Reading a vendor quote properly
The number on the front page is rarely the number you pay. Here is what to check before comparing two quotes.
Normalise the unit first
Vendors quote per named user, per concurrent user, per clinician, per site, and flat. These are not comparable until you reduce them to the same denominator. A per-concurrent-user price looks cheaper and often is not, once you size concurrency honestly.
Ask each vendor to define "user" explicitly, including part-time clinicians, interns, contractors, and billing staff. The definition moves the total more than the rate does.
Find the mandatory extras
Platform fees, hosting fees, minimum transaction commitments, and required support tiers are often quoted separately from the per-user rate and are not optional. Add them before comparing.
Ask directly: what else will appear on our first invoice that is not on this quote?
Watch bundles
A bundle price is not a product price. If one vendor bundles scheduling, billing, and portal into a platform rate and another prices them separately, comparing the per-user numbers tells you nothing.
Ask a bundling vendor what the components would cost separately. Their answer tells you what they think each is worth, which is useful in itself.
Price the implementation honestly
Implementation, migration, and training are one-time but real, and they land in the year you can least absorb them. Include them in year one rather than treating them as a footnote.
Then add the cost nobody quotes: your own staff. A project needing a half-time analyst for nine months has a real cost that belongs in the comparison.
SaaS PriceDesk · saaspricedesk.com