AIM
Architectural Insight for Modernization
Cost Estimate Confidence Methodology
Understanding how AIM calculates and reports confidence for hardware, cloud, and SaaS cost estimates
Note: This page is about confidence levels on the cost estimates AIM provides (hardware/cloud/SaaS). It is not related to AIM membership tiers or pricing plans.
AIM provides transparent pricing estimates with explicit confidence levels. Every cost estimate includes a confidence rating so decision-makers understand the reliability of the numbers and when to seek vendor quotes.
This page explains how confidence levels are determined, what data sources inform pricing, and how to interpret the estimates in modernization reports.
1. Confidence Levels Explained
AIM uses three confidence levels, each with a specific meaning and expected variance range:
HIGH Confidence
Contract-verified pricing or recently confirmed vendor data. Suitable for budgeting and procurement planning.
MEDIUM Confidence
Public list pricing or partner estimates. Good for planning and scoping, but validate with vendors before final budgets.
LOW Confidence
Industry benchmarks or incomplete data. Useful for order-of-magnitude planning only. Vendor quotes required for accurate budgeting.
2. How Confidence is Calculated
Line Item Confidence
Each pricing line item receives a confidence level based on the data source:
| Source Type | Confidence | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CONTRACT_OVERRIDE | HIGH | Organization-specific contract pricing |
| MANUAL | HIGH | Manually verified and entered prices |
| CLOUD_API | HIGH | Live pricing from AWS/Azure/GCP APIs |
| PUBLIC_LIST | MED | Vendor public pricing pages |
| PUBLIC_LIST / MSRP | LOW | Manufacturer list price — baseline reference before contract discounts |
| MISSING / REQUIRES_QUOTE | LOW | No price available, vendor quote required |
Overall Report Confidence
The overall report confidence is calculated by aggregating all line items:
- HIGH — 80%+ of items have HIGH confidence AND 0 items are missing prices
- MED — Less than 25% of items are missing prices
- LOW — More than 25% of items are missing prices OR no pricing data available
Confidence Downgrades
Confidence may be downgraded when key cost inputs are missing:
- Missing
user_countwhen PER_USER licenses are present - Missing
server_countwhen PER_SERVER licenses are present - Missing
endpoint_countwhen PER_DEVICE/ENDPOINT licenses are present - Multiple missing inputs (2+) result in further downgrade
3. Size-Based Recommendations
Your organization size selection in the assessment directly affects which products and pricing tiers AIM recommends:
Small
50-200 users, single location
Medium
200-1,000 users, multi-department
Large
1,000+ users, enterprise/multi-agency
Why Size Matters
Selecting the correct organization size ensures you receive appropriate recommendations. A small municipality won't be recommended enterprise-class hardware designed for multi-agency deployments, and a large enterprise won't receive entry-level solutions that can't scale. If you skip the size selection, AIM defaults to Medium-tier recommendations.
4. Pricing by Category
AIM estimates costs across multiple categories, each with different data sources and typical confidence levels:
Layer 1: Physical Infrastructure
Cabling, rack installation, power, cooling, and physical buildout costs.
Hardware
Servers, networking equipment, storage arrays, endpoint devices, and other physical IT assets.
Size-Based Recommendations
Hardware recommendations are tailored to your organization size selected in the assessment:
How Hardware Prices Are Sourced
Hardware estimates use manufacturer-published list prices (MSRP) as a LOW-confidence reference baseline. Actual prices depend on your procurement vehicle and order volume:
Cloud Services
AWS, Azure, GCP compute, storage, networking, and managed services.
Software Licensing & SaaS
Operating systems, productivity suites, identity providers, observability platforms, and other licensed software.
IT Labor & Professional Services
Implementation, migration, and ongoing operational labor costs. AIM automatically detects your organization's sector from the assessment and applies the appropriate labor rate model — so a hospital gets Healthcare IT staffing rates, not federal pay scales.
5. Approximate Pricing (~)
Some products show prices with a ~ prefix, indicating approximate pricing:
What ~ Means
Approximate prices are researched estimates based on industry knowledge, partner feedback, or publicly available ranges. While not exact vendor-published prices, they provide realistic planning figures.
