IT Consultancy that leads to delivery
Independent advice on strategy, architecture, risk and governance, translated into a roadmap, a business case and a team that actually builds it.
From technology choices to well-founded decisions
You know that a platform has to be replaced, that licence costs are getting out of hand or that your security no longer fits what your organisation does. What is missing is the overview to justify the sequence and the investment. As long as that overview is absent, every proposal becomes a separate discussion and the decision slips another quarter.
We look at your current landscape, the risks attached to it and the goals you want to reach in the years ahead. That produces a well-founded recommendation: which steps when, what they cost, what they deliver and which dependencies you need to resolve up front.
We are not an advisory firm that leaves after the presentation. Because we also deliver service desk, staffing, managed IT and cloud, we carry the advice through into delivery, or hand it over cleanly to your own team or your existing supplier.
- Advice and delivery We do not write down anything we would not be willing to build ourselves, and we test every recommendation against the question of who is going to do it.
- No stake in the outcome We earn nothing on a specific platform or brand, so we compare options on cost, management effort and how easily you can leave again.
- Between a strategy house and a local IT supplier Close enough to your organisation to know the details, large enough to carry out a plan as well.
- The file belongs to you Even if you continue with another party, the baseline assessment, roadmap and business case remain yours to work with.
IT consulting for SMEs
Consultancy has a poor name among smaller businesses, and usually deservedly. A forty-page report ending in a recommendation nobody can act on is expensive and changes nothing. The questions that actually exist are more concrete: can we carry on with what we have, what does doing nothing cost, and who does the work.
So our advisory work for smaller organisations takes days rather than months. We look at what is there, what it costs, where the risk sits, and which three steps return the most. You can carry out the result yourself or leave it with us; the advice is not a run-up to a contract.
- Days instead of months A baseline assessment and a conversation usually return more than a programme that says nothing for a quarter.
- Independent of what we sell If staying with your current supplier is best, that is the advice.
- Three steps, in order Not a list of thirty points but what comes first, why, and what it returns.
- Usable at board level In language that works in a board meeting, with the cost of doing nothing alongside it.
IT advice for enterprise organisations
In larger organisations advice is rarely about what should happen; that is often already known. It is about why it does not: three departments with their own architecture, a programme running for two years, a supplier that will not move, and a decision that keeps sliding to the next steering group.
We provide the independent voice there, and the people who then do the work. IT strategy consulting, architecture choices, a migration plan that accounts for what cannot go offline, and the reasoning that makes an investment defensible to the board.
- Independent of the incumbent We have no stake in the outcome and will also say what your existing supplier does well.
- Architecture with a migration path Not only the end state but the order of getting there, including what runs twice for a while.
- Reasoning for the investment Cost, risk and what happens if the decision is deferred by a year.
- From advice to execution The same people can carry it out through staffing, so the advice does not end in a drawer.
Advice from the people who also build it
Not a consultancy that leaves after the presentation, but an organisation that can build the recommendation itself.
Six topics, one coherent recommendation
You choose what you need. In practice these topics overlap: a technology choice touches your risk profile, and the way you steer determines whether a roadmap holds up. That is why we treat them together, even when only one of the six prompted the conversation.
Strategy and planning
We bring your IT in line with your business goals and set out which capabilities you need in the years ahead, in a multi-year plan you can explain to your board.
Technology advice
Which platform, which supplier, which contract. We set the options side by side on cost, management effort and the question of how easily you can get out again.
User experience and workplace design
Systems that nobody enjoys using get worked around. We design the user side along with everything else, so adoption does not become a separate project afterwards.
Risk management
We make visible where your organisation is vulnerable (ageing systems, components without a fallback, dependence on one person) and what it costs to cover that.
Decision-making and compliance
Clear roles, decision rules and reporting. That makes it demonstrable who decides on what, and keeps you within the requirements that apply to your sector.
Security in the architecture
Security as part of your design, not as a separate tool. We determine which measures fit your risk profile and in which order you introduce them.
Four steps from question to decision
A project usually takes a few weeks, not months. After every step you get something tangible in hand, so you can adjust course or stop along the way.
