How the work runs
Four stages, and you can stop after any of them
Most integrator engagements ask you to commit to the whole thing on the strength of a proposal. This one is staged so you buy the next step only once the last one told you something you did not know.
How the work is staged
Assess, Pilot, Build, Sustain
Each stage ends somewhere you can stop. That is the point of staging it: you buy the next step only once the last one told you something.
- 01
Assess
$3,500 to $5,000/2 weeks
Turn a vague backlog into an architecture, a bill of materials, and a firm number.
- Read the current sequence and time where it actually goes
- Confirm driver coverage instrument by instrument, before anyone commits
- Write the architecture and the bill of materials
- Quote the build at a fixed price
You hold a firm quote and can stop here without owing anything further.
- 02
Pilot
$6,000 to $10,000/3 to 4 weeks
Prove the pattern on one sequence before it is applied to the rack.
- One sequence built end to end on the standard core
- Drivers written behind the abstraction layer
- Results matched side by side against what you run today
- Measured effort for the rest, not an estimate
The approach is proven on your hardware, or it is not, and you found out for ten thousand dollars.
- 03
Build
$15,000 to $40,000/6 to 12 weeks
The full station, delivered against a written acceptance checklist.
- Sequence, operator interface, results database, and reports
- Fixture design coordinated with your machine shop
- Weekly written status, so nobody has to schedule a meeting to find out where it is
- Factory acceptance against a checklist you signed before work started
Signed acceptance sheet, ninety-day warranty running, final invoice the same day.
- 04
Sustain
From 5 hours per month/Monthly
Someone on the hook when the station stops at 6am.
- Fixes, tweaks, and operator questions
- Response inside one business day, or four business hours on Gold
- Quarterly health check from Silver up
- New capability over eight hours quoted as a change order, never absorbed quietly
Sixty days notice, either direction. No lock-in, because lock-in is the thing you are trying to get out of.
Communication
What it is like to have work in progress here
Slow communication kills more projects than bad engineering does, so this part is written down rather than left to go well.
Response within 24 hours
Stated upfront rather than promised vaguely, and it holds on the days when it is inconvenient, which are the only days it counts.
One written status email a week
What moved, what is next, what is blocked. You never have to attend a meeting to find out where your project is, and you have a written record of every week of it.
Calls at lunch or after five
Thirty minutes, scheduled, on your product and your process. Not a recurring slot on your calendar.
One project at a time
It is why the timelines hold. It is also why there is sometimes a wait, and I will tell you what it is rather than starting yours late.
How you know it is done
Six gates every project is signed off against
A quote from a happy customer is an opinion. What follows is the contract: the six gates every Testral project is signed off against, written down before work starts and walked through line by line before the final invoice. Read them and you already know how your project ends.
Scope is a checklist, not a paragraph
The statement of work carries a written acceptance checklist. Two pages, agreed before anyone starts, listing what has to be true for the work to be done.
Status arrives weekly, in writing
One email a week: what moved, what is next, what is blocked. No standing meeting, no status call you have to attend to find out where the project is.
Acceptance is walked through on a call
We go down the checklist together, line by line, against the running system. Anything not met gets fixed before the invoice.
Scope changes are quoted, not absorbed
A change order names the work and the price. Nothing gets added silently and then charged, and nothing gets added silently and then quietly dropped.
The platform stays yours to run
You own the deliverables and get a license to the platform underneath. Python on free driver runtimes, no seat licenses to renew, source you can read.
Ninety-day warranty on defects
If something I built is wrong, I fix it. Support after that is a retainer if you want one, and nothing if you do not.
These are contract terms, not intentions. They appear in the statement of work you sign, and every project that closes adds its two numbers to the record: test time per unit before and after, and weeks from purchase order to running station.
Payment milestones
What you pay, and exactly when
Published here so nobody has to ask for it during a negotiation.
Up to $10,000
- 50 percent on signing
- 50 percent on acceptance
Net 30. Acceptance is a written checklist agreed in the statement of work, walked through on a call.
$10,000 to $50,000
- 40 percent on purchase order
- 40 percent at acceptance
- 20 percent at commissioning
You buy the hardware on your own purchase orders from my bill of materials. No markup, no floated cash.
System and cell builds
- 25 percent on purchase order
- 25 percent at design review
- 40 percent at factory acceptance
- 10 percent at commissioning
Factory acceptance is a written procedure with a signed acceptance sheet, plus safety validation on any cell with a moving arm.
Net 30 on every invoice. Invoiced the same day the milestone is met, chased on day 31. Materials are bought on your own purchase orders from my bill of materials, so there is no markup on instruments and no argument about it later.
Next step
Tell me what your test bench is holding up.
Thirty minutes, at lunch or after five, on your product and your current test process. No deck. If it is not a fit I will say so on the call, and if I know someone better placed I will tell you who.
Replies within 24 hours. Or write directly to [email protected].