You pay for the whole catalogue.
The licence covers modules your company will never open. The part you run on every day is a small corner of it, and the invoice is the same every month.
The real cost of software
You pay twice for software that does not fit.
We count both numbers and compare them with the smallest change that removes them.
Licences · Tiers · Add-ons · Vendor changes · Manual hours
The first number arrives as an invoice, with the licence, the higher tier, the add-ons and every change you asked the vendor for. The second one never arrives, because it is the hours your people spend filling the gap the product left.
Model example
What you pay nowAfter the smallest fixHours around the productVendor changesAdd-onsLicence and tierRunning itBuild, onceLicence, often lower
No amounts here. These are the lines to count.
Is this your case?
The product fits most of the work. The rest is where the money goes.
The cost of a misfit rarely appears on one invoice. It sits in the tier, the add-ons, the change requests and the hours people spend filling the gap.
Every small change is a quote.
A new field, a different approval order or one extra report means a request to the vendor, a price and a date. You wait for the date.
The higher tier bought one missing field.
One team needed a single feature, so the whole company moved up a price level. Everybody pays for it and most people never see it.
The spreadsheet next to the system.
People keep a sheet where the real planning, pricing or checking happens, then type the result back in. That sheet is the part of the operation the product never covered.
What it costs today
The largest line never arrives as an invoice.
Licences, tiers and add-ons are visible, and finance can add them up in an afternoon. The hours around the product are the part nobody counts. The sheet somebody maintains on the side, the data typed in twice, the report built by hand every month, the person who knows how to make the system accept an exception. Those hours come back every week and they grow with volume, while the licence stays where it is. There is a second cost with no invoice at all. When the product decides what is possible, your way of working slowly changes shape to match it, and the roadmap belongs to someone else.
A model table comparing six cost lines in two situations, keeping the current product as it is and making the smallest change that removes the misfit. The cells describe how each line behaves. The table carries no amounts.
Licence and tier
If nothing changes
Every year, for every seat.
After the smallest fix
Often a lower tier, once the reason for the higher one is gone.
Add-ons
If nothing changes
Every year, per module.
After the smallest fix
Only the ones still in use.
Vendor changes
If nothing changes
Their price, their date.
After the smallest fix
Your backlog, your order.
Hours around the product
If nothing changes
Every week, and they grow with volume.
After the smallest fix
Removed where the new part covers the work.
Building and running the missing part
If nothing changes
None.
After the smallest fix
Paid once to build, then a smaller amount every year.
Ownership
If nothing changes
The vendor decides what is possible.
After the smallest fix
Your code, your data, your priorities.
A fair comparison carries the same lines on both sides. Most quotes put a licence next to a build and leave the manual hours out of both.
Your options
Some of this is a contract question before it is a software question.
A cheaper contract, a setting nobody has used or one connection can each remove the cost. We check those before anyone quotes a build.
Pay for what you use
Fits when
you are on a tier or an add-on that one team asked for once.
Read the contract before you spend anything else. The higher tier, the seats nobody logs into and the add-on that was switched on for a pilot are sometimes the whole problem.
Configure it properly
Fits when
the way you work fits the product and one detail is missing.
Fields, rules, permissions and supported extensions cover more than most companies ever use. If the missing piece stays inside the product, it belongs there.
Connect it to the rest
Fits when
the product does its job and the flow to your other tools is missing.
Where people retype between this system and something else, one connection removes the typing. The product stays exactly as it is.
Build the specific part
Fits when
the part that decides price, planning or assignment is specific to you.
The suite keeps accounting, payroll and the standard records, and what we build covers the work it was never shaped for. Replacing the product altogether comes up only where it forces a way of working that costs you customers or margin.
Wait
Fits when
the misfit costs less than the fix, or nobody owns the process yet.
If the number on the page turns out to be small, keep paying it and spend the money somewhere it matters more. We will tell you when that is the answer.
How we work on it
We count the cost before we quote a solution.
Standard software failing to fit your operation is normal here. It is the reason most of the work we do exists.
We count what the misfit costs
We go through the invoices with you and through the work with the people doing it. Licences, tiers, add-ons, vendor changes and the hours around the product end up on one page.
One scope, written down
We agree the smallest change that removes the biggest line, with what it covers and what it leaves alone. The scope and the estimate exist before anyone builds anything.
