Software consulting
Software consulting from people who build software for a living. A consultancy paid by the hour has an obvious incentive to find a large problem. We would rather tell you the truth early and work with you for years than win one oversized programme, so every engagement ends in a written recommendation you own, including when that recommendation is not to build the thing at all.
The questions
Almost always at a decision point, and usually one where the organisation already suspects the answer and needs someone independent to say it out loud with evidence behind it.
Usually asked about a system that works and is unpleasant to change
The honest answer is rarely yes. A rewrite trades a system with known problems for one with unknown ones, and loses the business rules that nobody wrote down. We look at what is actually slow to change and whether replacing it in slices gets you there without the eighteen month gap.
Asked when a vendor quote has just arrived
Buy anything that is not what makes you different, and build what is. The difficulty is that the boundary moves, and the integration cost of the bought thing is usually underestimated by a factor that would change the decision.
Asked by a board that has stopped believing the estimates
Almost never because people are not working hard. It is usually batch size, environments, an approval chain nobody has questioned in years, or a team structure that makes every change need four teams to agree.
Asked before an acquisition or an investment
We assess what is really there: code quality, key person risk, licence exposure, security posture and what the first year of ownership will actually cost. Written plainly enough for an investment committee to act on.
Asked quietly, and usually the hardest one
Often yes, with a change to how the work is organised rather than to who is in the room. When the answer is no we say which specific capability is missing, rather than recommending that everyone be replaced by us.
Engagements
All three are fixed price and all three end in a written document you own. We would rather you began with the smallest one that answers your question. Durations are typical and confirmed in writing once scope is agreed.
Typically two weeks
One specific question answered with evidence. We read the code, the incident history and the delivery data, talk to your engineers, and give you a recommendation with the reasoning attached.
Best when you have a decision to make and a date to make it by.
Typically four to six weeks
A full picture: architecture, delivery capability, security posture, cost and risk. Ends with a prioritised plan you could hand to any supplier, including one that is not us.
Best before committing significant budget to a direction.
Ongoing, monthly
A senior engineer alongside your leadership on a defined cadence. Architecture review, hiring input, supplier assessment and a second opinion on the decisions that are hard to reverse.
Best when you have the team and want the experience beside it.
Who it is for
Leaders facing a decision that is expensive to reverse: a rewrite, a large purchase, an acquisition, or a delivery problem the board no longer believes the estimates for. If the decision is made and you need it built, go straight to a build.
What we do
An honest assessment of what you have built, what it will cost to keep, and which parts genuinely need to change before they become the reason you cannot ship.
For investors and acquirers. What is really in the codebase, who holds the knowledge, what the licences allow and what year one of ownership costs.
Why software takes as long as it does here, measured rather than guessed, with the two or three changes that would actually move it.
A structured comparison with real numbers, including the integration and operating costs that vendor pricing leaves out.
For work that is late and getting later. What is recoverable, what should be cut, and the shortest credible path to something in production.
What your engineering organisation can do today, what it needs to do next, and whether that is a hiring problem or a structural one.
Their ability to blend creativity with technical precision really set them apart. … Their approach felt truly consultative, not just transactional.
How we work faster
Traditional consulting spends most of its budget on discovery: reading code, mapping systems, interviewing people and assembling a picture of what exists. AI tooling does much of that groundwork quickly, across the whole estate rather than a sample of it. What you pay for is the judgement, which is the part that decides whether the recommendation is any good, and you get it sooner and against a more complete picture than a fixed-fee audit could previously afford to build. AI accelerates the work. Our engineers stay accountable for the decisions and the software that ships.
An indicative comparison, not a quote or a guarantee. The gain depends on the size of the estate, how quickly we get access and how many people we need to speak to. We estimate every engagement individually and put scope, timeline and price in writing, with a like-for-like comparison against conventional delivery, before you commit.
Plainly
These are the positions we take often enough that you should know about them before you engage us, because they are the ones that cost us revenue.
When an off the shelf product covers it, or when the problem is a process rather than a missing system, we will say so, in writing, having been paid to look.
Frequently the capability is there and the organisation around it is the problem. We will not recommend replacing people to create work for ourselves.
Most legacy systems should be replaced in slices while they keep running. The full rewrite is the most expensive advice in our industry and the easiest to sell.
Sometimes the answer is three weeks of work, not a programme. We will tell you that even when a larger engagement was already being discussed.
Questions we get asked
It is a fair challenge and the reason we put it in writing. Our recommendations are written so that any competent supplier could execute them, and a recommendation not to do the work at all is a normal outcome. We would rather be the firm you trust for a decade than win one programme.
A senior engineer replies within one business day, and a review can typically begin soon after scope is agreed. Larger assessments depend on access and on the people we need to speak to, so we confirm the start date in writing and tell you the realistic date rather than the one you would like to hear.
Read access to the code, whatever delivery and incident data exists, and time with the engineers and the people who depend on the system. We work in your environment under your controls, not by taking copies away.
They are being assessed, and pretending otherwise goes badly. We are open about what we are doing and why, we share findings with the team before leadership sees them, and we do not write anything about individuals.
A written document with the findings, the options, what each would cost and take, and a clear recommendation. Plus a session to argue with it, because a recommendation nobody has pushed back on has not been tested.
No, and the document is deliberately written so that it works without us. Where a specialist firm or a product is the right answer, that is what it says.
If you want us to, and there is no obligation. Some clients hand the plan to their own team, some to another supplier, some to us. All three are normal outcomes.
Fixed fee, agreed in advance against a defined scope, with the number in writing before anything starts. We do not run open-ended engagements and we do not bill for scope we did not agree with you first.
Related services
Next step
A senior engineer reads every enquiry and replies within one business day, with an honest view on which of the three engagements fits, or whether you need one at all.
Certified, partnered and awarded
1/7
Discuss your project
Seven short questions. About 90 seconds. A senior engineer reads your answers before we reply. No sales sequence, no newsletter. Just a thoughtful response about what comes next.
Start here
Choose the one that comes closest.
The problem
A sentence or two is enough. Tell us what isn’t working today or what you want to make possible.
Where you are today
Choose everything that applies.
Timing
A real deadline changes how we approach the work. If there isn’t one yet, that’s useful to know too.
Scope
A range is enough. It helps us understand the right approach and team for the problem. It does not determine what we charge.
Your team
This helps us understand whether we should lead the engineering, work alongside your team, or advise your existing engineers.
Stay in touch
A senior engineer will read what you’ve shared and respond within one business day.
How would you prefer to continue?
Received
A senior engineer will review what you’ve shared and come back with the most useful next step.