Subscriber Discussion

What Does A Security Consulting / Electrical Design Firm Charge?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
May 31, 2017

How much does a security consulting / electrical design firm charge?  Is it a flat percentage of the whole of the installation of the applicable package (e.g. 10% of integrator installed price) or is there an hourly rate negotiated?  I have heard rumors of various options ranging from reasonable to outlandish.

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Michael Silva
May 31, 2017
Silva Consultants

We had a discussion here a few months back that addresses the hourly cost of consulting services. For larger projects, most security consulting/engineering firms follow a design process that includes the traditional architectural design phases which include the pre-design, schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration phases. 

The cost for each of these phases is determined by estimating the amount of consulting time that it will take at the consultant/engineer's hourly billing rate.

Sometimes a percentage of installed system cost (what the integrator would charge) is used as a rule of thumb, but this is rarely accurate. Often a smaller system (costing say $50,000), will take almost as much time to design as a system costing ten times as much. Also, it sometimes doesn't take a lot of time to design and specify expensive equipment (such as servers, disk storage arrays, and video walls), while designing something relatively inexpensive (such as a relay interlocking system for man trap doors) can take a tremendous amount of time. For these reasons, I don't feel that rule of thumb percentages are very accurate.

When estimating a major design project, I typically look at the following factors:

  • Number of design phases required.
  • Number of deliverables (drawings, specs, cost estimates) required at each phase.
  • Number of specification sections required (number of different systems anticipated)
  • Number of drawing sheets required.
  • Number of meetings required during each phase.
  • Project location and cost of travel to and from.
  • Is this a public or private project?
  • Number of visits anticipated during construction phase.
  • Duration of construction phase (in months or years).
  • Number and type of project close-out services required (acceptance testing, provide help with training, review project as-built documents, etc.)
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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
May 31, 2017

Thank you Michael.  It sounds as though consultants do estimates much like integrators do.  That is a bit more reassuring to hear rather than x% of the finished product.

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