Technology Assessments
A defined, fixed-fee review of one part of your environment, delivered as a written report with prioritised findings you own.
ExploreIT Consulting
Advice you can put in front of a board
Technology strategy, architecture and governance work that produces decisions and documents, not a slide deck that ages on a shared drive.
Overview
The question is usually not technical
"Should we refresh or move to cloud?" "Can we support this growth on what we have?" "What are we exposed to?" "Is this quote reasonable?" These are business questions with technical inputs, and they are the ones most often asked without an independent view available.
Our consulting work is scoped as defined engagements with a written deliverable — a roadmap, an architecture, an assessment report, a policy set, a due diligence opinion. You get something you can act on and circulate.
Where an engagement recommends implementation work, you are free to have anyone deliver it. Consulting that only ever concludes "hire us" is not worth commissioning.
What changes
Outcomes we are measured on
The point of the work, stated as results rather than product names.
01
A roadmap with sequence and cost
What to do this year, next year and the year after, with dependencies and indicative budget.
02
Architecture that is written down
Target-state designs and standards that survive staff turnover.
03
Governance that fits the organisation
Policies and processes proportionate to your size and regulatory position, not copied from an enterprise template.
04
An independent second opinion
Quotes, proposals and vendor claims reviewed by someone with no commission in the outcome.
Capabilities
What sits inside this practice
Capability areas we design, implement and support. Scope for any engagement is agreed and documented in writing.
Strategy
Direction and planning.
- IT Consulting
- ICT Strategy
- Technology Roadmaps
- Digital Transformation
- Cloud Strategy
- Cybersecurity Strategy
- Operating Model Design
- Budget Planning Support
Architecture
Designing the target state.
- Enterprise Architecture
- Solution Architecture
- Infrastructure Design
- Integration Architecture
- Standards Definition
- Reference Documentation
Assessment and assurance
Establishing the facts.
- IT Assessments
- IT Audits
- Infrastructure Assessments
- Technical Due Diligence
- Vendor and Proposal Review
- Risk Assessment
- Cost Benchmarking
Governance
Making it stick.
- IT Governance
- ICT Policy Development
- IT Procurement Advisory
- Acceptable Use Policies
- Change Control Frameworks
- Service Level Definition
- Documentation Standards
How we deliver
A sequence, because order matters here
Each stage produces something you can review before the next one starts.
Frame
Agree the question, the audience for the deliverable and the decision it needs to support.
Investigate
Interviews, documentation review, configuration analysis and data gathering across the relevant areas.
Analyse
Options developed with cost, risk and effort, including the option of doing nothing where that is defensible.
Deliver
A written deliverable and a presentation to the people who have to make the decision.
Questions
The things people ask before signing anything
Where implementation is needed we will say what is needed. Whether we deliver it is your decision, and consulting deliverables are written so that another provider could execute them.
A focused roadmap for a mid-sized organisation is typically a few weeks. Broader enterprise architecture or governance work takes longer. We scope it up front with a fixed fee rather than an open-ended retainer.
Yes. Independent proposal review is a common short engagement, particularly for infrastructure refresh, connectivity contracts and licensing renewals.
We are familiar with structured procurement requirements and can produce specifications and supporting documentation in the formats those processes need.