You do not need to find the full cost of a major software project before you start. You pay the first installment when the specification is approved, and the project begins paying for itself long before the second installment is due twelve months after handover.
In South Africa we say ubuntu. I am because we are. That belief is the reason we do not walk away after handover. Your success and our success are tied together for five full years, not five minutes.
South African businesses operate under pressure that few global vendors truly understand. Unpredictable power, scarce technical talent, and tight cash flow mean that a software project cannot afford to fail. Our installment model lets you start projects that pay for themselves instead of pulling capital from the operations that keep your doors open.
We will not promise what we cannot deliver. We will write down exactly what we will build, prove it works in a prototype your team can touch, and stay six months after handover to make sure it actually changes your business.
We do not give fixed price estimates before the specification is complete. Any estimate given before the specification is a guess, and guesses favour the vendor, not the client. The only price you can see up front is the rate we charge for the hours that go into building the specification itself.
The specification rate exists for one specific situation. If we develop a complete technical specification for your project and you decide, for any reason, not to proceed with implementation, you pay only for the hours the specification actually took. This fee protects the time of our specification team, so every accepted project receives our full attention. It also prevents our resources from being used to produce specifications that are then taken to cheaper implementers.
If you do choose to proceed with implementation, you do not pay for the specification separately. The work that went into the specification becomes part of the implementation, and the first instalment you pay at specification approval begins the instalment plan described below.
The specification rate is charged per hour, per Zibuke Africa employee deployed to your engagement. Adjust the two values below to see how the charge is calculated. Every figure updates to the rate of the country you have selected above.
The specification rate of R650 per hour is charged per Zibuke Africa employee deployed to your engagement.
Each deployment of a Zibuke Africa employee to your engagement results in a charge at the local rate. This is the only cost that can fall due before implementation begins, and it applies only if a specification is produced and you choose not to proceed. If you proceed, the specification work folds into the first instalment.
Custom software, AI integrations, and Success Led Selling engagements are significant undertakings. We do not believe every business should have to find that entire cost sitting in a bank account before getting started. That is why we allow you to pay for your project in annual instalments across as many as five years.
The full price of your project is calculated only once the specification has been completed and accepted. The specification defines the work exactly. The work defines the price exactly. There are no surprises, no scope drift, and no invoices for work that was not specified.
Once the specification is approved, the first instalment is paid and implementation begins. The remaining instalments follow an annual rhythm tied to the handover date, so the project creates returns before each subsequent payment falls due. From the second instalment onward, each payment is adjusted fairly for inflation, protecting the real value of the work for both sides.
The timeline below shows every payment in the instalment plan, from the first payment at specification approval through the fifth payment four years after handover. Each instalment is annual, and each instalment after the first is adjusted for inflation.
If your project requires the full five instalments, a fifth instalment falls due forty eight months after handover, also inflation adjusted. Smaller projects may be paid across fewer instalments. The exact number of instalments and the exact amount of each instalment is determined by the specification, agreed in writing before implementation begins, and never changed without your written approval.
The instalment plan is not a payment for software delivery. It is a payment for the complete cycle of work that makes the software actually change your business. That cycle includes everything below.
The time we spend sitting with your team, watching how work gets done, and documenting the workflows, pain points, and workarounds your people have built. The foundation of every specification.
The complete written document that defines the exact problem we are solving, confirms every feature is aimed at that problem, and documents how each feature will fit the way your people already work.
The prototype we build and test against real tasks your team performs every day. We iterate until adoption is genuinely simple. If adoption is not simple, we are not finished.
The complete build of the approved solution, delivered against the specification exactly, with regular checkpoints where you can see progress against what was written down.
The structured handover that prepares your team to use the solution in their daily work, with training built around the way your people already operate.
The six month period after handover during which we measure how your team actually uses what we built, and we make the modifications needed until the project delivers genuine impact.
We understand that a business may decide, after receiving an accepted specification, that it can no longer proceed. Should that happen, we ask only to be paid for the hours actually invested in building that specification.
This fee is not a penalty. It is fair compensation for time genuinely invested. The specification we produce has value, whether or not you proceed with implementation. It documents exactly what problem your business is facing and exactly what solution would solve it. You are free to take that document to any other implementer, or to use it as an internal roadmap for work your own team will do.
The fee also protects the integrity of our process. Without it, our specification team could be used to produce detailed specifications that are then handed to cheaper implementers who did not invest the time to understand your business. That pattern would erode the quality of every specification we produce, which would harm every client we serve. The fee ensures every specification receives our full attention, because every specification represents a real investment of our team's time.
From the second instalment onward, each payment is adjusted fairly for inflation. The adjustment protects the real value of the work for both sides. If we did not adjust for inflation, a five year instalment plan would slowly erode the real value of what we are paid, which would eventually make it impossible to honour the six month observation and the long term accountability we promise. If we adjusted too aggressively, the plan would become unfair to you.
The inflation adjustment is based on published consumer price index data for the country in which your business operates. The exact adjustment for each instalment is calculated transparently and shared with you before each payment falls due. There are no surprise increases. There is only fair, transparent, published adjustment that protects both sides of the partnership.
The specification rate is not a fixed number. It is calculated as the purchasing power equivalent of R650 per hour in South Africa, for each of the fifteen countries we serve. Choose your country at the top of this page and every rate on this site updates to reflect your local economic context.
| Country | Currency | Specification Rate Per Hour |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa | ZAR | R650 |
| Netherlands | EUR | €70 |
| Sweden | SEK | 840 kr |
| Norway | NOK | 980 kr |
| Denmark | DKK | 600 kr |
| Cyprus | EUR | €70 |
| Finland | EUR | €70 |
| Singapore | SGD | S$74 |
| Malaysia | MYR | RM150 |
| United Kingdom | GBP | £65 |
| United States | USD | $93 |
| Canada | CAD | C$116 |
| Australia | AUD | A$135 |
| New Zealand | NZD | NZ$135 |
| Ireland | EUR | €70 |
Rates are calculated from World Bank purchasing power parity data and reviewed periodically so they stay fair as prices change. The rate that applies to your project is the rate for your selected country on the day your specification is approved.
Any fixed price given before the specification is a guess, and guesses favour the vendor, not the client. The specification defines the work exactly. The work defines the price exactly. We refuse to give you a number that is not honest, even if a less honest number would be easier to sell.
It depends entirely on the scope of the problem we are solving. A focused operational system may take a few weeks to specify. A multi year AI integration across an entire enterprise may take several months. We will tell you the expected duration of the specification after our first conversation with you.
We measure how your team actually uses what we built. We watch which features get used and which get ignored. We listen when your people tell us something feels harder than it should. We make the modifications needed until the project genuinely changes how your business operates for the better.
You can choose not to proceed with implementation. In that case, you pay only for the hours the specification actually took, at the rate for your country shown above. The specification document is yours. You can take it to any other implementer or use it internally.
Yes. You can settle the remaining instalments early if your business circumstances allow. We will calculate the remaining balance transparently and apply a fair early settlement discount that reflects the time value of money.
The adjustment is based on published consumer price index data for the country in which your business operates. The exact adjustment for each instalment is calculated transparently and shared with you before each payment falls due. There are no surprise increases.
Tell us the problem your business is facing. Let us show you how a specification, a prototype, and an honest instalment plan can solve it together.
