maybe we haven’t lost our minds. Just misplaced them. Give us a call (919-548-6521 or 919-604-1812) or email us (jim@sspsi.com or john@sspsi.com). Talking to us doesn’t cost you anything, but it might lead to saving you money.
Map Migration: We almost give away migrating Covast to BizTalk 2006 R2, BizTalk Base EDI to BizTalk 2006 R2, links only
Training: We have flat costs for training at your site. Once our book is published, BizTalk mapping training will include a copy of the book..
Contract Information
We often have a copy of our contract ready for signature within a couple of hours after the initial phone call with a client, which means if our contract can be used by the client then we can begin work immediately.If you can not use our contract, then of course we are willing to use yours.