Pricing day
Tom asks Sam for the plan: an information manager, a document controller, licences for three systems, and two training days for each firm.
Tom's journey · Pre-Construction · Lesson 2
The plug number
Before you start
In the story
Half a team, no licences, and a number nobody could explain.
Back to the story
The right way
The price
Tom prices the plan line by line, like the scaffolding.
Contract award
The price matches the plan, and Kofi's forecast matches the price.
0.5%, because last timeHalf a team, no licences, and a forecast at double.
Priced from the planEvery line explained, and a price that matches the job.
Think like Tom
Every number in the bid should have a reason. Can you say what the information management line pays for: who, how many days, which licences? If not, it's a plug number.
Continue Tom's journey
Story 3: What did we actually send?
Submission morning. Five versions called FINAL, three people editing, and a portal that closes at noon.
The right way, explained
The town doesn't budget for its roads as "a percentage of last year". It counts the roads, the signs and the people who look after them.
If you're the information manager
Give Tom the plan in numbers: roles, days, licences and training. Hand him a percentage and he'll use it forever.
In the town See it in the town: 0.5% of what, and why?
Tom's view: the Transport Authority keeps the routes open. Price the people, the vehicles and the signs, or the traffic finds the back alleys.
- 1 The proper routes between buildings, closed. Nobody is planning them, building them or keeping them open.
- 2 The traffic doesn't stop. It squeezes down the back alleys, and nothing it carries leaves a trail.
- 3 The Transport Authority: the people who plan the routes, build them, open them to traffic and keep an eye on them. Cut to win the bid.
This is the cost of the information management function!
Who, how many days, which systems and what training, priced from the plan.
Sam's Heads Up A percentage isn't always wrong
InfoTown good practice: The information work is priced from this job's plan.
On your job: A percentage is a fair sanity check. Just never the starting point: build the number up, then compare.
For the audit What the auditor will ask
- Show me how information management was priced in this bid.
- Does the price match the plan?
For the audit What good evidence looks like
- A build-up of the information management cost, from the plan.
- The plan's roles and resources matching the price.
ISO 19650 Resourcing the work
ISO 19650 expects the bid to show the team has the people and resources to manage information. Pricing them from the plan is InfoTown's advice.
Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.