Five days, and sometimes the answer is don't.
A measured record of where the week actually goes, taken with a stopwatch rather than a questionnaire, and a fixed price against each thing worth fixing. It costs $1,500 and takes five days. One commission in three ends with nobody building anything, which is a result and not a failure, and the fee comes off the first build for everyone who does.
The week is priced and paid on its own, so it does not need a build to follow it to have been worth buying. That is the only real answer to the worry that a company selling builds will recommend builds.
Six things, and what each one actually gets you.
Digital transformation consulting
The map itself: every recurring job, how long it really takes, how often it is done, and who is blocked while it happens. Timed at the desk rather than collected in a survey, because people estimate the jobs they hate as longer and the jobs they own as shorter.
Business process automation
Which of those jobs are worth automating, in what order, with a price against each. Including the ones that are not worth it, which is usually more of the list than anybody expects, and the ones where the answer is to stop doing the job rather than to speed it up.
Data analytics and business intelligence
What you can answer today, what you cannot, and what it would take to change that. Most businesses we measure are one join away from a number they have been arguing about for two years.
Customer experience consulting
Where your customers actually wait, taken from your own timestamps rather than from a workshop. The gap between the delay you apologise for and the delay that loses you the job is usually not where anyone thinks.
IT strategy and advisory
What to keep, what to replace, and what to leave alone for another two years. The last of those is a real recommendation and you should be suspicious of anyone whose list does not contain it.
Cloud computing solutions
Whether moving is worth it for you, with the running cost worked out both ways. Sometimes the honest answer is that the server in the cupboard is fine and the backup policy is the thing that needs money.
$1,500 for five days, and the map is yours either way.
| The week | $1,500 for five days, fixed, credited in full against the first build |
|---|---|
| Running | $0. There is nothing here to run |
| Us, after | $0, and no obligation. You keep the document, and it names other suppliers where they fit better than we do |
| Not included | Building any of it. That is quoted separately, per item, once you know what you actually want |
We watch, and we time it
At desks, with a stopwatch, during a normal week rather than a quiet one. We are looking for the jobs nobody lists when asked what they do all day, which are reliably the expensive ones.
We cost it
Every candidate gets a build price and an annual saving, both of them ours to defend. The ones where that arithmetic does not work go on the list marked not yet, with the arithmetic shown so you can disagree with it.
You get the map, and an order of work
A document you own, written for the person who has to approve the spend rather than for us. It ends with a recommendation, and the recommendation is sometimes to do nothing this year.
The ones that decide it.
What do we actually have at the end of the week?
What if the honest answer is that we should not automate anything?
You sell builds. Will the map just recommend your builds?
$1,500 seems low for five days. What is the catch?
Bring us the decision you are stuck on.
Describe what you are deciding, the systems involved, and when it has to be settled. We will tell you honestly whether the five days are worth buying, or whether a shorter answer will do.