How We Engage¶
EEI builds products, and most of those products started as one customer's specific problem. That is not incidental — it is the engagement model, and it is the main thing that changes How We Price.
Collaboration, and why we ask for it¶
The pitch we make is "we build new products, you get tailored and supported results — higher value for less." Underneath the slogan is a straightforward trade.
If we build something only you will ever use, you pay for all of it. If we build something we can generalize, we can price your engagement as a contribution to a product rather than the whole cost of a bespoke build. You get something specific enough to be useful and supported like a product; we get a capability we can offer again.
What you might bring — any of these is a real contribution, and each is worth discussing in commercial terms rather than treating as goodwill:
- Domain expertise or analytical IP. Often the scarcest input. You know the process; we know how to make it a supported, repeatable capability.
- A proving site. A real environment where a capability can earn a production record. This is frequently the thing a capability lacks — not engineering, but evidence.
- Engineering effort, where your team wants to be involved rather than hand it over.
- A reference commitment — permission to talk about the outcome, subject to whatever review you need.
- Being early. Sometimes the contribution is simply accepting a first release, with the attention that comes with being first.
What it does not mean. It is not free work in exchange for a logo, and it is not a pilot that quietly becomes permanent. Whatever is agreed goes into the terms.
Services as a route to a product¶
We do straight engineering services too — build, deliver, hand off. But we choose and run those engagements with an eye on what can be harvested from them.
The sequence we look for:
- A service engagement solves a specific problem for a specific customer.
- A pattern emerges — the same need shows up at a second and third customer.
- It becomes a Tool or a Connector, delivered on VirtualForge, priced as a product and supported like one.
This matters to you as a buyer for one reason: the thing you are buying is more likely to still be maintained in three years if other people are using it too. A bespoke deliverable with one customer is a maintenance liability for whoever built it. A product has a reason to keep existing.
It also means we will sometimes argue against building you something custom, and point at an existing product that covers most of it. That is usually the better outcome for both of us.
What we sell¶
Five categories, which is a useful map when working out which conversation you are in:
| What it is | |
|---|---|
| Connectors | Products that move data or metadata between systems |
| Tools | Granular capabilities applied broadly across customers |
| Solutions | Customer-specific deliverables, which may combine custom and existing tools |
| Services | Engineering work, delivered — and chosen with productization in mind |
| Partners | Platforms we build on or with, notably Seeq |
VirtualForge is not on that list, deliberately. It is the enabler the others run on rather than a line item you buy — see Products for how we separate products from enablers.
Buying directly, or through a partner¶
We can contract with you directly. Where you prefer, and where a partner is aligned with the work, you can instead buy through that partner and lean on them for first-line support. Usually that partner is a platform you already hold an agreement with, so your commercial relationship stays in one place.
Either way, the product and its support come from us. Through a partner, the partner carries the commercial relationship and is your first point of contact. We take over once a problem turns out to be in our product, and we work with you directly wherever that is quicker. Which route suits you is a conversation, not a policy.
Seeq is the established example. Our ABB Knowledge Manager connector is sold and supported this way today, under a three-year agreement now in its third year.
Starting a conversation¶
Most of our work reaches us through Seeq, so your Seeq contact is often the shortest path. Otherwise reach us directly through endeavoreng.com — and if what you want to know is whether something is real yet, ask plainly. We publish status against four terms used literally and will tell you which one applies.