How pricing works.
No rate card, because a rate without a scope cannot be compared between providers. What follows is the structure, the cost drivers and the questions that decide the number — so you can build a business case before you ever speak to us.
Three ways an engagement is priced.
Which one fits depends on how predictable the work is and who should carry the risk of it varying.
Per seat, per month
A dedicated person at an agreed seniority and shift. The clearest model and the default where work is continuous: you control the headcount, the cost is fixed and forecastable, and you carry the risk of under-utilisation.
Per managed process
You buy an outcome — a queue answered to an SLA, a workflow completed to a turnaround — rather than a number of people. Novatek carries the staffing risk, priced against volume bands. It needs a well-defined process.
Per project
A scoped deliverable with an acceptance definition and an end date, used mainly for development work. Fixed scope and fixed price, with change requests priced separately. It needs scope discipline on both sides.
What actually moves the number.
In rough order of impact. If you want a cheaper engagement, these are the levers — and the first two are almost always the real ones.
| Driver | Effect | Can you influence it? |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage hours | The largest single driver. Round-the-clock cover needs roughly two and a half times the headcount of one shift, plus a premium for night work. | Yes — cover the hours that matter, not all of them |
| Seniority mix | A team of specialists costs far more than a tiered team where most contacts are handled at tier 1. | Yes — tiering is usually the biggest saving available |
| Complexity per contact | Handle time drives headcount directly. Undocumented processes inflate it. | Yes — documentation pays for itself quickly |
| Volume predictability | Spiky volume needs either buffer capacity or a managed-process model that prices the variability in. | Partly |
| Team size | Small teams carry proportionally more supervision and quality overhead. | Partly — there is a minimum viable size |
| Term length | Recruitment and training are front-loaded. A longer commitment spreads them. | Yes |
| Security requirements | Isolated environments, restricted devices or enhanced screening add real cost. | Only where the requirement is genuinely necessary |
What the seat rate covers.
The most common unpleasant surprise in this industry is discovering that management, quality and reporting are billed as extras.
- Recruitment and onboarding of every person on your account.
- Training — company, product and process, including the assessment.
- Team leadership at the agreed ratio, not billed as a separate seat.
- Quality management — sampling, scoring, coaching and calibration.
- Weekly reporting and the review call.
- Workspace, equipment and connectivity, including continuity provision.
- Replacement cover when someone leaves, at our cost, not yours.
Billed separately
- Licences for your systems — you hold them, at your negotiated rates.
- Development work outside the agreed scope.
- Isolated environments or hardware for special security requirements.
- Travel, where you ask for it.
Minimum viable engagement
Below roughly three to four people, the supervision, quality and reporting overhead stops paying for itself — for you, not for us. We will say so rather than sell you a two-person team that cannot be run properly.
Where the work is genuinely small, a managed-process engagement usually works better than a headcount one.
Starting small, properly.
A pilot is a reasonable thing to ask for and we recommend it. But a pilot with no success criteria is just a short contract.
- A defined scope — one channel or one workflow, not a sample of everything.
- A defined period — long enough to get past ramp, typically eight to twelve weeks.
- Written success criteria, agreed before it starts, measured from a recorded baseline.
- A real team — the people who would continue, not a demonstration squad.
- An honest read at the end, including if the answer is that it did not work.
How to compare us against anyone else.
Rates are not comparable unless the scope behind them is. These are the questions that make two proposals comparable — ask them of us too.
- Is team leadership inside the rate or extra?
- A rate that excludes supervision looks cheaper and is not.
- Is quality management inside the rate?
- Sampling, scoring and coaching cost real hours. Someone is paying for them.
- What is the assumed handle time?
- Two providers can quote the same seat rate against wildly different productivity assumptions.
- Who pays for attrition?
- If replacement recruitment and retraining are billed to you, the real cost is much higher than the rate.
- What is the notice period, both ways?
- Exit terms are part of the price. An engagement you cannot leave cleanly was badly designed.
- What happens if volume drops 30%?
- Ask for the answer in writing. It reveals who is carrying the risk.
Novatek's own rates are set per engagement after Discover, and every proposal itemises what is included so it can be compared line by line against anyone else's.
Build the business case first.
Send us your volumes and coverage and we will come back with a scoped, itemised proposal you can put in front of a finance team — not a rate on a slide.