Technology consulting
Deciding well
before building
Most of the money lost on technology is not lost while writing code. It is lost choosing the wrong thing to build, with the wrong tools, with the wrong people.
What it is and what it is not
Technology consulting is the analysis and decision work that comes before development: understanding what you have, what you need, and the shortest path between the two.
It is not development. If you already know what to build and you are looking for someone to build it, what you need is custom software development. This page is about the step before that.
It is also not an audit that ends in a PDF. Every report we deliver ends in decisions with a name, a deadline and a cost.
When you need it
Signs that you are about
to overspend
Quotes that do not add up
Three suppliers, three figures an order of magnitude apart, and nobody in-house able to judge which one is realistic.
The current system slows operations
Every new process needs manual work because your tools do not talk to each other.
You depend on one person
If that person leaves, nobody knows how your technology works. It is the most expensive risk and the least visible.
Build or buy
There is a product on the market that almost fits. Adapting it or building your own shapes the next five years.
You are about to scale
What holds a hundred users rarely holds ten thousand. Better to know beforehand, not during.
You inherited a codebase
A supplier change, an acquisition, a partner leaving. You need to know what is actually under the hood.
What you get
Concrete deliverables
Audit of the current state
Inventory of systems, integrations, dependencies and technical debt. What works, what is about to break, and what costs you money every month without showing up anywhere.
Target architecture
How it should be built for what you want to do in three years, not only for today.
Prioritised roadmap
What comes first, what can wait, and what is not worth doing at all. With estimated effort per block.
Real cost of ownership
Not just development: licences, infrastructure, maintenance and the team needed to sustain it.
Supplier selection criteria
What to ask and what to require by contract so you do not get locked in. Code ownership included.
Risks with a mitigation plan
Continuity, security, compliance and dependency on specific people.
How we work
Four phases
Immersion
We talk to the people who use the systems daily, not only to management. That is where the real problems show up.
Analysis
We review code, infrastructure, contracts and costs. With data, not impressions.
Decision
We present options with their consequences. The decision is yours; our job is that it be an informed one.
Follow-through
If you want, we stay on during execution as your technical counterpart with suppliers.
We are a good fit if
- You have a running operation and technical decisions to make
- You want a judgement independent from whoever will later invoice the development
- You would rather hear that something is not worth doing than spend on it
- Someone has authority to decide once the analysis is done
We are not a good fit if
- You want a report that endorses a decision already made
- You are at idea stage, with no operation and no users
- What you need is execution, not decisions
- There is no willingness to change supplier if the analysis says so
Frequently asked
Before you write to us
Are you independent if you also do development?
That is the right question. We solve it by contract: consulting is invoiced and closed separately, and you can execute the roadmap with whoever you choose. If our analysis concludes that an off-the-shelf product suits you better than custom development, that is exactly what the report will say.
How long does it take?
An audit with a roadmap usually takes three to six weeks depending on the size of the systems. Any follow-through is agreed separately.
Do you need access to our code and systems?
For a serious analysis, yes. A confidentiality agreement is signed before we touch anything, and we work with read-only access wherever possible.
What if the report says nothing needs doing?
It is delivered and invoiced all the same. Knowing your technology is fine and the problem sits elsewhere is often worth more than the project you came to commission.
How do you charge?
Per project with a closed scope, not by the hour. You know the total cost before we start.
Before you sign that quote,
let us talk for thirty minutes
Tell us what decision is on the table. If we see that you do not need consulting, we will say so.