Assessment
A fixed-scope Survey and Blueprint. You get ground truth and a sequenced plan, and you own the decision about what happens next — including hiring someone else to do it.
Fixed fee · 4–10 weeks
Approach
Survey, blueprint, execute, steward.
Four phases, run in order, with a decision point at the end of each. You can stop after any of them and still hold something useful.
Consulting fails in predictable ways. The assessment is thorough and nothing changes. The strategy is sound and the organization can't absorb it. The rollout happens and adoption never does. Our method is built around those specific failure modes rather than around a deliverable schedule.
Phase 01
Survey
Typically 2–4 weeks
We establish ground truth. Not the org chart, not last year's assessment, and not the story that gets told in the leadership meeting — what is actually happening on the floor, in the system, and in the pipeline.
That means talking to the people who run the thing daily, walking the sites, pulling the data ourselves, and reading the contracts. It is the phase clients most often want to shorten, and the one that most determines whether the rest is worth doing.
- Stakeholder interviews across levels, not just sponsors
- Site walks, system inventories, and configuration review
- Direct data extraction and independent validation
- Contract, license, and vendor obligation review
You end with: a written current-state picture, a quantified baseline, and a prioritized list of what's actually broken — including the things nobody asked us to look at.
Phase 02
Blueprint
Typically 3–6 weeks
A target state, and a sequenced route to it. The sequencing matters more than the destination: we order the work so that early wins release budget, build credibility, and remove dependencies for what comes next.
Every recommendation carries a cost range, a named owner, a decision date, and an honest statement of what happens if you don't do it. Recommendations without those four things are opinions, and you can get those for free.
- Target-state architecture and operating model
- Phased roadmap with dependencies and critical path made explicit
- Cost ranges, resourcing requirements, and build-versus-buy calls
- Success measures defined against the Phase 01 baseline
- A decision package sized for the board or investment committee
You end with: a plan your team can execute without us — and a clear-eyed view of whether they realistically will.
Phase 03
Execute
Varies by scope
We work inside the team. That means standing in your meetings, holding vendors to the specification, making the hundred small calls that keep a plan from drifting, and taking responsibility when something we recommended turns out to be wrong.
Change lands across three surfaces at once — process, platform, and people — and skipping any one of them is the most common reason implementations underdeliver. We don't hand you a change-management appendix and leave.
- Embedded delivery alongside your staff, at an agreed cadence
- Vendor and integrator management against scope and schedule
- Process redesign, documentation, and rollout
- Platform configuration, integration, and testing oversight
- Training, communications, and resistance management
You end with: the thing built, in use, and behaving the way the blueprint said it would.
Phase 04
Steward
Typically 4–12 weeks, then optional retainer
The measure of an engagement is what survives it. We hold a period after go-live to measure against the baseline, correct what the real world exposed, and move ownership into your organization deliberately rather than by attrition.
Documentation is written for the person who inherits the system in two years and was not in any of these meetings. If we've done this right, our departure is uneventful.
- Measurement against the Phase 01 baseline, published honestly
- Tuning and correction based on live operating experience
- Capability transfer to named internal owners
- Documentation, runbooks, and decision history
- Optional advisory retainer for quarterly review or escalation
You end with: your people running it, and a record of what was decided and why.
Engagement models
Three ways to work with us.
Program delivery
All four phases on a defined initiative — a platform migration, a multi-site security refresh, a revenue operations rebuild. We carry it from diagnosis through stewarded handoff.
Phased fee · 3–12 months
Standing advisory
Ongoing counsel for leaders who need a second read on vendor decisions, architecture calls, and operating questions as they arise — without rebuilding context every time.
Monthly retainer · Ongoing
Industries
Where we concentrate.
Sectors where security, systems, and revenue intersect — and where a wrong decision is expensive and slow to unwind.
Security & defense technology
Manufacturers, integrators, and service providers selling complex solutions into cautious, committee-driven buyers.
Critical infrastructure & utilities
Distributed assets, regulatory scrutiny, and a security posture that has to work without constant attention.
Industrial & manufacturing
Plant security, operational technology convergence, and the safety-versus-access tension that comes with both.
Logistics & distribution
High-throughput facilities where shrink, access control, and the pace of operations are in permanent negotiation.
Data centers
Layered physical security, audit-heavy customer requirements, and rapid multi-site buildout schedules.
Healthcare systems
Open campuses, workplace violence exposure, and technology that must serve clinical operations rather than obstruct them.
Financial services
Branch and operations-center security, vendor risk scrutiny, and documentation that satisfies examiners.
Public sector & higher education
Procurement constraints, community expectations, and multi-stakeholder decisions that need a defensible record.
Private equity & portfolio operations
Diligence support before close, and operating improvement across portfolio companies after it.
Start with a conversation, not a proposal.
The first call is diagnostic. If we're not the right firm for what you're facing, we'll say so and point you toward who is.