Front desk assistant
Hypothetical. Not a client, not a result.
// The problem
A busy veterinary hospital's front desk answers the same questions about hours, prices, preparation and directions by phone and chat, while clinical questions wait in the same queue.
// What we would build
An assistant on the website and chat that answers from the clinic's own information, books and moves appointments through the practice system, and passes every clinical question to the team without giving advice. It runs on an open-source model in the clinic's own cloud account, so client and patient details never reach an outside model provider.
// What is in it
- Answers from your hours, prices and preparation instructions
- Bookings and changes through your practice system
- Every clinical question passed to your team
- Replies in the client's language
- Runs in your own cloud account
// Stack
- Open-source model
- Next.js
- PostgreSQL with pgvector
- Practice management interface
- AWS
// estimate
- Build
- ≈ US$127,000 to US$193,000, delivered within 23 weeksCAD 180,200 to 275,500
- Hosting
- ≈ US$6,710 a monthCAD 9,550 a month
- Support
- ≈ US$2,500 a monthCAD 3,565 a month
Prices in your currency are estimates from today's Bank of Canada rate. All invoicing is in CAD or USD.
- AI route
- Open-source model
- Model running cost
- ≈ US$6,530 a monthCAD 9,300 a month
Timeline by milestone
- Discovery
- 2.9 to 3.4 weeks
- Specification and evaluation plan
- 0.4 weeks
- Design approved
- 2.4 to 3.9 weeks
- Core features
- 1.4 to 2.4 weeks
- Full build
- 0.9 to 1.4 weeks
- Working pilot
- 4.4 to 7.4 weeks
- Testing and fixes
- 1.4 to 1.9 weeks
- Launch
- 0.9 to 1.4 weeks
- Production
- 0.9 to 1.4 weeks
Outside our hands, and added to the calendar
- Interface access from your practice management vendor
- 1 to 4 weeks
How it is paid
- Deposit 20%
- CAD 35,980 to 55,040
- Discovery 1.8%
- CAD 3,238.20 to 4,953.60
- Specification and evaluation plan 10.5%
- CAD 18,889.50 to 28,896.00
- Design approved 1.8%
- CAD 3,238.20 to 4,953.60
- Core features 5.6%
- CAD 10,074.40 to 15,411.20
- Full build 3.7%
- CAD 6,656.30 to 10,182.40
- Working pilot 31.7%
- CAD 57,028.30 to 87,238.40
- Testing and fixes 1.8%
- CAD 3,238.20 to 4,953.60
- Launch 1.8%
- CAD 3,238.20 to 4,953.60
- Production 11.3%
- CAD 20,328.70 to 31,097.60
- Holdback, 30 days after launch (10%)
- CAD 17,990 to 27,520
- GPU time for training and testing, at cost
- CAD 300. Billed up front, at cost, outside the milestones