When you hire an IT consultant, the first question after "can you do this?" is usually "how do you charge?" Most consultancies give you two options: hourly rates or time-and-materials billing. Both approaches share the same fundamental problem — they reward the consultant for taking longer.
CenterMarq does not bill by the hour. Every engagement is fixed-price, fixed-scope, with clear deliverables. Here is why, and why it matters for your business.
The Problem with Hourly Billing
Hourly billing is the default in IT consulting because it is easy for the consultant. Estimate some hours, start the clock, send an invoice. If the project takes longer than expected, the client pays more. If requirements change, more hours. If a junior developer takes three times as long as a senior, the client pays for all three times.
This creates three serious problems:
Misaligned incentives. When a consultant earns more by working longer, there is a structural incentive — even if subconscious — to extend timelines. Why solve a problem in 10 hours when 20 hours pays twice as much? We are not saying consultants deliberately pad hours. But the billing model does not reward efficiency.
Budget uncertainty. Every hourly engagement starts with an estimate. "We think this will take 200 to 300 hours." The range is wide enough to be meaningless. By the time you are at hour 250 with no end in sight, you are stuck. You have already invested too much to walk away, so you keep paying. This is known as the sunk cost trap, and hourly billing makes it inevitable.
Scope creep without accountability. When the meter is always running, it is easy for scope to expand without anyone noticing until the invoice arrives. An hourly consultant might welcome a scope change because it means more billable work. A fixed-price consultant has every incentive to manage scope carefully because their margin depends on it.
How Fixed-Price Consulting Works
In a fixed-price engagement, the consultant and client agree on a defined scope of work, a set of deliverables, a timeline, and a total price before work begins. The price does not change unless the scope changes, and scope changes require written agreement from both parties.
This means:
- You know exactly what you are paying before the project starts.
- The consultant has every incentive to be efficient because their profit depends on delivering within the agreed scope.
- Scope changes are deliberate, not accidental. If you want to add something, it gets discussed, priced, and agreed upon.
- You are paying for outcomes, not activity. You do not care how many hours it takes. You care that it gets done, done right, and done on time.
Why Most Consultancies Avoid Fixed-Price
If fixed-price is better for clients, why does not everyone do it? Because it is harder for the consultant. Fixed-price engagements require:
Deep expertise in estimating. You need to know how long things actually take, not how long you hope they will take. This requires experience — specifically, experience delivering similar projects for similar clients. Junior consultancies and freelancers often lack this calibration.
Willingness to eat mistakes. If a fixed-price project runs over, the consultant absorbs the loss. This is terrifying for consultancies that are not confident in their estimates. Hourly billing lets you pass that risk to the client instead.
Discipline in scope management. You have to be willing to say "that is out of scope" and have an honest conversation about change orders. Some consultancies find it easier to just log more hours.
Operational maturity. Fixed-price requires repeatable processes, good project management, and efficient delivery. You can not wing it.
How CenterMarq Makes Fixed-Price Work
At CenterMarq, fixed-price is not just a pricing model. It is a reflection of how we think about client relationships.
Our process starts with a thorough discovery phase where we document requirements, define deliverables, and identify risks before quoting a price. We have completed enough projects across enough industries that our estimates are calibrated by real data, not guesswork.
Every project has a clear scope document that both parties sign. If you need to change scope mid-project, we discuss it openly, agree on the impact, and adjust the price and timeline accordingly. No surprises.
Our team is incentivized to deliver efficiently because we have committed to a price. This means we use the right tools, the right people, and the right processes from day one. We do not pad teams with junior developers who need supervision. We assign experienced professionals who can deliver without hand-holding.
Check our Pricing page to see how our fixed-price model works across different service categories.
When Fixed-Price Does Not Work
Fixed-price is not the right model for every situation. It works best when:
- The scope can be reasonably defined upfront
- Both parties are willing to invest in a proper discovery phase
- The client has clear decision-making authority
- The project has defined success criteria
It is less suitable for pure research projects where the outcome is genuinely unknown, or for ongoing support and maintenance where the workload is unpredictable. For those scenarios, we offer retainer-based pricing with clear monthly commitments.
The Bottom Line
When you hire a consultant on an hourly basis, you are hiring someone to spend time on your problem. When you hire a fixed-price consultant, you are hiring someone to solve your problem. Those are fundamentally different relationships.
At CenterMarq, we choose to be accountable for results. We put our margin at risk so you do not have to put your budget at risk. That is how professional services should work.
Want to see what a fixed-price engagement looks like for your project? Learn more about our approach or schedule a free consultation to discuss your needs. The conversation is always free, and we will give you an honest assessment of what it would take.