Fixed to build. Flat to run.
Usage at cost.
Three numbers, all of them on the proposal before we start. We do not mark up platform usage and there is no minimum spend on it.
OpenDesk
You want to know what this costs before you speak to anyone.
- Search 9,594 workflows and 198 priced builds
- Assemble a scope and see the build price, the monthly and the timeline
- Modelled platform usage against your own volumes
- Every price band, licence and failure mode published
- The free tools, including the Sender ID check
- The account: Plan, Company, Tools and Team
OpenHandoff
A single automation, live in about a week.
- One solution from the catalogue, configured to your business
- Your numbers, your sender identity, your wording
- Consent, opt-out and logging wired in
- Handover document and a 30-day fix warranty
OpenManaged
You want it to keep working without thinking about it.
- Monitoring, alerting and incident response
- Copy and flow changes on request
- Carrier, deliverability and compliance upkeep
- Monthly report on volume, delivery and failures
- Platform usage billed at cost, itemised
Enterprise
Messaging, voice and identity as one connected layer.
- Multiple solutions built and run
- Unified customer conversation across channels
- Integrations into your CRM, booking and accounting tools
- Staging environment, source control, rollback
- Quarterly roadmap and a named contact
What the platform itself costs
Billed by the vendor to your account, at cost, itemised. Indicative Australian rates:
| Outbound SMS | A few cents per 160-character segment |
|---|---|
| Inbound SMS | Usually free to a cent |
| Phone number | A few dollars per number per month |
| Voice minutes | A cent or two per minute, inbound and outbound differ |
| Verification | A per-check fee that varies by channel |
| Video | Per participant-minute |
| Cents per thousand for typical transactional volume | |
| Typical small business | $30 to $300 a month all in |
Buy hours a week, not a project
For the clients whose automation work never actually finishes.
Some clients do not have one job. They have a stream of small ones, and every fixed price for those turns into an argument about whether the thing they just asked for was in scope. A retainer buys a block of our week instead. You get allocated engineering hours, we get a schedule we can plan around, and nobody argues about scope again.
| Allocation | Hours | Monthly | Effective rate | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintain About $2,860 of build work a month at our published bands. | 4 hrs/wk about 17.3 hrs/mo | $2,717/mo | $157/hr list $165 | Keep what is running healthy, absorb the small requests. |
| Improve About $5,720 of build work a month at our published bands. | 8 hrs/wk about 34.7 hrs/mo | $5,434/mo | $157/hr list $165 | One meaningful improvement a fortnight, plus the small stuff. |
| Build About $11,440 of build work a month at our published bands. | 16 hrs/wk about 69.3 hrs/mo | $10,868/mo | $157/hr list $165 | A standing half-team. Continuous delivery against a backlog. |
| Embedded About $21,450 of build work a month at our published bands. | 30 hrs/wk about 130.0 hrs/mo | $20,378/mo | $157/hr list $165 | We function as your automation department. |
Priced at a 5%% discount to the published $165 hourly rate for committing to 3 months. Commit to twelve and the discount goes to 15%%. The discount buys the commitment, not the volume: reserved capacity is capacity we cannot sell to anyone else, and that is the thing you are paying for.
What you are actually buying
- Hours are reserved capacity, booked to your week whether or not you fill them.
- Unused hours carry forward one week only. They do not bank indefinitely.
- Work beyond the allocation is billed at $165 an hour, not the retainer rate.
- You see the hours ledger. Every hour is logged against a named task.
- 4 weeks minimum, then a month's notice either way.
- Platform and usage costs sit outside the retainer and are billed at cost.
A retainer is often the wrong buy
If you have one defined job and no stream of follow-on work, a fixed-price build is cheaper and you should take that instead. A retainer only beats it when the requests keep coming.
The honest test is whether you can name three things you would ask for in the next month. If you cannot, take the fixed price and come back when you can.
Describe the work and compare both →Want the real number for your case?
Send us your volumes and the manual process. You will get a fixed price and a modelled run cost.