We deliver
IT solutions.
Fixed price. Paid on delivery.
For clients in Canada and the United States.
Delivered.
The offer
Define first, at a small cost. Build second, at a fixed price. The same two phases apply to a legacy rebuild, a new SaaS product, or an internal system you simply need built.
- Phase 1, Define
- Per diem, or a small fixed fee. Ends with a working prototype on mocked data, the API contract behind it, the acceptance scenarios in Gherkin, and the non-functional targets: speed, accessibility, security, availability, recovery and residency, each with a measured threshold. Yours to keep, whether or not there is a Phase 2.
- Phase 2, Build
- A fixed price, quoted from the prototype and targets you approved, not from a rate card. The quote shows its working: build, non-functional work, support for your UAT, and the reserve for fixing UAT defects.
- Acceptance
- Mechanical. The journeys you signed off in Phase 1 pass against the real system, and every non-functional target passes its automated check, so "done" cannot drift.
- Client UAT
- A defect is a signed scenario that fails or a signed target that is missed. We fix defects within the UAT window at no charge; that cost is already in the price. New asks are priced changes, estimated the same way.
The full offer, the economics behind it, and the pilot we propose · When this is the right call
Size is not the question. Delivery is.
QuarkSys is a small firm. Government evaluators and company executives are right to ask what that means for a mission-critical system. Here is the answer, in three parts.
Twenty-five years on systems that cannot fail
Our principal architect has spent a career inside large, regulated programs: two $100M+ federal programs at the RCMP as Principal Architect, and the modernization of the Bank of Canada's mission-critical payment and settlement systems. The firm has been in business in Ontario since 2002.
Capacity that comes from tooling
Reading the old code is done by parsers and graph analysis, not by analysts. Building the new code runs through a versioned, gated lifecycle we own. A team of this size delivers a portfolio because each application inherits everything learned from the ones before it.
Proof you can inspect
A working deterministic compliance-checking system for a regulated domain, built under a federal innovation program. Three SaaS products we run ourselves in production. A delivery method whose own changelog records where its tooling was wrong and what was done about it.
How it works
Two phases, one gate between them. The unknowns live in Phase 1. The fixed price is quoted after it.
Define
Per diem, or a small fixed fee
- Legacy code read with tooling, every rule cited to its line. Or requirements drawn out in interviews.
- Keep, change, drop, add: decided together.
- Out: a clickable prototype on mocked data, the API contract, the Gherkin scenarios, and measurable non-functional targets.
Client gate. You sign off the set. We quote a fixed price. Stop here if you like; it is yours.
Build
Fixed price, paid on delivery
- Built through our gated lifecycle. Tests sealed before code.
- Accepted against the scenarios and the non-functional targets you signed.
- UAT defects fixed free within the window. New asks priced.
Client gate. Milestones accepted and paid as delivered. Balance on final acceptance.
AI that cannot change an outcome
We use AI to read legacy code and draft specifications. We do not let it decide anything. Build order, dependency ordering and parity checking run with no model involved. Every extracted value must cite the construct it was read from, and the citation is verified mechanically. What cannot be verified is marked unknown and routed to a person.
Your code can stay inside your perimeter: parsing and planning run offline, and the stages that use a model can point at a self-hosted open-weight model in the jurisdiction you require: Canada, the United States, or your own data centre. We have run that configuration on our own infrastructure.
OrderService.java:412if (balance.compareTo(limit) > 0) { order.setStatus(HOLD); }An order that would take the customer past their credit limit is placed on hold, not rejected.
rulenightly.sh:18post_ledger && settle_batch || halt_chain "post failed"Settlement runs only after posting completes. A posting failure stops the chain; nothing settles.
dependencyPolicyRenewal.sql:77WHERE term_end < SYSDATE + 45 AND status <> 'LAPSED'Renewal notices go out 45 days before term end, except for lapsed policies.
ruleStart small
Start with Phase 1 on one system, or a slice of one. A small, known cost, and a prototype at the end.
A legacy application, a new product, an internal tool: Phase 1 answers what a proposal cannot. What the system really has to do, what it really costs to build, and whether you want to work with us. If the answer is yes, the Phase 2 quote is already on the table. If not, you have spent a small, known amount and you keep the prototype and the specification.