How an engagement runs

Four stages, in order. Each one produces something you can read, check, or measure before the next one starts.


01

Baseline

Before anything is designed, we measure the process that is costing you hours: which steps are manual, how long each one takes, who touches it, and where information falls through the gaps. The output is a figure both sides accept.

A baseline is a precondition, not a formality. Without one, nobody can prove afterwards whether the system worked — and we will not take an engagement where that proof is impossible.

Manual-hours baseline for invoice intake: four manual steps at 5.5, 4, 2.5, and 2 hours a week, totalling 14 hours.5.5 h4 h2.5 h2 h[INTAKE][MATCH][APPROVE][POST]14 h / week, measured across two people
FIG. 1 — Manual-hours baseline, as measured.

02

Architecture

Next comes a written implementation plan: what will be built, which models and services it uses, how it reaches your existing systems, and how it stays maintainable in five years. It is a standalone paid deliverable and it belongs to you.

You can take it to another firm for a second opinion, or act on it yourself. We would rather lose the build than write a plan that only works if we are the ones holding it.

Business problem
The process, the hours, and the cost of leaving it alone.
Process analysis
Every step, its owner, and its failure modes.
Data flows
Where information enters, what transforms it, where it lands.
Target architecture
Models, services, and integration points, with the reasoning for each.
Security
Access, retention, and data-protection requirements the build must meet.
Maintainability
Who operates this in five years, and what they need in order to.
Target architecture: ERP, CRM, document management, and mail systems each connected to a central orchestration layer.[ERP][CRM][DMS][MAIL][ORCHESTRATION]
FIG. 2 — Target architecture.

03

Integration

The system goes inside the software your people already open every morning, not beside it. That is the difference between a tool somebody has to remember to use and a process that runs whether anyone remembers or not.

We handle the integration, testing, and deployment ourselves rather than subcontracting it, because the seams are where these projects fail.

ERP
Invoices, orders, stock, master data.
CRM
Cases, contacts, pipeline, correspondence history.
Document management
Contracts, scans, attachments, version history.
Customer service
Ticket intake, routing, drafted responses.
Email
Inbound documents, structured extraction, replies.
Databases
Reporting, reconciliation, and the queries behind both.

04

Operations

Operations are in scope before you sign, not sold to you afterwards. A system nobody operates is a system that quietly stops working, usually without anyone noticing for months.

Monitoring
Throughput, error rates, and drift, checked against the baseline.
Maintenance
Model, dependency, and integration changes as the systems around it move.
Improvement
The next process, once this one is holding.
Incident response
A named route when something breaks, with an agreed response time.

Start with the measurement

Name the process that is costing you hours. We will tell you whether it is worth measuring before anything is built.