The Realtime Group Pricing Policy

The two most asked questions in Product Development are: "How long will it take?" and "How much will it cost?"
While both of those are excellent questions, there can be no answer before the third question is answered: "What must it do?"

Because many product ideas and even some mature productization efforts cannot be fully mapped out at the start, Realtime works with the customer to offer pricing strategies that help allocate the project resources appropriately and incrementally. Typically, a project can benefit from a short evaluation phase to further define, prototype, or evaluate trade-offs prior to committing to a full-scale development plan. This initial definition phase typically lasts from 4 to 8 weeks, includes a proposed effort level for each activity, has an established set of goals and deliverables, and is completed on a Purchase Order basis with a "Not To Exceed" value. The primary goal is to document a better understanding of the project details that will need to be accomplished during the development.

The deliverables for a typical evaluation phase are:

1. A Preliminary Requirements Definition;
2. A Project Schedule and Estimated Level of Effort;
3. A Proposed System Architecture & Major Milestones; and
4. Development Environment Alternatives or Trade Studies (e.g. Real-Time Operating System Alternatives)

Once the objectives and milestones are clearly defined and understood, a cost estimate is created for each of the major milestones, deliverables, or phases. There are three pricing models available depending on the preferences of the customer:

• Fee for service, pay as you go hourly rate plus actual expenses incurred.
• Or "Not To Exceed" lump sum milestone payments
• Firm Fixed Price (FFP). We can offer a FFP option to our customers for tasks that can be clearly estimated.

Typically the hardest part of any relationship is getting started. It has been Realtime's experience that a phased, incremental approach lets us start with a new customer via a small initial commitment up front to create project plans, high level specifications, better estimates and schedules, and specification of the development tools to be used. The reality is that Product Development is a dynamic, labor intensive exercise, which will require some amount of raw materials and development tools. Our pricing models are intended to allow the customer to have constant visibility into the project along the way, and to provide the flexibility of reallocating resources to meet changing business goals.