Understanding Professional Services Pricing

Our hourly rates are published on the rates page. They run from $200 for a consultant to $275 for an architect, excluding GST. Ask and we will send you the full rate card.

What that page cannot explain is why a quote for a piece of work often lands above the hourly rate multiplied by the hours you had in mind. That gap is where most of the confusion in this industry sits, so it is worth pulling apart.

Who does the work

Skill level is the biggest single factor. Work that needs an architect costs more per hour than work a consultant can finish on their own.

The cheaper option is not always the cheaper job, though. Put a consultant on something that needs an architect and you end up paying for the learning, the rework and usually a second attempt. We would rather quote the right level once.

Some technologies also have a thin talent pool, in Tasmania and nationally. When that happens we occasionally have to put a more senior person on the job than the work strictly needs, because nobody else is free inside your timeframe.

How much risk we are carrying

A fixed price carries a buffer. That is not padding. It is the cost of us wearing the overrun instead of you.

How big the buffer gets depends on your requirements. Vague requirements make it bigger, because we are guessing. Very tight requirements can also make it bigger, because they leave us no room to take the sensible path when something unexpected turns up.

Requirements that describe the outcome and leave us the method tend to price best. There is more on that in Writing Requirements for Optimal Pricing in IT Projects.

Scope creep works the same way. If a project looks likely to grow, that shows up in the estimate long before it shows up on an invoice.

How easy the work is to do

This one rarely gets said out loud, so we will say it.

Projects where we can reach the right people, get decisions inside a week and get system access when we ask for it run cheaper. Projects where we wait nine days for a firewall rule do not.

That is not a criticism of anyone. Most delays are structural rather than somebody’s fault. They still cost money, so they still have to be estimated.

Cyber expectations have moved

Buyers now expect any supplier touching their environment to know their way around the Essential Eight, the CIS Benchmarks and ISO 27001. That is a fair expectation and we meet it.

It does add effort. Work that once meant building the thing now means building it, evidencing it, and showing how it maps to whatever framework you are measured against. Budget for that rather than discovering it at handover.

Discounts and after hours

Two patterns are worth knowing before you ask for a number.

Volume earns a discount on time and materials work. If you are buying a lot of time, the rate comes down.

Work outside business hours costs more. A cutover at 2am is sometimes the right call, but it is never the cheap one.

Ask for the rate card

We publish our rates because we would rather you compared us properly than guessed. They are on the rates page, and the full card is one contact form away.