Two quotes to automate the same process can differ by a factor of ten, and margin is almost never the reason. Four factors explain most of the gap.
1. Integration
The largest line. A modern system with an API is straightforward; a legacy system without one forces file exchange, direct database access or interface emulation — approaches that work but stay fragile and expensive to maintain.
2. Edge cases
Automating the happy path is cheap. The difference is in the exceptions: the rejected request, the missing document, the approver on leave. Ignore them and the automation breaks in week one.
3. Compliance and the audit trail
In regulated environments every run must be logged and every decision explainable. That is real engineering work, rarely priced, and always demanded at the first review.
4. Maintenance
Automation is not a project that ends. Systems get upgraded, regulation shifts, processes change. A quote with no maintenance line assumes the world stops.
Reducing the risk
Start with one scoped process, require the audit trail as part of delivery rather than after it, and take ownership of the code. See where to start.