RFQ Model 3: Fixed-Price Governance — the one we underestimated
We expected the most restrictive model to be the most resented. It turned out to be the most effective.
Model 3 removes the quotation step for known work. A central fixed-price catalogue defines what standard tasks cost, agreed in advance with a panel of contractors. When a fault matches a catalogue item, there is nothing to quote and nothing to approve.
On paper this reads as the least flexible of the three models. In practice it produced the best outcomes of any customer we have measured, and the reason is worth sitting with.
Competition moves upstream
When price is fixed, contractors cannot win work by quoting low. They compete on the two things a maintenance manager actually wants: better diagnosis and better execution approaches. Quotes stop being a pricing exercise and become a technical proposal.
The effect on response time is immediate. A contractor who knows the rate does not need to price the job before turning up.
Collaboration between providers
An unexpected second-order effect: a shared catalogue makes it straightforward for two providers to split a job — one supplying parts, another supplying labour — because both are working to the same agreed rates. We now see project quotes assembled from more than one provider, which almost never happened under quote-per-job.
What the catalogue does and does not cover
Work that exceeds the agreed list still goes out to quote, and still routes through the Model 2 escalation path. The catalogue is not a replacement for the other models; it removes the volume of routine work that was clogging them.
The objection we hear most
"Our work is too varied to price in advance." In every case where we tested this claim against the customer's own work order history, the variety was real at the top of the value distribution and largely absent at the bottom. Filter changes, standard callouts, routine servicing by asset class — the volume of work is repetitive even in operations that feel bespoke.
You do not need to price the unusual work. You need to stop the routine work from queuing behind it.
What it demands of you
A fixed-price catalogue transfers effort from per-job negotiation to periodic rate-setting, and that effort is real. Rates must be reviewed on a schedule with an agreed basis for adjustment, or the card silently becomes either a subsidy from your contractors or an overpayment by you. Quarterly review is enough in most of the markets we operate in; annual is not.
Outcomes we observed
- Faster execution — the quotation cycle disappears for catalogue work.
- Better cost control — the price is known before the work is authorised, not after.
- Complete traceability — every job maps to a catalogue item and an agreed rate.
- Improved contractor participation — more providers bid, because bidding is cheaper for them too.
Related reading
See it against your own workflows
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