IT Strategy and Governance
Independent advice from someone with nothing to sell you
No product, no reseller margin, no implementation contract waiting on the other side of the recommendation. That is the asset.
Most technology advice is attached to something. The platform vendor's architect wants their platform in the target state. The integrator's principal wants a build. The firm scoping the assessment is the firm bidding the delivery.
You bring a decision, a design, a proposal or a cost you do not trust, and you get an independent read from someone who has held accountability for work of the same kind.
Failure modes
What usually goes wrong
We name the failure mode before we name the fix.
The recommendation had a commercial interest behind it
Advice that happens to require the adviser's next contract. It is rarely dishonest and almost always shaped.
Architecture without a decision record
A target state diagram with no written rationale, so nobody can tell later which constraints it was designed against or when it stopped applying.
Cost that was never modelled past year one
Licensing and platform choices signed off on a first-year number, with the run cost arriving as a surprise in the second budget cycle.
Governance that reviews attendance, not decisions
A committee that meets and a pack that circulates, with no named delegate against any decision the program actually made.
Scope
What we are asked to look at
Decide
Technology strategy and a written position on where the estate needs to be in three to five years, what it costs to get there, and which decisions cannot be reversed cheaply.
Review
Architecture review, build-versus-buy assessment, technical due diligence, licensing and cost review, and independent examination of a proposal or design you have been given.
Govern
Technology governance design: decision rights, architecture authority, investment gates and the records that make a decision defensible a year later.
Questions
Asked before an engagement starts
How independent are you, really?
We hold no vendor partnerships, take no reseller margin and receive no commissions. Where we could later bid the delivery of something we recommended, we say so in the report and you can rule us out of it.
How small can an engagement be?
A single decision. Some of the most useful work we do is a few days: read the proposal, model the cost properly, and write down what the decision actually commits you to.
Can you sit in our governance forums?
Yes — that is what the fractional CTO / CAIO arrangement is for. The person in the room is the person who scoped the work, and their decision rights are written down before they start.
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Read more →Next step
Start with a scoping call
A short conversation about what is likely to go wrong and whether we are the right firm for it. You get an honest read on fit and a realistic start date. If the work sits outside what we do, we will say so.