How Solutionade transformed an award-winning internal innovation into an intelligent solution for IT project estimation and proposal generation.
| Industry | Information Technology & Professional Services |
| Solution | AI-Powered Project Estimation & Proposal Generation |
| Developed by | Solutionade |
| Product | Aestimate |
| Website | aestimate.ai |
The Challenge: Turning Complex Requirements Into Clear Project Estimates
Accurate project estimation is one of the most important and demanding stages of IT consulting.
Before development begins, teams must interpret client requirements, evaluate potential solutions, estimate implementation effort, consider project complexity, and translate their findings into a structured proposal.
This process often involves multiple specialists, scattered documentation, repeated calculations, and significant manual effort.
For Microsoft Partners and IT consulting companies, the challenge becomes even greater when managing several opportunities simultaneously.
Each new project requires careful analysis, yet much of the estimation process follows recurring patterns.
The opportunity was clear: What if artificial intelligence could help transform unstructured requirements into consistent, actionable project estimates?
That question became the foundation of Aestimate.
The Beginning: An Idea Born at a Hackathon
Innovation often begins with a simple question and a team willing to explore the answer.
Aestimate started as an internal initiative by three Solutionade developers who recognized an opportunity to rethink how IT projects are estimated.
During a hackathon, the team developed an AI-powered concept designed to simplify the journey from client requirements to project estimates.
Their solution earned first prize at the hackathon, demonstrating the potential of the idea and providing momentum for its continued development.
But the achievement represented more than a successful competition entry.
It marked the beginning of a product development journey within Solutionade.
What started as a focused technical challenge had the potential to address a broader industry problem.
From Prototype to Product
Following the hackathon, Aestimate continued evolving through internal development at Solutionade.
The objective was to move beyond an experimental concept and create a solution that could support real estimation and proposal workflows.
This meant approaching the product from several perspectives.
Technical functionality: Developing the capabilities needed to interpret requirements and support structured project estimation.
User experience: Making a complex process approachable through clear navigation, logical workflows, and intuitive interactions.
Product positioning: Defining how Aestimate could deliver value to Microsoft Partners, IT consultancies, and teams responsible for preparing technical proposals.
Visual identity: Creating a distinctive product brand that communicates intelligence, clarity, and forward-thinking technology.
The transition required collaboration across development, design, and marketing disciplines, bringing different perspectives together around a shared product vision.
The Solution: Introducing Aestimate
Aestimate is an AI-powered solution designed to help IT teams move from raw client requirements toward structured project estimates and professional proposals.
Instead of approaching every opportunity entirely from scratch, teams can use an AI-assisted workflow to organize information and support the estimation process.
The product is designed around a straightforward principle:
Less time spent rebuilding estimates. More time focused on delivering the right solution.
From Requirements to Structured Proposals
Aestimate aims to simplify several important stages of project preparation.
Understanding requirements
Client requirements are often delivered through documents, notes, and descriptions that need to be reviewed and interpreted before estimation can begin.
Aestimate helps bring structure to this information, establishing a clearer starting point for project planning.
Supporting solution planning
Turning business requirements into a technical approach requires careful consideration of the proposed solution and its implementation needs.
Aestimate is designed to support this transition by helping teams organize the information needed for solution planning.
Preparing project estimates
Estimating implementation effort is a critical part of building realistic proposals.
By supporting a more structured estimation process, Aestimate aims to reduce repetitive preparation work and improve consistency.
Building proposals
The final objective is to help teams turn their analysis into clear, professional project proposals that can support client discussions and business decisions.
Throughout this process, the goal is not to replace professional expertise, but to give specialists a more efficient starting point for applying it.
Designing the Aestimate Experience
Developing a capable product is only part of the challenge. Making that product understandable, approachable, and recognizable is equally important.
As Aestimate progressed, Solutionade’s design and marketing team worked on establishing its identity and digital presence.
Creating the Brand
The branding process began with defining a name that could communicate the product’s purpose while remaining memorable and distinctive.
The result was Aestimate, a name connecting artificial intelligence with the core function of estimation.
From there, the team developed the product’s visual direction, establishing a cohesive identity that could extend across the application, website, and promotional materials.
Designing the Application
Aestimate’s application interface was developed with an emphasis on clarity and usability.
Project estimation involves complex information and multiple decision points. The interface therefore needed to make these workflows easier to navigate without overwhelming users.
The UI/UX work focused on creating a consistent experience, with clear visual hierarchy, organized information, and interactions that support the product’s purpose.
The application design continued to evolve alongside the product itself, reflecting the importance of treating user experience as an ongoing part of development.
Building the Website
To introduce Aestimate to its intended audience, Solutionade also developed a dedicated product website.
The website serves as the product’s digital presence, communicating its value proposition, explaining its purpose, and introducing the solution to potential users.
Its design follows the same visual language as the application, creating a consistent experience across the Aestimate brand.
Bringing the Product to Market
Beyond the application and website, Solutionade developed supporting marketing materials to establish Aestimate’s presence.
These included digital advertisements, social media content, promotional visuals, and videos.
Together, these assets helped translate a technical product into a clear story about the challenges it addresses and the value it aims to deliver.
The Outcome: An Internal Innovation With a Product Identity
Aestimate’s journey demonstrates how an internal idea can grow beyond its original scope.
What began as a hackathon project developed into a dedicated product initiative supported by multiple disciplines within Solutionade.
The journey has already achieved several important milestones:
- First-prize hackathon recognition for the original concept.
- Continued internal development beyond the initial prototype.
- A dedicated product identity including naming and visual branding.
- A designed application experience focused on usability and clarity.
- A dedicated website introducing Aestimate and its capabilities.
- A coordinated marketing presence supported by digital campaigns and promotional content.
These milestones represent the transformation of a promising technical idea into a more complete product experience.
As Aestimate continues to evolve, its longer-term impact will be shaped by ongoing development, user feedback, and real-world application.
Looking Ahead: Making Project Estimation Smarter
AI is changing how technology companies approach complex, knowledge-intensive work.
Project estimation is a natural opportunity for this transformation.
By combining AI-assisted workflows with the expertise of experienced IT professionals, tools like Aestimate have the potential to make the early stages of project delivery more efficient, consistent, and scalable.
For Solutionade, Aestimate represents more than a single product.
It reflects a commitment to internal innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and turning promising ideas into practical technology solutions.
From three developers and a winning hackathon concept to a growing AI-powered product, Aestimate is a story of innovation put into motion.
Explore Aestimate
Discover how Aestimate is rethinking project estimation and proposal preparation for IT teams.
Visit aestimate.ai
Developed by Solutionade. Built around the belief that better tools create better ways of working.