A consulting firm bills for hours, and we bill for finished work.
When a firm gets paid by the hour, a slow project earns it more money. We get paid when a feature is live, so we're motivated to finish.
| Consulting firm | Cloud Nerd POD | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Hours, often with a large estimate up front. | Points, spent only on finished features. |
| Before work starts | Discovery, kickoff, planning documents. | A point cost on each request, then building. |
| When plans change | A change order and a new estimate. | Spend your points on the new priority. |
| Who does the work | Often junior staff, with a senior person overseeing. | AI agents, reviewed by a senior architect. |
| What you know up front | An estimate that can grow. | The exact point cost, approved before building. |
When the other option is the better choice
For a large, one-time project with many departments involved, like replacing your whole ERP, a big firm's project managers and change-management staff can be worth the price. For the steady flow of fixes and improvements that comes after, we're faster and cost less.