SEC-01
Least-privilege access
Each integration gets the narrowest scope that lets the work function. Nothing more.
Stage 01 · StrategizeBuild vs buy advisory
Whether to build it at all
The most expensive software decisions are made before anyone writes code. Building when a product would have done, or buying something that quietly caps your growth — both cost years.
- Access stays in your accounts
- Every change on record
- Written, auditable deliverables
- C01Price the problem firstIn scope
- C02Define what is genuinely yoursIn scope
- C03Evaluate products seriouslyIn scope
- C04Model five-year ownershipIn scope
- C05Test the reversibilityIn scope
- C06Recommend explicitlyIn scope
In short
Build versus buy is decided by whether the way you do the thing is a genuine competitive difference or just a habit. Buy when the process is close to standard and the gaps are things you could change about how you work — you are trading control for speed and for somebody else carrying maintenance. Build when no product fits without reshaping the business around the software, or when the difference is why customers choose you. The comparison is total cost of ownership over five years, including the workarounds you will build around a product, not licence fee against build quote.
- 5
- Warning signals
- that say this is the work
- 6
- Controlled steps
- each ships something you keep
- 4
- Written refusals
- lines we do not cross
Self-audit
Signals this is the work
Tick the ones that are true where you are. Nothing is sent anywhere — the answer is for you, not for us.
If more than one of these is true today, the problem is usually further along than it looks from the outside. That is not a sales line; it is what the cost of waiting does.
Readiness checklistBuild vs buy advisory
0 of 5 true
Nothing ticked yet.
How we do it
The sequence
Each step ships something you keep. You can stop after any of them and still be better off than when you started.
Start with step one- 01
Step 1 of 6
Price the problem first
Staff time, licences, rework, delay, leakage, risk. Without this number every option looks expensive and none can be compared.
- 02
Step 2 of 6
Define what is genuinely yours
Separate the parts of the process that are a real advantage from the parts that are simply how it has always been done.
- 03
Step 3 of 6
Evaluate products seriously
Against your actual workflow and exceptions, not a feature grid. Including the cost of the workarounds each would require.
- 04
Step 4 of 6
Model five-year ownership
Implementation, licences, integration, maintenance, the upgrade you will be forced into, and the cost of leaving.
- 05
Step 5 of 6
Test the reversibility
What it costs to change your mind in two years. Options that are cheap to exit deserve weight that spreadsheets rarely give them.
- 06
Step 6 of 6
Recommend explicitly
One answer, the rejected options and why, so the question does not reopen every quarter.
Assurance
Secured and auditable by default
These controls apply to every engagement, including this one. They are engineering decisions, not a certificate on a wall — and you can check each of them.
SEC-02
Credentials in your name
Accounts and keys live in your tenancy. You can revoke any of them without asking us.
SEC-03
Every change logged
Changes, deployments and incidents leave a written trail you can audit.
SEC-04
Restores tested, not assumed
A backup only counts once it has been restored. We test, and we report the result.
SEC-05
Separate environments
Development never touches production credentials or unmasked customer data.
SEC-06
A documented exit
Runbooks written as we go. Leaving means revoking our access — nothing is held back.
What we will not do
The refusals
The things we turn down are a better description of how we work than the things we sell.
Standing commitmentsBuild vs buy advisory
- 01
We will not: Recommend building because we build. That is why the analysis is bought separately.
- 02
We will not: Compare a licence fee against a build quote and call it a business case.
- 03
We will not: Treat a product demo as evidence about your workflow.
- 04
We will not: Ignore the cost of switching away from whatever is chosen.
Questions
Before you ask
Anything else, ask on the first call. There is no charge for working out whether this is the right fit.
Talk about a problemIs buying always cheaper?
No. Buying is usually cheaper to start and often more expensive to own once you count integration, per-seat growth, the workarounds and the features you pay for and never use. It is genuinely cheaper when your process is close to standard. It gets expensive when you spend three years bending the business around software that nearly fits.
What if we need both?
That is the common answer. Buy the commodity — accounting, email, payroll, CRM — and build only the part that is actually your advantage, integrated to the rest. Most healthy architectures are mostly bought with a small amount of deliberate custom.
Will you tell us not to build?
Regularly, and it is the main reason to buy this analysis from someone before buying the build from them. Recommendations out of this work have included configuring a module the client already owned and retiring a process entirely.
Can we do this ourselves?
Yes, and the framework is published in full so you can. What an outside view adds is the current-state economics, which organizations consistently underestimate because the cost sits inside salaries already being paid, and a recommendation from someone with no stake in which option wins.
Tell us what isn’t working.
One process, one system, one decision you are stuck on. An engineer replies within one working day with how we would approach it, and whether it needs building at all.