Compare the same scope, not just the headline price
The cost of a management portal is not determined by its screen count alone. An order screen might serve one user, or it might support teams with different permissions, multiple stores, returns, and audit records. A useful proposal makes those differences explicit.
Six decisions that shape the estimate
- Users and permissions: Who can see, change, and approve each record? Do companies or branches need separate data?
- Business rules: What happens with cancellations, returns, incomplete records, and retries?
- Integrations: Is an API available? Are test accounts, quotas, provider fees, and permissions understood?
- Migration: What format and quality are the existing records? How will duplicates be resolved?
- Delivery platform: Web, mobile, or desktop? Is offline operation necessary?
- Operations: Who owns hosting, backups, monitoring, and support?
Define the first release around one useful outcome
Instead of “digitize the whole company,” an initial scope could be “view and track orders from two stores in one place.” Acceptance criteria would specify the connected stores, refresh interval, failure notifications, and user roles. Writing inventory changes and exporting accounting records could follow later. This is an illustrative scope, not a packaged offer or price commitment.
Separate build costs from running costs
Ask proposals to distinguish discovery, design, development, migration, testing, training, and launch. Then compare hosting, third-party licenses and API usage, maintenance, and future changes. A system without per-user licensing can still have ongoing operating costs.
Total cost of ownership: initial development + migration/training + operating and maintenance costs over your chosen period + changes outside the agreed scope. Compare proposals over the same period using the same assumptions.
A brief you can prepare before requesting proposals
- Describe your current workflow and its three biggest sources of repetitive work.
- List user roles, existing systems, and sample data formats. You do not need to share personal records for an initial conversation.
- Separate essential features from later improvements.
- Specify acceptance criteria and expected source-code, documentation, and training deliverables.
- Share your intended timeline, budget range, and decision process.
When could an existing product be a better fit?
If your requirements are standard and an available product meets the critical workflows, it may be faster to adopt. Custom development is worth evaluating for distinctive business rules, integrations, or operations that standard products cannot accommodate. License fees alone should not decide the outcome.
Explore our custom software development service and the PerZukunft operations platform. To discuss your own scope, tell us about your project.