How a project actually works.
First call is with a senior engineer
Not a sales rep. Not an account manager. An engineer who has already reviewed your situation and can tell you in 30 minutes whether we are the right fit, whether we have built something similar before, and roughly what it should cost. We do not run a discovery phase to sell you a bigger engagement. We assess fit on the first call.
Fixed-price proposal in 5 business days
If we are aligned, you receive a written proposal with a fixed scope, a fixed price, a fixed timeline, and the names of the senior engineers who will be on the project. Not ranges. Not estimates. Numbers we stand behind. The proposal includes the compliance frameworks in scope, the technology stack, the team composition, and the delivery milestones.
Compliance architecture is defined before a line of code is written
Every engagement begins with a compliance architecture session. We map your regulatory environment — HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, DORA, GDPR, or whatever applies — to specific technical requirements before engineering starts. ALICE validates every commit against this framework throughout the engagement. Compliance is not a checklist at the end. It is a constraint from commit one.
Engineering with weekly delivery milestones
We deliver working software on weekly milestones — not monthly reports on how the project is going. You see the system being built. You see the compliance posture being established. Every milestone includes a working build, a compliance status update, and the next week's scope. If something is off, you know in week 2, not week 16.
Audit documentation delivered with the build
On delivery day, you receive the production system and the complete audit documentation package — architecture diagrams, compliance mapping, access control documentation, audit logs, test coverage reports, and the specific artifacts required for your first compliance audit or regulatory examination. The system is not done until it can pass a review.
Post-delivery: managed infrastructure or full handover
You choose. We can hand you the keys completely — your team takes over operations, and we are available for specific future work on a project basis. Or we can stay on as your managed infrastructure partner through SentienGuard, providing ongoing monitoring, compliance maintenance, and engineering support at agreed SLAs. Either path is available. Neither is required.
What “fixed-price” actually means.
Most firms use “fixed-price” to mean “fixed until the first change order.” Here is what it means when we say it.
The number in the proposal is the number you pay. Not a not-to-exceed. Not an estimate. If we scope it wrong, that is our problem, not yours.
The deliverables in the proposal are the deliverables you receive. Every feature, every integration, every compliance artifact — specified in writing before work starts.
The go-live date in the proposal is the date we build to. We have missed delivery dates fewer than five times across 200+ engagements. Each time was disclosed in advance.
On delivery day, the source code, infrastructure-as-code, documentation, and all associated IP transfer to you. We do not hold code hostage. We do not charge ongoing licensing fees.
The standard model vs. ours.
Three sizes. All fixed-price.
We right-size the team to the problem. Here is what each tier looks like in practice.
Surgical Strike
Enterprise Program
Total Infrastructure
Tell us what needs to be built.
The first call is 30 minutes with a senior engineer. Tell us the industry, the regulatory environment, and what needs to be built. We'll tell you whether we've done it, what it should cost, and how long it takes.