IT Strategy & Consulting
A technology plan you can defend in a budget meeting
Technology decisions get made one urgent purchase at a time until somebody writes down where the business is going. That document is usually worth more than the next tool.
Let's talk
What this fixes
If any of this sounds familiar, this is the conversation
Every technology cost arrives as a surprise
Renewals, replacements, and projects appear without warning, and the finance conversation starts from a defensive position.
Nobody can explain the plan to the board
There is technical detail available and no narrative connecting it to revenue, risk, or growth.
Vendors manage you rather than the other way round
Contracts auto-renew, quotes cannot be compared, and nobody has time to hold suppliers to what they promised.
Growth keeps outrunning the setup
A new site, an acquisition, or a hiring wave lands on infrastructure that was sized for the business you used to be.
What changes
What the business gets, not what the software does
- Technology spend becomes a planned line rather than a series of interruptions
- Leadership can explain the plan without a technical translator in the room
- Renewals are negotiated deliberately instead of drifting
- New sites, acquisitions, and hiring have a sequence to follow
- Investment is aimed at what the business is trying to achieve, not at what broke last
Accountability
What we take responsibility for
Written into the scope before you sign, so there is no argument later about who owned it.
We own this
- The written roadmap and its regular review
- The technology budget model behind it
- Vendor and contract oversight for the suppliers in scope
- Leadership-level reporting in plain language
- Independent advice on major purchases before they are committed
What is included
- A current-state review of infrastructure, applications, contracts, and risk
- A multi-year roadmap sequenced by business priority
- A budget model covering recurring cost, refresh, and planned projects
- Vendor and contract register with renewal dates
- Regular leadership reviews written for a non-technical audience
- Support during due diligence for growth, acquisition, or a new site
Not included, or depends on scope
- Ongoing management of the environment, which is managed or co-managed IT rather than advisory work
- Implementation of the roadmap, which is scoped and quoted as projects
- Formal compliance audit or certification, which is issued by an accredited third party
- Legal, financial, or insurance advice, which we coordinate with your advisors rather than provide
- Depth of due-diligence work, which depends on the size of the transaction
How it works
How the engagement runs
Understand the business first
Where the organization is going over the next few years, and what would get in the way. Technology comes second in this conversation.
Assess what you have
Infrastructure, applications, contracts, risk, and cost, documented as a current-state picture rather than a list of complaints.
Write the roadmap and the budget
A sequence with timing and cost, showing what happens if something is deferred, so decisions can be made with the trade-off visible.
Review it on a cycle
A roadmap that is not revisited becomes fiction. It gets reviewed against what actually happened and adjusted.
Honest fit
Who this suits, and who it does not
We would rather tell you now than three months into an engagement neither of us enjoys.
A good fit if…
- You are growing, opening a location, or integrating another business
- You need to justify technology spend to a board, owner, or investor
- You want independent advice before a large purchase
- You have an internal IT team who need air cover for a longer plan
Probably not right if…
- You want a document produced to satisfy a requirement and then filed
- You need hands-on support today. That is managed or co-managed IT
- Decisions are made purely on lowest upfront price regardless of consequence
Getting started
What the transition actually looks like
Changing providers is the part everyone dreads. Here is each phase, what we need from you, and how disruptive it is.
Understand
Step 01 of 4We go through what you have, what is breaking, and what the business is trying to do. We talk to the people who actually use the systems, not just whoever manages them.
- What we need from you
- Access to your current setup, time with a few key people, and an honest account of what frustrates you.
- What you get
- A written summary of what we found, including anything we think you should know before deciding to work with us.
Disruption to your business
None. Nothing changes during this phase, we are looking, not touching.
Straight answers
Questions we get about it strategy & consulting
Do we have to use you to deliver the plan?
How is this different from a sales assessment?
How far ahead should a roadmap look?
Can you help during an acquisition?
Wondering if it strategy & consulting is what you need?
Describe what is going wrong. If this is not the right answer for you, we will say so rather than sell it to you.