Get the review before you sign.
The expensive decisions get made early and quietly. Which system owns the customer record. Whether reporting reads from the transactional database. What your exit looks like if a vendor is acquired.
None of those feel like decisions at the time. They set what the next five years cost. We review them, write down the trade offs, and tell you what we'd do.
Email usA document, not a slide deck
The deliverable is written prose, with diagrams where a diagram is clearer. It says what we found, what the options are, what each one costs you later, and which we'd pick. Where your own team disagrees, that's recorded rather than smoothed over.
It's yours. Take it to your board, your vendor, or a different consultancy.
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Two to four weeks, fixed price, scope agreed in advance.
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Interviews with whoever runs the systems day to day, as well as the people who signed the contract.
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A recommendation with a second choice, and the conditions under which we'd switch to it.
What we get asked to review
Most engagements cover two or three of these.
Which system owns each entity, and what happens at the seams where two of them think they do.
Warehouse layout, ingestion, and how far reporting should sit from the systems serving live users.
Where the spend actually goes, and which architectural choice is generating it. Usually one or two of them.
Who can reach sensitive data, through which paths, and how you'd show that to an auditor without a fortnight of preparation.
Sequencing a platform change so you're never running two systems of record in parallel for a year.
Whether to hire, contract or partner, and what your team would need to own the result afterwards.
When not to call us
If the decision is already made and funded, a review mostly produces discomfort. Call before the business case goes up, or after something has clearly gone wrong and you want an outside read.
If you need hands on delivery rather than a view, say that. It's a different engagement and we'd rather scope it that way from the start.
Fair questions about buying advice
Everyone wonders whether the review is a sales document.
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Will you recommend your own delivery work?
Sometimes, and we say so plainly in the document when we do. You're free to take the recommendation and run it with anyone, and it's written so that you can.
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Can you review a vendor proposal we've received?
Yes, and it's one of the better uses of a short engagement. We read what's in the contract, what's assumed but not written, and what you'd pay for again in year three.
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Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. Send yours.