How we work
How an engagement works
Armage builds systems that sit under a client's revenue and keep running after the project ends. That changes how the work is shaped, paid for and handed over — and this section says exactly how, before anyone asks.
Shape
Fixed build, then operation
Deposit
40% minimum, then milestones
Ownership
You own what we build
Capacity
Two engagements at a time
01
The shape of an engagement
Two parts, always. A fixed build fee for the system being built, quoted against a defined scope before any commitment. Then a recurring fee for operating it — hosting, monitoring, backups, updates, and the work of keeping it correct as the rules around it change.
We do not sell hours, and we do not sell availability. If a month passes in which nothing needs doing, the recurring fee covers a system that ran without needing us, which is what it is for.
- Fixed price, defined scope. A change to the scope is a conversation and a new number, not an invoice that arrives later.
- 40% deposit minimum, with the balance on milestones tied to working software rather than to dates.
- Priced on value. A system that removes a week of manual reconstruction every time a regulator asks a question is not priced by how long it took to write.
02
How a project runs
Three stages. Each one ends with something you can hold, and each one is a point at which you can stop.
- Definition. We map the process as it actually runs today — including the parts that run on email and a spreadsheet — and write down what the system must do, what it must never do, and how we will know it works. You get that document whether or not we go further.
- Build. Working software at every milestone, on infrastructure you own, with the tests and the audit trail built as we go rather than added at the end.
- Operation. The system goes live, and the recurring part begins: we keep it running, keep it current, and keep the evidence that it is doing what it claims.
03
Why we take two at a time
Armage runs two engagements at a time. It is a constraint on quality rather than a scarcity tactic, and it has a cost we accept: sometimes the answer to a good enquiry is a date rather than a start.
The work we do is the kind where being slightly wrong is expensive — a custody record that cannot be reconstructed, a page that routes a patient to the wrong place. That work does not survive being spread thin, and a company that says yes to everything is telling you something about the attention your system will get.
04
Why there is always a recurring part
Every engagement has one. Not because it is a better business model — though it is — but because a system that nobody is responsible for operating is a system that quietly stops being true.
Regulations change. Certificates expire. A dependency is deprecated. A backup that is never restored is a belief, not a backup. The recurring part is the difference between software that was correct on the day it shipped and software that is correct today.
05
What we are a bad fit for
Said plainly, because finding out in month two is worse for both of us.
- Staffing. We are not an agency and do not place people into a team by the hour or the month.
- Campaign work. Advertising, social media management and brand campaigns are not what this is.
- One-off builds with no operator. If nobody will own the system afterwards — us or someone named on your side — it will decay, and we would rather not start it.
- Work that requires patient health information. Armage systems are designed so that protected health information never enters them. If your problem genuinely requires it, that is a different architecture and a different agreement, and we will say so rather than work around it.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do you work on a retainer?
- Not as the main arrangement. An engagement is a fixed build fee for the thing being built, followed by a recurring fee for operating it. Paying us monthly for availability is not a service we offer.
- Who owns the software you build?
- The client owns the property we build and the data inside it. Armage owns the methods, tooling and reusable components used to build it. Exit and data portability are written into the agreement.
- Do you publish a rate card?
- No. Work is priced on the value and risk of the specific system, not on hours. We will give a fixed price for a defined scope before any commitment.
- How many clients do you take?
- Two engagements at a time. It is a deliberate constraint on quality, not a scarcity tactic.
Start a project
Tell us what the system has to do and who it is for. If we are a bad fit we will say so in the first reply. Write to hello@arm-age.com or use the contact form.