Intake and baseline assessment
We speak with your IT team and with the people who do the work, and map your current landscape, contracts and bottlenecks. The result is a factual picture that everyone recognises.
Analysis and scenarios
We set two to three realistic directions side by side, including cost, lead time, risks and the consequences for your own team. Not one scenario is written down without us standing behind it.
Roadmap and business case
We develop the chosen scenario into a plan with phases, budgets and measurement points. That lets you take decisions internally and release the resources.
Delivery and adjustment
We guide the delivery, supply specialists where needed and check periodically whether the assumptions still hold. Whatever does not work, we change.
The advice takes shape in the room, with your people there
We spend a large part of the process at your offices. In working sessions with your administrators, your application owners and people from the business, we bring out what is really going on: which systems grate every day, which integrations nobody dares to touch any more and which plans are already sitting there waiting.
Whatever ends up on the wall during a session like that is the raw material for the roadmap. As a result, the advice does not feel like something from outside: your own people have thought through the sequence, know the trade-offs and can explain internally why a choice was made.
- Operations and business at the same table Assumptions are tested straight away by the people who work with them every day, not only at the final presentation.
- Everything visible at once Systems, bottlenecks and dependencies hang side by side instead of being spread across separate documents.
- Recorded during the session We note choices and open points as they are made, so the write-up does not become another round of interpretation.
- You set the priority We set out the options, the costs and the consequences; you choose the sequence yourself.
What is on the table when we finish
Not a presentation that disappears into a folder, but documents you can move forward with inside your own organisation.
- Baseline assessment of your IT landscape Systems, contracts, licences and dependencies described in one place.
- Multi-year roadmap Phased plan with sequence, lead time and decision points per phase.
- Business case per phase Investment, expected saving and the assumptions they rest on.
- Risk and measures overview What can go wrong, how likely that is and what you do about it.
- Decision-making model Roles, mandates and reporting, so decision-making does not stall.
- Advice on the delivery Do it yourself, outsource it or supplement it with IT staffing, with the reasoning included.
Where consultancy often leads next
These are the services that most often follow on from an advisory project.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
What does an advisory engagement actually produce?
A supported decision rather than a report. At the end there is a choice with the trade-offs alongside it, an estimate of what it costs, and an order in which it can be carried out. Not a document that disappears into a drawer: we stay accountable for the result.
How independent is the advice?
We have no stake in a brand or a supplier, and we say it when the answer is that you should change nothing. That happens. We can carry out the work afterwards if you want, and we say that up front so you can weigh it.
How long does an engagement run?
Four steps from question to decision, and that usually runs in weeks. The advice takes shape in the room, with your people there, because they know where it gets stuck in practice. That saves the round where an external report has to be checked anyway.
Can you just think along on one decision?
Yes. Not every question is an engagement. Sometimes it is a second opinion on a quote, a check on an architecture that already exists, or reading along during a tender. We agree that as a defined piece of work at a fixed price.
What do we end up holding?
A report you can read and use without us: what is there, what is going wrong, what it costs to leave it as it is, and an order of what to tackle with the reasoning attached. Not a list of recommendations without price tags, because you cannot make a decision on that. The report is yours, including if you take it to another party.
How long does an assessment take?
It depends on how large the environment is and how much of it was never written down. A first picture of a single-site environment takes days; an organisation with sites in several countries and systems nobody fully knows any more takes weeks, mostly because the bulk of the time goes into talking to the people who work with it. We agree a lead time up front and say so if it slips.
Will you advise us even if we do not have you do the work afterwards?
Yes. The advice and the delivery are two separate arrangements, precisely because an adviser who hands themselves the work has stopped being an adviser. In practice some clients come back for the delivery after the report and some do not, and both are fine. What you do with the report is your decision.
Deeper into this subject
Pages that work out a single question from this service.
Our own certifications
ITproposal is certified for ISO 9001 (quality), ISO/IEC 27001 (information security), ISO 14001 (environment) and Kiwa NEN 4400-1 (labour hire and secondment). That says something about how we work and how we have our own processes assessed; it is not a certification you inherit from us.
Want to know where you stand first?
Book a one-hour introductory call. We go through your current landscape and tell you where we think the biggest gain sits, even if that means you do not need us.
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