In front of real users early
The first version goes to the people who keep the spreadsheet, on their own cases, while it is still small. We change it with them.
We stay with it
We take responsibility for how it works in daily use and for what it costs to run. The code, the data and the rules stay yours.
Relevant work
What made the cost worth removing.
Workforce contracting, Slovakia
The volume that was turning into manual hours
Core operation rebuilt
P. J. Servis receives data on thousands of jobs every month, and the older internal system left the rest of that work to people. Assigning jobs, paying workers and following the cash now run in one system built around this company's own rules.
Live auctions, client under NDA
Paying for software nobody could develop further
From rescue to ownership
A portal that had been developed for several years had reached a state where further development was no longer reasonable, and the owner could not rely on the original development team. We went through the architecture, the connections, the data and the server settings, stabilised the platform and took over the development.
Model example
When the licence is the right answer
The answer was to keep buying
A company counts the same lines on both sides. The product carries the work as it is, the missing piece is one report, and the hours around it are small. The build would cost more than it removes, so the answer is to stay and buy the report. This is a model example and it carries no client numbers.
The question that decides this is the same every time. What the misfit costs you in a year, and what the smallest change that removes it costs to build and to run.
We start with the numbers
The questions we will ask in the first meeting.
- Which tier are you on, and which single feature made you move up to it?
- What did the last change you asked the vendor for cost you, in money and in waiting?
- Which spreadsheet sits open next to the system all day, and who keeps it?
- If the licence ended tomorrow, which part of the work would stop, and which part would carry on in Excel?
Why Moravio
A software partner for deciding what is worth paying for
Build or buy advice
We check first whether a cheaper contract, a setting or one connection removes the cost. Custom development starts where your own rules make it worth owning.
Built around what you keep
The suite keeps accounting, payroll and the records it handles well. What we add covers the part it was never shaped for, and it reads from the suite and writes back to it.
The running cost is part of the quote
We tell you what the system will cost to run and to maintain after it is built. The first estimate carries both numbers.
Yours to own
The code, the data and the rules stay with your team. You decide what gets built next and when, and you can take it to another supplier.
The first step
One page with every line on it.
We take the system that does not fit and put its real cost on one page. What you pay, what you pay on top, and what your people do by hand around it. You need nothing prepared and no specification. You talk to the people who design and build the system, so nothing is lost on the way to a delivery team.
01
What you pay
The licence, the tier, the add-ons and the support contract, as they appear on this year's invoices.
02
What you pay on top
Every change you asked the vendor for in the last year, what it cost and how long you waited for it.
03
What people do around it
We follow one real order, quote or shift and mark every place where somebody types, checks or repairs something by hand.
04
What the smallest fix costs
We put the options side by side with what each one removes, what it costs to build and what it costs to run.
What you bring
This year's invoices for the system and one real order, quote or shift. Nothing prepared, no specification.
What you leave with
The cost of the misfit on one page, the options that remove it, and a scope and an estimate for the smallest one.
Questions we hear
Before you decide
That is the first part of the work. We sit with the people who do the job and write down the decisions, the data and the exceptions before anything is designed. We have done it in workforce contracting, in live auctions and in transport, and the operation was different every time.
No. The suite keeps the standard work it handles well, and we build or connect around the part that costs you. A replacement only comes up where a product forces a way of working that damages the business.
The first version goes in front of the people who keep the spreadsheet today, on their real cases, while it is still small. We change it with them. Nothing is switched off until the new part has earned trust in daily work.
You leave the first step with the cost on one page, a written scope, an estimate, the options we rejected and the reason, and the risks. IT gets the technical picture in their own terms: permissions, integrations and who owns the code.
In the first year it often is, because the build is paid once at the start. The comparison that decides it runs over several years and carries the same lines on both sides, including licences, vendor changes and the hours people spend around the product today. Sometimes the licence still wins, and we say so.
That depends on your contract with the vendor, and it is worth reading before you spend more. What we build is yours: the code, the data and the right to hand it to another supplier.
Usually yes, and it is the most common outcome. The suite carries the standard work and the part that costs you gets built or connected around it.
Start with the situation
What do you need but you can’t buy off the shelf?
Send us the messy version. We will help make the next decision clear.