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We will call back if unavailable.
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This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.
When you request quotes for a similar system from both a large system integrator (SIer) and a smaller IT vendor, you may find the price difference is three times or more. Let's talk about what's actually driving up the cost in a large SIer's quote.
Simply put, the core of any quote is the cost of engineers' labor — but are their engineers really paid three times as much? Not necessarily.
The following types of costs inevitably get built into the price as well:
- Diversity and inclusion initiatives, work-style reform programs, SDGs and CSR activities
- Advertising expenses such as TV commercials and newspaper ads
- HR activities including new graduate recruitment and training programs
- Premium office space in city centers, back-office departments, shareholder relations, entertainment expenses, and more
These are entirely legitimate overhead costs that come with being a large organization. There's nothing wrong with any of them — in fact, if our own firm ever grows to that scale, we'll be passing those same costs on to our clients too. The key point we want to make here, however, is this: ultimately, it is your company that is footing the bill for all of it.
That said, there are real advantages to working with a large SIer. The risk of them going out of business is low, and if something goes wrong, they have significant capacity to take responsibility.
For systems that operate across multiple locations nationwide and cannot afford any downtime — or for systems that carry serious social responsibility, such as those involving human safety — paying that premium is entirely justified.
The decision of which vendor to choose is actually quite straightforward. It comes down to one question: does your company have an obligation to your own customers that warrants paying that kind of price?
If the answer is yes, then by all means, go with a large SIer without hesitation. But if the answer is no — if what you really need is simply to keep your day-to-day operations running as they always have — then choosing a smaller IT vendor will likely get you considerably more value for the same budget.
We hope this gives you a useful reference point when selecting a vendor for your next system project.
That's all, Thank you for reading.
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