A method and system for computing a cost estimate for a company that may
be the client of a supplier providing information system equipment and
consulting. An estimate is calculated according to a model with input
characterizing circumstances of the client. The program collects client
profile information and costs that the client knows. Other costs that the
client does not know are read from a local database storing costs known
by other clients with similar profiles. A remote database accessible by
any client is updated by cost estimate information at each new cost
estimate execution by a client.