[Asterisk-Users] How much to charge for Asterisk installations?

[John Todd]

>I have a medium sized business that is interested in implementing *
>as their PBX system.  They currently have a Panasonic system with
>Panasonic handsets that they are going to replace Asterisk with, as
>the current system is maxed out, and they don't even have voicemail
>capabilities.
>
>I have been considering using an Adtran Atlas 550 with FXO and FXS
>interface cards, attached to Asterisk with a T1.  The other
>consideration has been to replace the existing Panasonic phones with
>SIP phones.  I will be pricing out both approaches to see which one
>is more economical.
>
>What I am wondering basically though is how much other people are
>charging to implement solutions such as this?  Are you charging on a
>per hour basis?  A per line?  Are you charging to activate certain
>features such as voicemail, call parking, call queueing?
>
>I'm trying to get an idea of how a standard Asterisk installation
>might be charged to a business.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>- --
>Leif Madsen - Telecommunications Technology
>Sheridan College - Trafalgar Campus
>@: leif.madsen at sheridanc.on.ca
>ICQ: 3445119        FWD: 18924
>IAX: 1-700-674-5480
>

My suggestion would be to charge hourly.  I have found that often 
customers are uncertain what features they really want, and 
implementing what seem to be to their view "trivial" items turn out 
to be somewhat difficult.  Plus, I've also found as you progress 
through the installation and describe how certain features _could_ 
work, they get very excited about those features and ask for them to 
be included.  If you give them a fixed price, this (always) ends up 
burning you.  Provide an estimate, but make sure the customer 
understands that it's an estimate and not a quote.  This is not a new 
discussion; I'm sure some searching of slashdot will turn up some 
comments on fixed vs. hourly rate consulting benefits/drawbacks.

Make no money on the hardware, if you're providing it - show them how 
cheap it really is to turn up the system and to add onto it, that's 
always a selling point with Asterisk (and any open source platform.) 
Describe how the initial investment in your consulting time dollar 
outlay is still trivial compared to the cost of most other competing 
systems, especially past the first year.

There are occasions where you might have "hybrid" bids, where there 
is a fixed initial cost, and then hourly for additions.  However, 
this requires a LARGE amount of expectation-settings and 
documentation on deliverables, which often burns more hours than 
actually DOING the work, which again could end up burning you 
(customers will generally not pay for time you spend on a quote, and 
inflating the fixed-cost price to cover your quote time doesn't go 
over well, either.)  I would suggest not doing hybrid bids on 
anything other than very large installations where quote time and 
specification building can be easily built into the initial charges.

JT