The platform, stage by stage
Every commercial process follows the same route, and a set of shared services supports all of it. Select a stage or service to see what we'll build and when.
Discovery
A focused two weeks to settle the decisions that are expensive to change later.
- Price
- $4,500–$5,500Credited against Milestone 1 if you go ahead with the build.
- Duration
- About 2 weeks
- Effort
- 12–15 person-days
- Team
- Technical Lead and Architect, Product and Delivery Lead, and a Senior Backend Engineer where needed
What you'll have at the end
- Data model and workflow statesEvery record, status and allowed transition, from intake to handover.
- Permission and isolation modelRoles, business-area separation and supplier access.
- Document and signature approachVersioning rules, output generation and the signing provider.
- AWS architectureEnvironments, storage, background jobs, backups and monitoring.
- Confirmed milestone planFinal scope, sequencing and a fixed price for each milestone.
Full delivery
A dedicated team for 6 to 8 months. The tender module, versioned quotes, document generation, signing and permissions all need proper automated testing, so we don't compress it further.
Team
| Role | Allocation | Person-days |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Lead and Architect | 40% | 50–65 |
| Senior Python / FastAPI Engineer | Full-time | 130–160 |
| Full-Stack Engineer, Python and Next.js | Full-time | 130–160 |
| React / Next.js Engineer | Full-time | 130–160 |
| QA and Test Automation Engineer | 60% | 80–95 |
| DevOps Engineer, AWS | 20% | 30–40 |
| Product and Delivery Lead | 20% | 30–40 |
| Total | 580–720 |
Milestones and timeline
Automated backend, frontend and browser-based workflow tests are written within each milestone, not left to the end. You approve each milestone before its payment is released.
Ways to work together
The estimate above is the complete build. You don't have to commit to it in one go. Most clients start with a small team or a first release, and grow from there.
Dedicated monthly team
- Two full-time engineers, plus part-time technical lead and QA.
- Billed weekly for hours worked, at a committed-team rate below our ad hoc rate.
- You set priorities each sprint, and can scale down or pause with two weeks' notice.
Phased releases
- Phase 1 covers the foundation, intake, catalogue, quoting, approvals, documents, signing and launch.
- Your team uses the platform live before Phase 2 starts.
- You decide on Phase 2 once Phase 1 is in use.
Full build, fixed price
- The full scope, as set out above.
- The dedicated team shown in the table.
- Each milestone price fixed at the end of discovery.
Security and quality, built in from week one
The platform will hold customer and commercial data, so these are part of the foundation, not a final phase.
Optional support
After launch, choose whichever fits how you'd like to work with us.
Per month, depending on coverage and response times.
Ad hoc support and small enhancements, billed as used.
Assumptions and exclusions
The price and timeline above depend on these. Each assumption shows what we've assumed and what it would mean if it turns out differently, so you can see exactly where the numbers could move.
What moves the price within the range
Closer to $150K when
- Business areas share one workflow and differ only in settings
- Approved quotes lock completely
- Standard document templates
- Single-round tenders
Closer to $190K when
- Business areas need different workflow steps
- Some fields stay editable after approval, with field-level audit
- More templates, or complex conditional document content
- Richer planning, such as automatic rescheduling
What happens after a quote is approved?
It could lock completely, so any change creates a new revision, or some fields could stay editable. This single decision shapes much of the audit and document logic, so we'd settle it in the first days of discovery.
Product scope
What the platform does at launch, and where we've drawn the line.
One shared platform
Business areas are set up through configuration inside a single platform, not as separate installs.
Separate deployments per business area would add infrastructure, release and support effort for every area.
Up to 5 business areas at launch
Each area has its own teams, product sets, approval owners and document branding, but follows the same overall workflow.
If areas need different workflow steps, not just different settings, we'd need a configurable workflow engine. That moves the price toward the top of the range.
Approval routes are configurable, not designed from scratch
Admins set who approves what, and at which thresholds, within fixed stages: technical and management approval.
A drag-and-drop workflow designer, where admins invent new stages, adds roughly 6 to 10 weeks.
Approved quotes lock
Once approved, a quote can't be edited. Any change creates a new revision that goes back through approval.
If some fields stay editable after approval, we need field-level rules and audit logic. We'd confirm this in the first days of discovery.
Up to 3 document templates per business area
For example a proposal, a quotation and an order document, in PDF, DOCX and a secure web view. We build and adjust the templates.
A template designer that your team edits without us is a separate feature, estimated during discovery.
Sealed, single-round tenders
Invited suppliers submit one priced response by a deadline, and can revise it until then. They never see other bids.
Multi-round negotiation, reverse auctions or a supplier registration and vetting portal are larger modules.
Planning covers tasks, owners, milestones, dependencies and a timeline
Enough to plan and track delivery after handover.
