The brief
What lands on your team after somebody else chooses
Four things reach IT after a platform decision has been made elsewhere. Each of them is cheaper to deal with before signature than after.
The decision
Integration built by the vendor, or built by your team
This fork sets your cost, your timeline and who takes the call when something breaks between two systems at four in the afternoon.
The vendor builds the integration
A fixed price, a defined scope, and somebody contractually responsible when it stops working. It costs more up front and moves slowly afterwards, because every change is a variation with a lead time and a rate. It fits teams with no spare capacity and a date that cannot move.
Suits lean teams, fixed dates, standard systems
Your team builds it
Cheaper, faster to change, and understood by the people who will maintain it. It consumes the capacity of whoever on your team is good enough to do it, and it makes your organisation the integrator when two vendors disagree about whose end is at fault. It fits teams with genuine capacity and an unusual environment.
Suits in-house capability, custom systems, ongoing change
The process
How we work alongside an IT team
Five stages, with the technical questions raised while the decision is still open. You sign directly with the vendor you choose, and the advisory service costs you nothing.
We map the technical requirement first
Systems of record, identity, network paths, data residency obligations and the integrations that have to survive. This produces a requirement the shortlist is scored against, rather than a feature list assembled from vendor brochures.
We shortlist across the whole market
Relationships across more than thirty vendors mean the comparison covers the architectures that fit, including the platform you already own. You are told what each option is weak at before anybody demonstrates.
We put your security team in parallel, not in the way
Security documentation, data residency positions and certification sets gathered from every shortlisted vendor at the start of the evaluation. Australian data residency in particular is worth confirming in writing rather than assuming from a marketing page.
We test the awkward parts during evaluation
API behaviour and rate limits, single sign on, network capacity at peak, and what the connector does when a field is missing. These are the questions that decide your support load, and they are cheapest to ask while three vendors still want the deal.
We negotiate scope as well as price
What professional services actually cover, what triggers a variation, term length, uplift at renewal, and the exit and data extraction terms. What you can export, in what format and at what cost decides how free you are in three years.
Due diligence
What we make sure gets asked on your behalf
A demonstration is built to avoid these. They are also the questions that decide how much of your year the platform consumes.
The interface behind the integration logo
Which objects, which direction, what the rate limits are, and whether it writes as well as reads.
Who supports an integration between two vendors
Named in the contract, rather than discovered during an outage while both parties point at each other.
Network capacity at your busiest hour
Measured on your links with your quality of service handling in place, before a platform is chosen.
Identity and access model
Single sign on, provisioning and deprovisioning, role granularity, and whether an administrator can be scoped to less than everything.
Australian data residency in writing
Which country the data sits in at rest and in processing, including backups, logs and any AI features.
The patching and change calendar
How much notice you get before a vendor release, whether you can defer it, and what has broken for other customers in the last year.
Support hours and escalation path
Which severity levels get an Australian business hours response, which follow the sun, and who at the vendor can be reached when the first line has run out of script.
Exit and data extraction
What you can export, in what format, over what period and at what cost. Very few buyers ask this at the point when they still have leverage.
Common questions
Asked by most IT leaders
The questions that come up in nearly every first conversation with an IT leader or CIO, answered without a qualification call first.
How do you assess integration properly?
By looking at the actual interface rather than the integration logo on a slide. We ask what the API rate limits are, whether the connector supports the objects you need or only the common ones, whether it writes as well as reads, and who supports it when it breaks between two vendors.
What does this do to our network?
Cloud voice moves a real time workload onto your internet connection. Before selecting a platform we check whether your current links, and your quality of service handling, can carry it at peak. Discovering a connectivity problem during a voice rollout is expensive and entirely avoidable.
How do you handle security review?
We gather the security documentation, data residency position and certification set from each shortlisted vendor at the start, so your security team reviews them in parallel rather than blocking a decision already made. Australian data residency in particular is worth confirming rather than assuming.
What about exit?
We read the termination and data extraction terms before signature. What you can export, in what format, over what period and at what cost determines how free you really are in three years. Very few buyers ask this at the point when they still have leverage.
Do you replace our internal team or an implementation partner?
Neither. We run the market comparison, the evaluation and the commercial negotiation, and we stay involved through delivery to hold the vendor to what was sold. The build is done by the vendor or by your own team, and you hold that contract directly.
Will this create another vendor relationship for us to manage?
No. You contract with the platform vendor and with nobody else. We are paid by the vendor out of the margin they would otherwise keep, so there is no additional agreement, no additional invoice and nothing for your procurement team to onboard.
We are vendor funded and completely free to your business. Always focused on the right outcome.
Ask the awkward questions while the decision is open
We map the technical requirement, shortlist across the market, put your security team in parallel, test the integration and network questions during evaluation, and negotiate scope as well as price. You sign directly with the vendor you choose, and our service costs you nothing.
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Independent guidance at no cost to your business.
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