~$5/user/month — Contact vendor for exact quoteApproximate pricing includes vendor contact information so you can get exact quotes:
| Price Display | Meaning | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| $36/user/month | Vendor-published SKU price | HIGH |
| ~$5/user/month | Researched approximation | MED |
| Contact Vendor | Quote required, no estimate available | LOW |
6. Understanding “Contact Vendor”
Some products display vendor contact information instead of a price. This occurs when:
- Enterprise custom pricing — Products like MuleSoft, Databricks, or Tyler Technologies where pricing is negotiated based on usage, modules, or organization size
- Population-based licensing — Municipal software priced by city/county population
- Usage-based pricing — Products charged by API calls, data volume, or compute units where usage cannot be estimated
- Enterprise tier — When the SMALL/MEDIUM tier has published prices but LARGE tier is enterprise-only
Example Contact Information
Tyler Technologies: tylertech.com/contact or 1-800-772-2260
Oracle: oracle.com/corporate/contact or 1-800-392-2999
Salesforce: salesforce.com/government/contact
SAP: sap.com/contact or 1-800-872-1727
What to Do
Contact the vendor directly using the provided information. For municipal software (Tyler, OpenGov, etc.), pricing typically depends on population, modules selected, and contract terms.
7. How to Improve Confidence
If your report shows LOW confidence, here are steps to improve it:
Provide Cost Inputs
Ensure user count, server count, endpoint count, and site count are entered in the assessment wizard.
Add Contract Pricing
For Enterprise members, upload existing vendor contracts to create organization-specific pricebook overrides.
Request Vendor Quotes
For “Requires Quote” items, obtain budgetary quotes from vendors and enter them as manual price overrides.
Refine Environment Details
Specify cloud provider preferences, deployment regions, and runtime modes (business hours vs 24x7) to get more accurate cloud pricing.
8. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator
While individual cost estimates show per-product pricing, the TCO Calculator provides comprehensive multi-year projections that combine all cost categories into a single view. It is available within the Assessment Workspace after recommendations are generated.
What the TCO Calculator Includes
The TCO Calculator aggregates costs from your recommended technology stack and adds industry-standard estimates for the full lifecycle:
Annual subscriptions, SaaS fees, perpetual licenses, and recurring renewals from your selected products
Cloud compute, storage, networking, and hardware costs from recommended deployments
Project management, configuration, integration, and testing (estimated at 35% of Year 1 costs, Year 1 only)
User onboarding estimated at $750 per user (Year 1 only)
Ongoing support estimated at 20% of software licensing costs annually
Cabling, terminations, pathways, firestop, and installation labor with regional adjustments (Year 1 only)
Configurable Parameters
You control the projection to match your planning scenario:
| Parameter | Options | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Projection Period | 1, 3, or 5 years | Determines the time horizon for the cost projection |
| User Count | Any number | Scales per-user/per-seat licensing costs |
| User Growth Rate | 0-50% per year | Compounds per-user costs year over year |
| Inflation Rate | 0-20% per year | Applies annual inflation to all recurring costs |
| Discount Rate (NPV) | Percentage | Calculates Net Present Value for investment comparison |
How Costs Are Projected
Recurring costs (annual and monthly licenses) are projected forward with compound growth and inflation. For per-user products, both user growth and inflation apply. For flat-fee products, only inflation applies.
One-time costs (perpetual licenses, implementation, training, and physical infrastructure) appear in Year 1 only and are not projected into subsequent years.
Billing period normalization: Monthly prices are annualized (multiplied by 12), hourly prices are annualized (multiplied by 8,760 hours/year), and one-time prices are kept as single Year 1 entries. This ensures all costs are compared on a consistent annual basis.
TCO vs. Base Estimates
Base cost estimates (shown in the Modernization Report and Vendor Brief) reflect product-level pricing only. The TCO Calculator builds on these estimates by adding implementation, training, support, and physical infrastructure costs, then projecting everything over your chosen time horizon with growth and inflation. Use base estimates for product comparison; use the TCO Calculator for budget planning and procurement justification.
9. Important Notes
Estimates Are Planning-Level
All AIM pricing estimates are intended for planning and scoping purposes. Final budgets should be validated with vendor quotes, contract negotiations, and procurement processes.
Prices Change
Vendor pricing changes over time. AIM pricebooks are updated periodically, but prices may differ from current vendor rates. Always verify current pricing for procurement.
Excludes Implementation
Unless explicitly stated, pricing estimates typically exclude implementation labor, training, data migration, and ongoing operational costs. These should be budgeted separately.
Questions About Pricing?
Learn more about how AIM works or get started with your first assessment.