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1. Make sure you are charging them 5-10x the usual cost you would charge. For on premise, anything under 50K USD per year Minimum is not useful in my opinion.

1. Make sure you are charging them 5-10x the usual cost you would charge. For on premise, anything under 50K USD per year Minimum is not useful in my opinion. 2. Setup custom contract and SLA. Dont go with usual SLA. Charge additional for support/maintenance/Stricter SLA. 3. Charge implementation fee upfront. Possibly send consultants onsite and bill them good for that. 4. Do min 3 year contract. Anything less won't be worth it if decide to pull the plug on you after year 1. Year 1 Cost should be close to 80-100K min. Even with all this, decide if it is worth doing for you as a company. Yes you could earn good revenue but it is 1 customer. If you don't have the infrastructure/resources to handle their demand, is or worth it for you ? But no matter what, Do not cave in and offer on premises at similar rates. Has to be at least 5-10x.

matt_s 5y ago
Yup - basically they don't want SaaS they want on-prem. That is a drastically different pricing model and should have a different SLA. I would go so far as to include into the pricing the cost of keeping engineers and support people on staff who know this particular build specifically because it is different than what you normally run. You would need to maintain the exact stack they are running to test patches, upgrades, etc. If there is a security vulnerability somewhere in their stack that is running your app, that should be called out as well as not your problem (legally, financially). Similarly if they have access to your running system and muck it up somehow, also not your problem. The large Target breach a few years back was because the HVAC system controls were adjacent to payment systems and attackers got in and installed credit card number swiping. I get their concern with having a vendor's stuff sitting on their network but you should be protecting yourself from them not maintaining things.
- brudgers 5y ago
  More boiled down, they want consulting services not product sales. The OP’s decision is between product company and consulting firm.
Spooky23 5y ago
Great advice. I worked with a difficult customer like this, and we’re able to come to a satisfactory outcome. Building control projects usually have a grant or external financing component, so the wallets are often flexible.

matt_s 5y ago

Yup - basically they don't want SaaS they want on-prem. That is a drastically different pricing model and should have a different SLA. I would go so far as to include into the pricing the cost of keeping engineers and support people on staff who know this particular build specifically because it is different than what you normally run. You would need to maintain the exact stack they are running to test patches, upgrades, etc. If there is a security vulnerability somewhere in their stack that is running your app, that should be called out as well as not your problem (legally, financially). Similarly if they have access to your running system and muck it up somehow, also not your problem. The large Target breach a few years back was because the HVAC system controls were adjacent to payment systems and attackers got in and installed credit card number swiping. I get their concern with having a vendor's stuff sitting on their network but you should be protecting yourself from them not maintaining things.

brudgers 5y ago
More boiled down, they want consulting services not product sales. The OP’s decision is between product company and consulting firm.

Spooky23 5y ago

Great advice. I worked with a difficult customer like this, and we’re able to come to a satisfactory outcome. Building control projects usually have a grant or external financing component, so the wallets are often flexible.