Line four
We are paid from one side of the table only.
Independent assessment and vendor oversight. This line exists because of one sentence the large firms cannot write. The whole page is about that sentence.
We take no commission from a vendor. Ever.
A large consultancy holds partnerships with the software makers it goes on to recommend. Nobody should be scandalised by that. It is how the trade is built: a partnership brings discounts, certified people and a stream of implementation work. Advice leaving such a house is sincere and carries a direction at the same time.
This studio holds no such partnership and will hold none. So when we tell you that the system you are weighing is not what you need, we lose the work of implementing it and gain nothing in its place. That loss is exactly what makes the sentence above worth anything.
The pledge runs both ways. We take no payment from a vendor to appear on a shortlist, and we let no vendor fund our assessment of itself. If it is ever broken, this line should be closed rather than reworded.
The services
Five things, short and senior.
| The service | What you receive | The shape |
|---|---|---|
| A short senior reviewTHE ENTRANCE | A few days on one concrete question: this vendor, this contract, this system. A written opinion you can stand on. | Fixed price, fixed length |
| Technology due diligence before a deal | For an investor or an acquirer: what is actually being bought, what it will cost to keep alive, and what surfaces in the first year. | Fixed price by scope |
| Vendor selection and tender preparation | Requirements, a shortlist, a comparison against one set of measures, and preparation for the negotiation. The scores stay with you. | Fixed scope |
| Licence and contract optimisation | What you pay, what you are paying for, and where the same thing costs less or is not needed at all. | Fixed scope |
| IT audit and information risk review | A governance-level review: where the data sits, who can reach it, and what happens when something breaks. | Fixed scope |
The order
How a review runs.
The studio’s method lives on the consulting page and is not retold here. This is the shortest of the four lines: it ends in an opinion rather than a programme. Its neighbour is technology strategy, which picks the work up if you decide to act.
The questions
What people ask us.
- Can you assess a vendor we will then work with? Yes, and that is precisely why we take nothing from them. If you need help with the implementation afterwards, it is commissioned separately and you decide from whom.
- Would you also work for a competitor of ours? If one piece of work would set your interest against another client’s, we say so before it is taken rather than after. What we learn inside your business stays inside it, and it stays there once the review is delivered.
- How deep into the code do you go? There is no standard depth. For deal due diligence we look at maintenance, debt and dependencies. For a vendor choice we look at fit and at the exit.
- Will you sign a confidentiality agreement? Yes, and rarely later than the working day it arrives on, so long as it asks for nothing beyond silence.
- Do you run penetration tests? No. They go to partners, so that we stay independent of the result.
- What does it cost? The review is a fixed price for a fixed length. Due diligence is a fixed price by scope, and the band comes in writing when you ask.
The beginning
Ask your question.
One question, and the date you need an answer by. If the work is not ours to do, the first reply will say so.