Resource capacity planning, time tracking or automatic rescheduling would make it a full project-management product.
Catalogue managed inside the platform
Products and price brackets are maintained by your team, with bulk import from Excel or CSV.
A live sync with supplier or ERP catalogues is an integration, listed under exclusions.
One currency, English only
Tax is applied as a rate per line.
Multi-currency pricing or a translated interface adds effort, mostly in quotes and documents.
Web application for modern browsers
Designed for desktop, and works on tablets.
Native mobile apps are excluded.
Technical and hosting
How it's built and run, following your preferred stack.
Your preferred stack
Next.js with TypeScript, Python with FastAPI, and PostgreSQL, deployed with Docker on AWS.
No alternative stack is proposed, so there are no migration implications.
A standard AWS setup in one region
Development, staging and production environments, private document storage, background job processing and monitoring. The region is your choice, for example UK or EU.
Multi-region failover or a formal uptime SLA above about 99.5% would add infrastructure and cost.
Moderate usage
Up to a few hundred internal users and a few thousand external supplier and customer contacts.
Much higher volumes are fine to plan for, but we'd load-test and size for them explicitly.
SSO-ready, with MFA at launch
Named users log in with MFA from day one. The login is built so corporate single sign-on can be connected without rework.
Connecting your identity provider, such as Microsoft Entra ID, is a small add-on of about 3 to 5 days once you're ready.
Backups tested before launch
Daily automated backups with point-in-time recovery, and at least one full restore test before go-live.
Specific recovery time targets, such as restoring within one hour, would be designed in during discovery.
Security and compliance
What we build in, and what stays with your organisation.
Security built to recognised practice
Least-privilege access, encryption in transit and at rest, server-side enforcement of business-area separation, and dependency scanning, following OWASP guidance.
This is not a certification. See exclusions for ISO 27001, SOC 2 and similar.
E-signature legal validity comes from the provider
We use an established provider, such as DocuSign or Dropbox Sign, and store their evidence alongside our own audit records.
Your legal team confirms the signing approach meets your contract requirements.
Your team owns data protection documents
We build the platform to support data protection requirements, such as access controls, audit trails and data deletion.
Privacy policies, data processing agreements and impact assessments are prepared by your side, and we'll supply the technical detail.
Third parties and running costs
Services you pay for directly, so there's no markup and you keep ownership.
You own every account
AWS, the signing provider, email and SMS, malware scanning and monitoring tools are set up in your name.
If you'd prefer us to host, we can quote a managed hosting plan instead.
Signing provider with API access
Most providers need a business or API plan for this kind of integration.
We'll recommend a provider and plan during discovery, based on your expected volume.
Running costs estimated during discovery
Once the AWS setup is agreed, we'll give you a monthly running-cost estimate.
Costs depend mainly on usage and document volume.
What we need from your team
The things that keep the timeline on track.
A named product owner
About 3 to 4 hours a week, with decisions within 3 working days.
Slower decisions stretch the elapsed time, even if effort stays the same.
Real examples early
Sample catalogues, price brackets, approval rules, existing proposal and quote documents, and branding for each business area.
Missing examples lead to guesswork and rework, usually in quotes and documents.
Milestone review within 5 working days
You test and approve each milestone before its payment is released.
Longer review periods push later milestones back.
Commercial terms
How pricing and changes work.
Fixed price per milestone
Prices for each milestone are confirmed at the end of discovery and don't change unless the scope does.
Scope stays inside the range quoted here unless an assumption on this page turns out differently.
Changes handled openly
New requests are estimated before any work starts, and you decide whether to add, swap or defer them.
Nothing is added to your bill without your approval.
You own the code
All code sits in your repository, and ownership transfers to you as each milestone is paid.
No licence fees or lock-in.
30 days of post-launch fixes included
Defects against the agreed scope are fixed at no cost for 30 days after go-live.
After that, support moves to the optional plans above.
Exclusions
Not in this estimate. Each can be quoted separately when you need it.
- ERP and CRM integrationsQuoted separately once the systems and data flows are known.
- Data migration from existing systemsImporting historical quotes, customers or documents. Estimated once we've seen the data.
- Independent penetration testingCarried out by a specialist firm you appoint. We fix any findings in scope.
- Certification workISO 27001, SOC 2, Cyber Essentials and similar. We supply the technical evidence.
- Native mobile appsThe web application works on tablets and phones in the browser.
- Multi-currency and translationCan be added later without restructuring.
- 24/7 on-call supportAvailable through a support plan, if needed.
- Third-party subscription costsAWS, signing, email and SMS, scanning and monitoring, paid directly by you.
Next steps
- A short call to walk through this proposal and answer your questions.
- Start discovery on Upwork as a fixed-price contract.
- Two weeks later, review the architecture and confirmed milestone plan before committing to the build.
