The Build · after the decision

The decision is made. Now it has to run.

A prototype that works is not a system that keeps working. What comes on top is everything a demo never has to do: error handling, permissions, connections to what is already there, monitoring, and the exceptions that trip it up in practice. That is the work I do.

The pilot is approved, but nobody knows who is going to build it now.

Our team can do this, but not on the side and not for the first time.

It has to connect to systems that have been in place for fifteen years.

01 · Four building blocks

What is The Build?

A Build is bespoke, but it is assembled from parts I have made before. So not a category but four concrete parts, each with a price where there is one.

Building block 01

The Connector

A connector of two pipes with a red valve on top.

Your team has an AI assistant open all day that knows nothing about your business, so the retyping continues. I make your own software usable in that assistant, with fixed gates and the roles and permissions that are already there. Every request lands in a log, so you can read back what happened. The only building block with its own page.

See The Connector

Running in production at Careerguide. From €12.500.

Building block 02

Agent workflows

A short conveyor belt with a checkpoint gate and a red lamp on top.

There is work that has to happen every day and that nobody enjoys: processing requests, preparing case files, checking data. I have a system carry that out on its own, with checkpoints where a human approves. The boring things are in there because they make the difference: cost control, retries, exceptions and a trail you can read back.

I run one myself, for my own software development.

Building block 03

Integrations

Two different plugs joined by a red adapter.

Two packages do not know each other, so your people move the data from one system to the other by hand. I build the integration between them, including to AFAS, Exact and Moneybird. With queues, retries and error handling, so an outage on the other side does not become an outage on yours.

Delivered at Concent: over fifty AFAS environments moved to OAuth.

Building block 04

Maintenance and safety net

A toolbox with the lid ajar and a red wrench inside.

Once something is running the world around it changes: APIs shift, packages get updates and there is always another wish. I keep it current with the standard and reserve a fixed number of hours per month for extensions. You also get access to parts I already built for others.

From €350 per month. Cancel, and everything simply keeps running.

What a Build is and is not.

Works well when

There is a decision: a Sprint, a Scan or your own trial has shown what needs to be built.
Someone can decide on scope and phases, and a team or supplier will carry it afterwards.
It has to connect to systems already in place, with the data and permissions already there.

This is not

No open hours budget, but a fixed scope and a fixed price per phase.
No standalone demo, but software for the real environment, with error handling, monitoring and exceptions.
No migration of your data, and no replacement of a system that is already doing the job.

02 · In phases

How does it work?

Scope first, then a figure. Every phase has a fixed price, and after every phase you can stop: what is there by then is yours and keeps working.

A folding ruler, half unfolded, with a red pencil on it.

Scope

Agreeing what gets built.

We first agree what gets built, what falls outside it, and who decides what.

Three stacked blocks with a red price tag on the top one.

Quote

A fixed price per phase.

Then a quote per phase, with a fixed price per phase instead of an open hours budget.

A small wall under construction with a red trowel on top.

Build

Phase by phase, on your environment.

I build it myself, or I design and lead the implementation together with your developers so the knowledge stays with you.

Hand over

Yours, and it keeps working.

Code, design and documentation are your property. With monitoring, guardrails and a team that can run it themselves.

Is there a decision?

Describe in two sentences what has to end up running. You will hear whether this is a Build, or whether you are better off starting with a Sprint.

Discuss a Build

03 · What you can check

What can you check?

What is below runs, and you can check it yourself before we talk money.

A pipe coupling with a red valve wheel on top.

The Connector runs in production

At Careerguide, publishing a vacancy went from nine steps to one question to an AI assistant. On the existing system, with the permissions that were already there.

See The Connector

To check · I show it live on the real system.

A pipe fitting with two flanges, one of them red.

At Concent the AFAS connection runs on OAuth

The Cockpit at Stichting Concent pulls authorisations and reports from over fifty AFAS environments. AFAS is retiring the connection method it ran on, so without work that Cockpit would stop for every affiliated organisation. I migrated it to OAuth, moved the keys out of the source code and extended the authorisation check. The connection now runs on OAuth, both at Concent and at the affiliated organisations. Quoted in phases, with a fixed price per phase.

Delivered · I will walk you through the approach, the phasing and what is running now.

A ruled sheet of paper with a round red stamp in the corner.

MCP E-Invoice EU is public

An MCP server that makes the European e-invoicing rules (Peppol, EN16931) usable for AI systems. Open source, so you can read the code, the choices and the edge cases yourself.

To check · The repository is public on GitHub.

A conveyor belt with three boxes, the red one just rolling off.

I run my own delivery pipeline

Agents pick up tasks from my backlog and deliver work as a pull request; I specify, review and merge. An agent cannot skip the quality gates: test suite, code style, front-end build and a separate review round.

How the pipeline works

To check · This site was built that way. An agent never merges by itself.

I know what production demands

Building software since 1999, fifteen of them independent, through Progress Software in enterprise environments for organisations including WHO and Van Lanschot. That is what you need at the moment a demo has to become a business-critical system.

About Daniel

To check · The full career is on the About page.

04 · Scope first, then a figure

What does it cost, and then what?

A Build starts from €20.000. What it becomes above that depends on the scope; below is how I quote, and what can come before and what can follow.

The Build · from €20.000, quoted in phases

A Build starts with a fixed scope and is then quoted in phases.

We first agree what gets built, what falls outside it, and who decides what.
Then a quote per phase, with a fixed price per phase instead of an open hours budget.
After every phase you can stop. What is there by then is yours and keeps working.
Code, design and documentation are your property, and it runs on your environment.

Also have a look at

A small device under a glass dome, with a red tag on a string.

Not sure yet what should be built? Then The Sprint is the cheaper start. Ten working days, fixed price, and at the end you know whether building is wise, and what should happen next.

See The Sprint

A drafting table with a rolled drawing and a red T-square.

Want someone who stays involved? After a Build you usually want someone who stays involved: guarding architecture, assessing new opportunities, building critical parts. per month, excl. VAT, three-month minimum.

See Fractional AI Architect

05 · What people want to know

Still have questions?

The questions that always come up, with short answers. If yours is not among them, a half-hour call is the quickest way.

Why is there only a from price?

Because every Build is different and a fixed final figure would then always be wrong: too high scares people off, too low is not true. What is fixed is the floor and how I quote: scope first, then a fixed price per phase. And the parts that do have their own price are listed.

Do you build it yourself, or lead our team?

Both happen: I build it myself, or I design and lead the implementation together with your developers so the knowledge stays with you. Which is wiser depends on your team and on how critical the part is.

Do you work with our existing systems?

That is usually where it starts. A Build sits on or next to what is already there; I do not migrate your data and I do not replace a system that is doing its job.

What happens if we want to stop halfway?

Then you stop, because quoting is per phase and you are never committed to the whole. What is there at that moment is yours and keeps working.

How do I know we are ready for this?

If you are not yet sure what should be built, you probably are not. The Sprint is then cheaper and faster: ten working days to a decision you can defend.

A scaffold of blue tubes with one red plank on the top level.

Who builds this

You work directly with the person who makes it.

I am Daniel Plomp. No account manager, no intermediate layer and no agency passing it on. You explain your work once, to the person who builds it and who picks up the phone when something breaks.

One point of contact · no agencies in between

Shall we look at what needs building?

Describe in two sentences what has to end up running. You will hear whether this is a Build, or whether you are better off starting with a Sprint.