Advisory review

A sparring session with an independent IT adviser

You have a question your own organisation cannot settle. Not a problem that warrants an investigation, but something you want to talk through with an outsider before you commit to a direction.

This is the lightest form of engagement I offer: one conversation, an hour or ninety minutes, on a question you bring. I listen, I ask, and I tell you what I think. Nothing is committed, and no proposal follows that you did not ask for.

When one conversation is enough

Talking an IT question through works when the question is small enough to fit into an hour and big enough to be worth a call.

A supplier proposal is on the table and you want to think out loud before you respond to it.
You have an approach in mind and want someone to poke holes in it before your management team does.
You are choosing between two directions and want the arguments on both sides stated properly.
An internal discussion is stuck on technology you cannot judge, while the people who can judge it have a stake in the outcome.
You do not know whether your question calls for an outsider at all, and if so, what kind.

What fits into an hour, and what does not

An hour is short. That is the point, but it does set the limits of what is achievable.

Sharpening the question. The question on the table is not always the question that needs answering.
Walking through an approach or a direction, with the weak spots named out loud.
Working through the main lines of a proposal: where the risks sit and which questions you should be putting to your supplier.
Sorting out what is in play: which questions stand alone and which are tied together.
A view on whether this needs an engagement at all, and if so in what shape and roughly what size.
What does not fit: studying a file, speaking to your team or your supplier, judging software I have not seen, or an opinion you intend to rely on contractually.

What you come away with

No report, unless you ask for one. What you take away is what a good conversation produces: a clearer picture and a few steps you can take yourself.

A sharper question than the one you walked in with.
My judgement on what you put to me, stated plainly and without hedging.
A handful of next steps you can carry out without me.
On request, half a page by email within two working days. Agreed up front, not afterwards.
An honest 'this is not something I can help you with' where that is the answer, along with where you should be instead.

What it is not

Not a second opinion. Reading a file and speaking to the people involved takes days, not an hour.
Not a sales call in disguise. No proposal follows unless you ask for one.
Not advice you can rely on. What I say in an hour rests on what you tell me in that hour.
Not legal or tax advice.
Not a decision taken on your behalf. I think alongside you; you decide and you own the choice.

Common questions

What does a no-obligation conversation cost?

A first half-hour introduction costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If you then want to go into the substance, we agree a shape in advance: an hour or half a day of thinking it through, on a time-and-materials basis. I name the rate at that first contact. No invoice ever follows a conversation you understood to be free.

How do I prepare so the hour is actually useful?

Write your question down in one sentence; if you cannot, that in itself is information. Send at most a few pages that genuinely matter beforehand, not the full file. And decide what you want to be able to conclude afterwards. With those three on the table, an hour covers a lot of ground.

Do I get notes or a report?

Not as standard. The value sits in the conversation, and building a report around a single hour is more administration than substance. If you do want something in writing, say so beforehand: you get half a page within two working days with the essentials and the next steps. Anything more becomes an engagement.

What if the conversation leads nowhere?

Then that is a perfectly good outcome. 'You had it right, carry on' is as useful as a conversation that uncovers a problem, and cheaper than an engagement you did not need. I do not hold the conversation with a follow-on in the back of my mind.

And if it turns out more is needed?

Then I say so during the conversation, along with what that work would be and roughly what size it is. It may sit with me, but equally with another party or with your own people. You are committed to nothing.

More within this service

A question you want to talk through?

Book a half-hour introduction, or send a short sketch of what is at stake. I reply within one working day and will say honestly whether one conversation is enough.

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