Your own client area
The brief, the scope, every milestone with its date and status, your invoices and your whole message history. Available whenever you want it, without asking anybody.
Software development for business
Know what your software will cost before you pay for it.
Most people who come to us have been burned once already: a quote that turned out to be a guess, a deadline that moved twice, and a bill with things on it nobody had mentioned. We work the way we do because of that.
What we commit to
Four things we put in writing.
- To get a written brief and a price
- £0
- Point of contact, first call to handover
- 1
- Of the scope agreed before work starts
- 100%
- Charged for going over our own estimate
- £0
Why fixed scope software development matters
You describe what you want. Somebody nods, goes away, and comes back with a number. You have no way of knowing whether that number is based on anything, because nobody has written down what is actually being built.
Six weeks in, it turns out they assumed something you did not. Now it is your word against theirs, there is nothing to point at, and the only way forward is to pay more or accept less.
Nothing about that is unavoidable. It happens because the hard thinking was skipped at the start, when it was cheap, and had to be done later, when it was not.
How we work
What we do instead.
Four things, none of them clever, all of them skipped by the people who let you down last time.
-
A conversation that costs you nothing
You talk to a systems analyst, not a salesperson. Describe the problem in your own words. Working out the right technical answer is our job, and if the honest answer is that you do not need us, we will say so.
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A written scope before any money changes hands
What is included, what is deliberately not included, what we are assuming, and what it will cost. In writing, in plain English. If the figure does not work for you, you walk away owing nothing and keep the document.
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Milestones you can actually see
Sign in and see which stage your project is at, what is next, when it is due, and whether it is on time. Not a monthly status email written the night before. The real thing, updated as it happens.
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One person who knows the whole project
You never chase three inboxes or explain yourself twice. Every question, change and decision goes through one project manager who has the full picture.
What you get
Six things, and you can point at every one.
Not promises. Things that exist, that you can open, and that we can both refer back to.
A scope in writing
Agreed before anything is built, and the thing we both refer back to when there is a question. It is what makes "that was not what I asked for" a conversation with an answer.
Changes priced honestly
Ask for anything. You get one of two answers: it is inside what we agreed and costs nothing, or here is the price and the revised date. You decide before any work starts.
Overruns are our problem
Developers are engaged for an agreed number of hours per piece of work. If something takes longer than we judged, that is absorbed on our side. It does not appear on your invoice.
The right people on it
Work goes to members chosen on the skills your brief actually needs and on their record: whether they deliver on time, and whether their work comes back right first time.
You own it at the end
The source code and the finished work become yours on final payment. That is written into every brief. No licence you have to keep paying for, and no lock-in.
Every decision is on the record
From the moment your requirement arrives to the day it is handed over, every brief, every change, every approval and every delivery is logged with who did it and when.
That record is tamper evident: each entry is cryptographically chained to the one before it, so it can be shown not to have been altered after the fact. We built it that way because "we did tell you" is worth nothing without proof, and that cuts both ways.
Most clients never need it. The ones who do, need it badly.
The questions people actually ask
How much does bespoke software cost?
We cannot tell you before we understand the work, and anybody who gives you a figure before that is guessing. What we can tell you is that finding out costs nothing: the conversation and the written brief that follows are free, and you are under no obligation once you have them.
What if I do not know what I need technically?
Good. That is the normal situation and it is what the systems analyst is for. Describe the problem, the annoyance, the thing that takes your team two days a month. Turning that into something that can be built and priced is our side of the work.
How do I know you will not disappear halfway through?
You hold a written scope, a milestone schedule with dates, and a full record of every decision, all of which you can see at any time. Payment is staged rather than up front. If we stopped, you would know within days rather than months, and you would have the documentation to hand the work to somebody else.
What happens when I want something changed?
You ask. We tell you honestly whether it is inside the scope we agreed, in which case it costs nothing, or outside it, in which case you get a price and a revised date before a single hour is spent on it. Nothing is ever added to your bill without you agreeing to it first.
Do I have to deal with the developers?
No, and that is deliberate. One project manager holds the whole project and is your only point of contact. You are never translating between technical people, and nothing gets lost in the gap between them.
Who owns the code when it is finished?
You do, on final payment. It is written into the brief for every project, and our members accept work on exactly that basis.
What if the project runs over?
Members are engaged for an agreed number of hours per piece of work. If a piece takes longer than we judged it would, that is absorbed on our side rather than billed to you. Our estimating being wrong is not something you should pay for.
Can you work with the systems we already have?
Usually, and that is often the cheaper answer. Replacing a system that works is rarely the right first move. We would rather integrate with what you have and leave it where it is.
Start a project
Have a software or website requirement?
Book a discovery conversation with a Rainbow Coders systems analyst. We will help shape the requirement into a clear project brief, find and engage with the very best developers, and deliver fully tested results.