Q: What is the engagement fee?

$75K one-time engagement fee for Pipeline 1 production rollout (after Phase 1 pilot graduation). Covers: 4-6 weeks discovery + technical fit assessment, 8 weeks POC execution + customer-VPC deployment, observability dashboards + audit trail baseline, operator runbook + handoff training, 90-day hyper-care (first-line ops + escalation). Engagement fees for additional pipelines decline (P2 = $35K, P3 = $30K, P4-5 = $25K each, P6-10 = $20K each) because integration infrastructure is reusable.

Q: How does this compare to hiring a senior platform engineer in-house?

A senior platform engineer is ~$200-250K loaded for one FTE who divides time across your whole roadmap. JieGou for 1-2 pipelines: materially cheaper. JieGou for 3-4 pipelines: comparable cost, but with operational accountability + intelligence the FTE alone cannot provide. At 5+ pipelines: math flips. We will tell you when this happens. We'd rather hand you the runbook + architecture documentation + operator training than keep a customer who'd be better served by in-house.

Q: What about LLM costs?

BYOK by default. You bring your own Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini keys. LLM tokens hit your provider account directly — JieGou doesn't intermediate, doesn't mark up, doesn't surprise you on your monthly invoice. Predictable unit economics; uses your existing procurement relationships. Typical: ~$5K/year for a mid-volume pipeline (~60K transactions). Above $20K/year LLM spend, we recommend negotiating volume discounts directly with your provider.

Q: Are there volume caps? What happens if I exceed them?

Yes — annual support tiers include volume caps (e.g., 60K transactions/year for Pipeline 1 standard; high-volume tiers at $65K/year for 150K cap and $90K/year for 200K cap). Above the cap: published per-unit overage rate (no surprise pricing) with monthly ceiling that triggers a CSM escalation call before charges accumulate. Customers running at high volume are usually better served by selecting the high-volume tier upfront; we'll model the math with you in discovery.

Q: Do you offer multi-year terms?

3-year terms: ~18% off (the sweet spot for both sides — Operations Partner relationship typically takes 18-24 months to compound real value). 5-year terms: up to 25% off. Optional prepay bonuses stack on top. No exit penalty — multi-year terms are a pricing discount, not a lock-in. The architecture supports clean exit (customer-VPC deployment means your data + audit trail + outputs all stay with you).

Q: How does Operations Partner pricing compare to vendors and consultants?

Vendors charge per-seat (often $50-200/user/month — adds up at mid-market scale). Consultants charge hourly ($300-500/hr for senior engagements). JieGou charges engagement-fee + annual ops support; the incentive is your operation running clean, not more seats or more hours. For a typical engineering-led mid-market customer with 1-2 active AI workflows: JieGou pricing falls between 'expensive vendor' and 'cheap consultant' — but unlike either, the value compounds quarter-over-quarter with operational intelligence about your specific environment.

Question 1

Why is Phase 1 free for 30 days?

Accepted Answer

Operations Partner is a long-term embedded relationship. We need both sides to know it's a fit before commercial commitment. Phase 1 covers one workflow scope, 30-day timeline, with measurable success metrics at the Week 4 review. If it doesn't deliver value, you walk away clean — no exit penalty, no surprise invoice. We carry the cost because the alternative (locking customers into a year without seeing the work) is bad for both sides.

Question 2

What does $50K/year actually cover?

Accepted Answer

Annual support for Pipeline 1: ongoing pipeline operations (monitoring, exception handling, drift detection), prompt tuning + vendor-variability work, monthly evidence pack (compliance attestation), quarterly business review, SLA (99.9% uptime / <1hr critical incident response), 10-Layer Governance Assessment quarterly, Board AI Readiness Brief annually. Includes a per-pipeline volume cap (typically 60K transactions/year for Pipeline 1; higher-volume tiers available). Does NOT include LLM API costs (BYOK) or custom integrations beyond standard handler library.

Question 3

What is the engagement fee?

Accepted Answer

$75K one-time engagement fee for Pipeline 1 production rollout (after Phase 1 pilot graduation). Covers: 4-6 weeks discovery + technical fit assessment, 8 weeks POC execution + customer-VPC deployment, observability dashboards + audit trail baseline, operator runbook + handoff training, 90-day hyper-care (first-line ops + escalation). Engagement fees for additional pipelines decline (P2 = $35K, P3 = $30K, P4-5 = $25K each, P6-10 = $20K each) because integration infrastructure is reusable.

Question 4

How does this compare to hiring a senior platform engineer in-house?

Accepted Answer

A senior platform engineer is ~$200-250K loaded for one FTE who divides time across your whole roadmap. JieGou for 1-2 pipelines: materially cheaper. JieGou for 3-4 pipelines: comparable cost, but with operational accountability + intelligence the FTE alone cannot provide. At 5+ pipelines: math flips. We will tell you when this happens. We'd rather hand you the runbook + architecture documentation + operator training than keep a customer who'd be better served by in-house.

Question 5

What about LLM costs?

Accepted Answer

BYOK by default. You bring your own Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini keys. LLM tokens hit your provider account directly — JieGou doesn't intermediate, doesn't mark up, doesn't surprise you on your monthly invoice. Predictable unit economics; uses your existing procurement relationships. Typical: ~$5K/year for a mid-volume pipeline (~60K transactions). Above $20K/year LLM spend, we recommend negotiating volume discounts directly with your provider.

Question 6

Are there volume caps? What happens if I exceed them?

Accepted Answer

Yes — annual support tiers include volume caps (e.g., 60K transactions/year for Pipeline 1 standard; high-volume tiers at $65K/year for 150K cap and $90K/year for 200K cap). Above the cap: published per-unit overage rate (no surprise pricing) with monthly ceiling that triggers a CSM escalation call before charges accumulate. Customers running at high volume are usually better served by selecting the high-volume tier upfront; we'll model the math with you in discovery.

Question 7

Do you offer multi-year terms?

Accepted Answer

3-year terms: ~18% off (the sweet spot for both sides — Operations Partner relationship typically takes 18-24 months to compound real value). 5-year terms: up to 25% off. Optional prepay bonuses stack on top. No exit penalty — multi-year terms are a pricing discount, not a lock-in. The architecture supports clean exit (customer-VPC deployment means your data + audit trail + outputs all stay with you).

Question 8

How does Operations Partner pricing compare to vendors and consultants?

Accepted Answer

Vendors charge per-seat (often $50-200/user/month — adds up at mid-market scale). Consultants charge hourly ($300-500/hr for senior engagements). JieGou charges engagement-fee + annual ops support; the incentive is your operation running clean, not more seats or more hours. For a typical engineering-led mid-market customer with 1-2 active AI workflows: JieGou pricing falls between 'expensive vendor' and 'cheap consultant' — but unlike either, the value compounds quarter-over-quarter with operational intelligence about your specific environment.

Pipeline	Engagement fee (one-time)	Annual support
Pipeline 1	$75K	$50K/year
Pipeline 2	$35K (47% of P1)	$30K/year
Pipeline 3	$30K (40% of P1)	$25K/year
Pipelines 4-5	$25K each (33% of P1)	$20K/year each
Pipelines 6-10	$20K each (27% of P1)	$15K/year each
Platform Tier (3+ pipelines)	Replaces per-pipeline math	$300K-$850K/year (tiered)

使えば使うほど賢くなるAI自動化

30 days. Free. No commitment.

After Phase 1 graduates to production.

Per-pipeline costs scale down as you add more.

Engagement fee + annual support. Not hourly. Not per-seat.

Costs outside the engagement fee + annual support model.

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