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00Brief services

Know what it costs before you commit.

Most software quotes are a single confident number with nothing behind it. Ours arrive with the breakdown, the assumptions, the risks priced separately and a stated accuracy band — so you can tell an estimate from a guess.

Ballpark
Free · 1–2 days
Detailed estimate
±15% accuracy
Fee treatment
Credited against build
Obligation
None
01Three levels of certainty

Pick how precise you need to be.

Early conversations do not need a 40-page document. Board approval does. Start wherever you are and step up only if the decision demands it.

01

Ballpark range

Free

1 – 2 business days± 50%

Enough to know whether the project is a conversation worth having. A cost and duration range with every assumption behind it written down.

  • Indicative cost and duration range
  • The assumptions the range depends on
  • Reference to comparable scope we have delivered
  • Recommended engagement model
  • A call to walk through it, if useful
02Most chosen

Detailed estimate

Fixed fee, credited against the build

1 – 2 weeks± 15%

A discovery engagement that produces a real number. We interview your team, read the systems in place, and break the work down until the estimate stands on evidence.

  • Requirement breakdown to feature level
  • Architecture outline and technology choices
  • Phase-by-phase cost and schedule
  • Risk register with contingency priced separately
  • Written scope ready to contract against
03

Technical proposal

Fixed fee

2 – 4 weeks± 10%

For board approval, procurement, or a build-versus-buy decision. Everything in the detailed estimate, plus the artefacts a committee will ask for.

  • Everything in the detailed estimate
  • Clickable prototype of the core journeys
  • Threat model and compliance mapping
  • Integration specifications per system
  • Build-versus-buy analysis
  • Three-year total cost of ownership
02How it runs

Five steps, and you can stop at any of them.

No sales sequence, no discovery call that turns out to be a pitch. Each step produces something you keep.

01

You send the brief

Use the form below. A paragraph and a rough budget band is enough to start — attach whatever you already have and skip the rest.

10 minutes

02

We read it and come back with questions

A named engineer reviews it, not a sales inbox. Expect a handful of specific questions rather than a generic reply.

1 business day

03

Scoping call

Thirty to sixty minutes on the process, the constraints and the deadline that actually matters. Technical people on both sides of the call.

30 – 60 minutes

04

Estimate delivered in writing

Cost, duration, assumptions, risks and the recommended engagement model. Ranges are stated as ranges; contingency is a separate line, never buried in the total.

1 – 2 days after the call

05

You decide, with the numbers in hand

Proceed, adjust the scope to fit a budget, or take the document and use it elsewhere. The estimate is yours either way.

No obligation

03Method

How the number is actually produced.

This is the part most quotes leave out, which is exactly why they end up wrong.

01

Three-point, not single-point

Every work item is estimated optimistic, likely and pessimistic, then combined. A single confident number for unfamiliar work is a guess wearing a suit.

02

Contingency stated separately

Risk buffer appears as its own line with the risks it covers. You can see exactly what you are paying for uncertainty, and it shrinks as unknowns close.

03

Priced against real velocity

Effort is converted to cost using the measured throughput of the team that would do the work, not an idealised rate card.

04

Non-build work counted

Testing, security review, code review, deployment, documentation and project management are line items. Quotes that omit them are not cheaper, only less complete.

What helps us most

None of this is mandatory. Every item you can answer narrows the range we can give you.

  • 01A description of the problem in your own words
  • 02Who will use it, and roughly how many of them
  • 03Systems it has to talk to
  • 04Any deadline that is genuinely immovable, and why
  • 05Compliance or data-residency constraints
  • 06Budget band, even a rough one

Would rather talk it through first? Call +1 (201) 564-0119 Mon – Fri, 09:00 – 18:00 ET.

04Project brief

Send us the brief.

Four short sections. Only six fields are required — skip anything you do not know yet, and attach whatever you already have written down.

Who we are talking to
01

Who we are talking to

So the reply reaches the right person.

What you need built
02

What you need built

Describe the problem rather than the solution.

Services required*

Select everything that applies.

Target platformsoptional

Budget and timing
03

Budget and timing

A band is enough.

And what happens if it slips

Compliance requirementsoptional

Tick anything in play.

How to reach you
04

How to reach you

No obligation, and nothing is shared outside ARB-ZONE. See our privacy policy.

05FAQ

Project briefs, answered.

The questions that come up before anyone signs anything.

Something not covered here? Ask directly — a person answers, and it is usually the same person who would do the work.

Yes, and there is no obligation attached to it. It costs us a couple of hours and it saves both sides a month of misaligned expectations.

ARB-ZONE, 7901 4th St N, 34590, St Petersburg, FL 33702