Stephen Hart
CEO & Visionary
It looks like a small saving.
A $2,000 scan instead of a $2,400 survey.
On a $250,000 project, it feels like an easy call.
Save the $400. Move on.
And on its own, it makes perfect sense.
But in multi-site rollouts, costs don’t behave that neatly.
They show up later — in missed conditions, change orders, and delays that don’t hit every store… just the ones that matter.
That’s where this decision stops being about $400.
The Math Behind the $400 Decision
Let’s look at a typical rollout:
- 25 stores
- $250,000 per store
- Total program: $6,250,000
Now isolate one variable: the survey.
Option A: Low-Cost Scan
- Cost per store: $2,000
- Total cost: $50,000
- Prevents ~60% of avoidable change orders
Option B: DedON Survey
- Cost per store: $2,400
- Total cost: $60,000
- Prevents ~90% of avoidable change orders
The Difference Upfront
DedON costs $10,000 more
That’s the number most teams focus on.
It’s also the wrong number.
Where the Real Cost Lives
Industry data consistently shows that change orders account for roughly 5%–10% of total construction cost.
To stay conservative:
- 5% of $6.25M = $312,500
Not all of that is preventable. But a meaningful portion is tied to missing or incorrect existing condition data.
Assume:
- 50% is preventable
→ $156,250 tied to upstream information quality
This is the pool both options are trying to reduce.
The Part Most Teams Miss: It’s Not Even
That $156,250 doesn’t show up evenly across 25 stores.
In reality:
- Many stores have no issues
- Some have minor adjustments
- A few have one miss that changes everything
That’s how rollout risk behaves.
It’s not linear.
It’s asymmetric.
Across 25 stores, it’s realistic that:
- 18–20 go smoothly
- 3–5 have minor issues
- 1–2 carry $20,000–$80,000+ impacts each
And those few stores can quietly erase the gains from the rest.
Now Compare Outcomes
Low-Cost Scan (60% prevention)
- Prevents: $93,750
- Remaining cost: $62,500
DedON Survey (90% prevention)
- Prevents: $140,625
- Remaining cost: $15,625
The Real Difference
DedON reduces an additional $46,875 in downstream cost
Compared to:
$10,000 in additional upfront investment
Put Simply
Spend $10,000 more
Avoid $46,875 more
Nearly a 5x return
The Decision You’re Actually Making
This isn’t a $400 decision.
It’s a decision about how much uncertainty you carry into a $6M rollout.
Because the cost doesn’t stop at change orders.
A single missed condition can delay a project 3–10 days.
That creates:
- $1,000–$3,000 per day in general conditions
- Trade disruption and resequencing
- Internal escalation and lost time
But the biggest impact is this:
Opening late
If a store generates:
- $10,000–$30,000 per day
Then a 5-day delay means:
$50,000–$150,000 in lost revenue — on one location
And just like the cost overruns:
You don’t know which store it will be.
What We See Over Time
Once teams experience DedON existing condition surveys —
Once our surveys consistently stand up to scrutiny—
Once preventable change orders drop—
That $400 difference disappears.
Not because it’s small.
Because the cost of getting it wrong isn’t.