Planning and procurement
Budget the work before you request approval.
Deployments genuinely vary, so each first year is scoped to fit. Here is the cost structure, what a first year includes, and a published range you can put in a memo.
Budget guidance
One published range, and the truth behind it.
Launch and migration are mostly one-time work, so later years carry the subscription without the one-time launch. Every proposal separates recurring from one-time costs and states the renewal assumptions in writing.
A short set of scope questions, a usable number, no sales process required.
Planning range
$35,000–$75,000
Typical first-year managed engagements, including the annual platform subscription and standard Archively Launch services.
Archively Private, complex migration, and Archively Extensions are scoped separately.
Archively Launch
What a first year includes.
The first year carries the annual subscription plus a one-time launch, which turns these five things into delivered work your institution can plan against.
Migration
We move your records off the current system using standards-based import. Migration effort is the biggest single variable in a first year.
CSV · EAD · MARC/MODS · OAI-PMH harvest
Configuration
We set up the archival hierarchy, controlled vocabularies, roles, and workflow stages to match how your team already works.
7 archival roles + admin · 9 workflow stages
Training
We train the staff who will catalog, review, clear rights, and publish, in the roles they will actually hold.
Portal setup
We stand up your branded public portal on an archively.ai address, with search, browse, and media viewing for researchers.
Production go-live
We move the configured system into production and hand over a running archive your team owns.
What moves the number.
- The current system and the condition of its data. Migration effort is the biggest single variable.
- Deployment model: managed cloud, dedicated, or customer-controlled self-hosted.
- Collection scale and audio-video volume, which set the AI processing work.
- Integrations beyond the standard connectors.
- Training scope and the number of staff roles involved.
Thinking in three years.
Year one carries the subscription plus launch. Years two and three carry the subscription alone, with renewal terms stated in writing. Budget the project across three years and the picture is honest: a one-time climb, then a plateau you can plan against.
Every proposal separates recurring from one-time costs, states renewal assumptions, itemizes any pass-through infrastructure, and includes the data-export and transition terms. Your finance office reads the same truth your archivists evaluated.
Procurement
How a purchase usually runs.
Institutions buy on their own timeline and through a committee. A typical institutional purchase follows these steps.
Evaluation
We build a working setup on your own records. Your committee tests it, not a slide deck.
Committee review
Archivists weigh control, the director sees the public result, and IT examines deployment, standards, integrity, and exit.
Order form
We issue a written order form and statement of work with fixed scope and price. Recurring and one-time costs are separated.
Invoice
We invoice directly, and payment is by bank transfer. Every engagement is quoted in writing, the way institutions expect to buy.
Funding
Support for funding applications.
Digital collections work is often grant-funded. During evaluation scoping, we help you frame the work for a funder. That includes a written budgetary estimate you can cite and a plain description of the platform and the first-year engagement. We will also put in writing exactly what we can commit to.
Get a written estimate for your exact scope.
A working setup using your records, not a sales presentation.