Tim,
I am happy to share with you what our European rates were with my previous employer (CRM software provider, custom-development, based on J2EE/Java). The data is pobably 3-4 years old.

For DACH (Germany/Austria/Switz.), rates varied between 1200 and 1600 Euros a day. Sales folks were incentivised on rates in excess of 1400 Euros a day and “sanctioned” if selling at less than 1300/day. Daily rates below 1200/day required express permission by the regional delivery manager.

Rates in Benelux and France were on average 100 Euros a day lower.

Rates for the UK were highest, rangning from 1000GBP to 1400 GBP a day.

Note that all rates exlude travel expenses and that we billed at least 50% of travel time.

Driving factors behind the actual rate charged to a customer included
- length of contract/overall services volume
- consultant’s mix/seniority blend
- level of desperation (hard to measure ) of the sales folks to clinch a deal

Hope that helps

Kai H., VP Client Services

Hi Tim,

Good luck with your inquiry, I am sure you will get tons of responses on the rates.

Are you looking to build out your implementation capabilities organically or by building out an ecosystem? I am not trolling for work (happily employed). The reason I ask is that I have responsibility for building out our ISV ecosystem at Novell and frequently run across SI partners I respect enough to pass along to you. Let me know if you are interested and I am happy to oblige.

I was responsible for growing our European operational capabilities at Motorola, Sybase and Cambdridge Technology Partners so if you ever just want to ping someone not interested in selling you a service (but with experience), feel free.

All the best,

Kevin P.

Tim,

My experience has been very similar with respect to rates by country. Our
current challenge is the Euro is so strong that the rates are quite high
for global rollouts. We try to provide resources within a geography, and
rarely have the luxury of billing for travel time.

Good luck.

Joe G.

Tim,
I would agree with Joe and Kai. Our rates range from 1000 to 1400 with respect to these countries based on technical skills and experience. With a strong Euro, our rates tend to tilt to the lower end as we bring onsite indian resources. Resources within the geo are at the higher end of the range.

We don’t bill travel time either.

Best regards,

Kathy K.

We are a European based consulting group with offices in London and Paris and have worked previously in ERP technologies.

It’s a daily rate here in Europe vs an hourly in America.

If you are the software vendor, it usually commands the highest rates because ppl are willing to pay a premium to have services from you.

Depending on the level of the consultant, anywhere from 1200-1500 per day (In either Euros or Sterling).

If you are a partner of the vendor, then rates usually tend to be about 20%-30% lower in my experience.

I would rank the highest rates as follows:

1. Nordic countries and Switzerland (due to a very strong currency and cost of living)

2. UK

3. Germany

4. Netherlands

5. Ireland

6. Belgium

7. France

8. Spain (sometimes at €400!)

Frank S.

Hi Tim,

The problem with discussing the “European market” per se is that it
is really an aggregation of distinct and diverse geographic, cultural
and currency based business environments. Even within the so-
called “Euro zone” countries there is broad variability in both price
and (labour) cost, with a general truism that the further south in
Europe you go the labour cost base becomes less with a knock on
effect for price competition. The impact of offshore resources (both
from SE Asia and Eastern Europe) can be seen in some sectors, whilst
those providing high quality services around ALM, PLM, ERP/CRM etc.
continue to be able to justify a premium (just).

Rates in todays economic climate can vary considerably. In my view,
the UK a fee rate for a Senior Technical Consultant from an ISV such
as yourselves would average around GBP 1100-1250 per day, whilst the
same skill set in France carrying out an identical project would
average EUR 900-1000. For the same resource in Benelux, Nordic and
Central Europe I would expect a band of EUR 1150-1350 per day to be
about right.

In terms of variability, +/- 10% on either side would not be too
unreasonable a stab at showing the potential spread, and a working
week of 40 hours (allowing for working time directives in certain
countries) is a good base point. In almost all instances clients
expect to pay reasonable t&e on top but in my experience you will
encounter resistance when trying to charge for travel time (across
the Atlantic).

Bit of a quick brain dump but hope this all helps.

Kind Regards,

Alistair