Charging for Professional Services..building the model

amccall
amccall Member Posts: 1
in Strategy & Planning
Would love to hear from other folks who work in a hardware/software business and charge for professional services for onsight implementation services and project management work. How did you think about building the SOW/contracting, what costs were passed through to customers, and how is that structured in the contract, if the customer is using a 3rd party partner for some of the work and other work is being done by your internal team - any input on how to get started is appreciated. 

Comments

  • REmery
    REmery Member Posts: 6 Newcomer
    5 Comments
    Hi there.

    The client should absolutely expect to pay for implementation, training, project management, etc. I've always designed programs to ensure we recover costs and make a reasonable profit. 

    If your company is providing a single, set cost to the customer (rather than an hourly invoice). make your best estimates for the amount of time you think it will take, round-up, charge that, then keep good track of how much it really takes so you can make the next contract more accurate. Payment terms should be in line with the overall contract but should be all payable upon completion.

    If you are allowing the client to utilize another vendor, your effort estimates have to get pretty detailed, so you know how much to remove from the overall cost. And if you find yourself routinely outbid for some parts of the implementation, it's probably best to get out of that business and find a partner: Your client saves money and you focus on your differentiator.

    Hope that helps.

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