Practice area

Systems and software

What the business needs a system to do, which one to buy, and how to get it in without stopping work for a month.

two engagements
From $5,600
four to sixteen days

“We bought something and nobody uses it.”

We bought something and nobody uses it. It is the most common sentence in this practice area and the reason is nearly always the same: the requirement was written after the demonstration rather than before it, so the business bought a shape and then tried to fit itself to it.

So the work starts with what has to be true when the system is in — which jobs it has to carry, which questions it has to answer on a Monday morning, what has to come out of it without anybody exporting anything — and no product is named in the first week. Then a shortlist arrived at from that requirement and scored against it, the buying conversation with us in the room, and being there while it actually goes in, which is the part that decides whether it is used. It ends with somebody inside your business who can run the thing, because a system only the consultant understands is a subscription to the consultant. And we take nothing from any vendor, which is the only thing that makes the advice worth paying for.

What we would actually look at

In roughly this order

What the business needs the system to do, written down before anybody sees a product
Which questions you want answered on a Monday morning without asking anybody
What is currently held in a spreadsheet, a notebook or one person's memory
What has to move across from whatever you are on now, and what honestly does not
A scored shortlist, with the scoring shown
Who inside the business will own it afterwards, named before anything is bought

The engagements

What you can buy, and what it costs

Days are chargeable days. Weeks are the elapsed time, which is always longer. The fee is the first multiplied by the day rate and there is nothing else in it.

Systems and software. Days are chargeable days; weeks are how long it takes on the calendar, which is always longer. The fee is the day rate multiplied by the days and there is nothing else in it.
Engagement	Days	Over	Fee
Choosing and installing a system	eight to sixteen days	eight to fourteen weeks	$14,400 to $28,800
A monthly reporting pack	four to eight days	four to eight weeks	$5,600 to $11,200

Choosing and installing a system

$14,400 to $28,800

What the business needs the system to do, a shortlist arrived at from that, the buying conversation, and being there while it goes in.

eight to sixteen days over eight to fourteen weeks
blended day, $1,800

The first week: Two days writing down what has to be true when it is working. No product is named in that week.

What you are left holding: A written requirement, a scored shortlist, and a person inside your business who can run the thing after we leave.

A monthly reporting pack

$5,600 to $11,200

The eight or ten numbers that would tell you how the month went, where each comes from, and a pack that gets produced every month without you asking.

four to eight days over four to eight weeks
consultant day, $1,400

The first week: A half-day on what you currently look at and what you actually want to know, which are rarely the same list.

What you are left holding: The pack itself, built on your own systems, and the written method for producing it.

How that fee is arrived at

Blended day× eight$14,400
The same rate, at the long end× sixteen$28,800
Travel, materials and anything bought for youat cost—
What you would be quotedeight to sixteen days$14,400 to $28,800

The day rate is $1,800 and it is on the fees page. That multiplication is the whole of the pricing model: there is no retainer hidden inside it, no percentage of anything and no success fee.

Where this stops

What this is not

We do not sell software, we do not resell it, and we take no commission, referral fee or rebate from any vendor. We are also not your IT support: networks, devices, backups and security operations are a different trade and a good one, and we will happily work alongside whoever does yours.

Everything we do not do, and who we send you to

Worth reading first

Choosing business software without letting the software choose your business

The demonstration is designed to make you buy. Writing down what has to be true when the system is working — before anybody shows you anything — is the only reliable defence, and it takes about half a day.

Read it — about ten minutes

Questions

What does it cost?

A partner day is $2,200, a blended day is $1,800 and a consultant day is $1,400. Every project on this site is a number of days at one of those three rates, and the fee range printed against it is exactly that multiplication. The smallest piece of work here is four days.

Why do you publish your rates when almost nobody else does?

Because the alternative is that every first meeting spends twenty minutes on a question that has one number in the answer, and because a fee that is only revealed after you have explained your problems is a fee arrived at from your problems.

Is the first meeting really free?

Ninety minutes, no fee, no obligation, and no proposal at the end of it — you get an opinion. Roughly one in four ends with us saying that we are not the right thing for this, which is why we can afford to give the time away.

How long does a piece of work take?

The smallest is about three weeks and the largest runs for two years. The days and the weeks are different numbers and both are printed against every engagement, because six days spread over five weeks is what actually happens.

Systems and software · from $5,600

Start with the assessment, or telephone

The assessment takes about four minutes and gives you a written summary of what your answers suggest and which engagement addresses each thing. It is indicative and not professional advice, and it is a better opening than a blank contact form. If you would rather skip it, the telephone works and the first meeting is ninety minutes and free.

Take the assessment Call 000-000-0000