Three engagements, not one statement of work.

ERP selection advisory

An ERP selection run by an internal team takes about four to seven months from naming the team to an approved decision paper, and most of that time is spent doing the work alongside a day job that does not pause. We join as an outside hand on the evaluation: building or tightening the requirements register to the 150 to 250 lines that actually separate vendors, running the demo script and scoring sheet across the finalists, and writing the decision paper that goes to your sponsor.

We are not a reseller and we do not take a referral fee, placement fee, or any other payment from a vendor or systems integrator for steering work in their direction. The fee for this engagement comes from you, the buyer, which is the only arrangement under which a shortlist answers to your requirements rather than to a commission schedule.

What this looks like

A typical engagement runs alongside your own team from the long list through contract negotiation: we own the scoring model and the demo script, your process leads keep ownership of the requirements, and your sponsor keeps the decision. We size the engagement to how much of this your team can carry itself, from a single phase (demo scoring, say) to the full run.

Independent program assurance

A program status deck can stay green for weeks while the underlying signs say otherwise. We score a program against seven published warning signs, the same ones behind our public program health check: a rising defect count, too few full-volume data mock loads, signed-off designs being reopened, SI key-role turnover above 20% in six months, a steering committee that has stopped deciding, scope slipping into an unfunded phase two, and process owners missing design and test sessions.

A review names the source record to pull for each sign, rather than asking the program to grade its own homework: the defect log by week, the mock-load reconciliation, the statement of work against who is actually staffed today. We report to you, not to the program, and we do not carry any of the program's own work, so the read is not softened by a stake in the outcome.

What this looks like

A point-in-time review runs one to three weeks depending on program size and produces a written read with a red, amber, or green call and the records behind it. For a program carrying real schedule risk, the same scoring runs as a standing monthly check through build, test, and cutover, so a sign that trips gets caught inside a month instead of at the next steering deck.

Delivery and SI oversight

Systems integrator fees typically run 40 to 60% of total implementation cost, which is the single largest line in most programs and the one with the least independent scrutiny once the contract is signed. We sit inside the governance structure as the client's own technical read on the SI's work: checking the SI's quality gates before sign-off, tracking defect burn-down against the mock-load schedule instead of the SI's own narrative, and bringing a technical voice into steering committee that is not also trying to protect a delivery margin.

This is oversight, not delivery. We do not take on the SI's build, configuration, or testing work; we check it, flag what does not hold up, and tell you what to ask for before you sign off on a phase gate.

What this looks like

Typically a standing engagement from design through the first weeks after go-live, with a fixed cadence (commonly weekly during build and test, more often through cutover) and a seat in the governance meetings that matter. The scope flexes with program risk: a calmer program needs a lighter touch than one already showing one of the seven signs above.

How an engagement starts

Every engagement starts with a conversation about where you actually are, not a proposal written before that conversation happens. If the answer is that you do not need outside help yet, we will say so. Use the contact form to start, or score your program against the seven signs yourself first with the program health check.