A conversation, at no cost
You describe what is happening. We ask questions, usually about what has already been tried, who owns the problem internally and what the deadline actually is. It costs nothing and carries no obligation.
How we work
What you are agreeing to, before you agree to it.
Appointing an adviser carries risks that have nothing to do with the discipline itself: scope that drifts, people who get substituted, a figure nobody agreed. This is how each of those is handled.
6 stages
On this page05
Six stages, from first conversation to handover.
Establishing what actually matters
Most commercial problems arrive with a proposed solution already attached. We go a step back and establish what the organisation is trying to protect: cost, continuity, compliance, a deadline, a reputation. That determines what a good outcome looks like and which trade-offs are acceptable.
A written scope, before anything starts
What the work is, what it will cost, roughly how long it will take, who will do it, what you will have at the end, and what is explicitly not included. Nothing begins until that is agreed in writing. If the honest answer is that the work is smaller than you expected, or belongs with someone else, that is what the scope will say.
The right capability, and no more
Engagements are led by Adam Parry MCIPS. Where a piece of work needs expertise beyond that, trusted specialist associates are brought in for it. You are told who they are and why they are right for the work before they start. Nobody arrives on your site as a surprise, and the team stays the size the work needs.
Working alongside your team, not around it
The work happens with the people who will still be there afterwards. That means sitting in your governance meetings, using your systems where it is sensible to, and being straight with you when the thing holding the work up is an internal obstacle rather than a supplier.
Handover, and leaving the capability behind
The measure of a good engagement is whether the position holds once we stop. Documentation, process, trained people and a clear owner for whatever we have put in place. Where an ongoing arrangement genuinely makes sense, a day a month on supplier governance for instance, we will propose it. Where it does not, we will not.
What engagements tend to look like.
There is no standard package. In practice the work takes one of four shapes, and the scope says which one it is:
- A defined piece of work. A re-tender, a contract review, a spend analysis or a system selection, with a start, an end and a deliverable.
- An ongoing commitment. An agreed number of days a month providing senior commercial capability, reviewed at sensible intervals.
- A short diagnostic. A focused look at a position before you commit to anything larger, which sometimes concludes that nothing larger is needed.
- Training and capability building. Workshops built on your own documents and processes.
How the commercial side works.
Fees are agreed in the written scope before work begins, and they depend on what the work is: the shape of it, how long it runs and what capability it needs. A figure quoted before the work is understood is not a useful number, so it follows the scoping conversation rather than preceding it.
Any engagement is governed by a written agreement, set out before anything starts. Where you have your own contract, framework or terms of engagement we will work to those.
Nothing we recommend earns us anything else.
We do not resell software or hardware, and we hold no vendor partnerships, reseller agreements or referral arrangements. When a platform is recommended it is because it fits the requirement, and there is no second revenue line behind the advice.
We also do not work on contingent or percentage-of-savings terms. They create an incentive to find savings that look good on a spreadsheet and cost more elsewhere.
Independence is about whose interest the advice serves. It is not a limit on the role: the same engagement that produces the recommendation will usually run the process, negotiate the terms and hold the position through delivery.
What you should expect from us.
- A reply to an enquiry, usually within one working day.
- A straight answer about whether this is work we should be doing, including when it is not.
- Scope, cost and deliverables in writing before anything begins.
- The named person doing the work, agreed in advance and not substituted without telling you.
- Bad news early rather than late, particularly about programme and cost.
- Something you can still run after we stop.
Next step
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
If there is a piece of work in it, the next thing you receive is a written scope with a figure on it. If there is not, you will be told that instead.