Systems, reporting and data investment is a capital decision before it is a technology decision. This work tests the business case, the investment economics, the operating leverage it should produce and the quality of information it has to deliver — before the money is committed.
The situation it addresses
A reporting platform, a data foundation, an ERP replacement or an AI-enabled way of operating is on the table. The vendor case is built around features and a licence cost. What nobody has produced is the economic case — and technology spend becomes the largest unexamined line in the capital plan.
The questions the work answers
What is this investment worth to the business? What operating leverage does it create — cost released, capacity unlocked, decisions improved? Can the business scale on it, or will it need replacing at the next stage? What is the total cost, including the year of running two systems? And what has to be true for the return to hold?
What we do
- Business case and investment economics — the return, the range around it and the assumptions that decide it
- Operating leverage and scalability — what capacity, cost or margin the investment releases, and at what volume the case changes
- Information quality — requirements defined from the decisions management needs to make, not from a feature list
- Commercial return and benefits definition — named benefits, owners, and how they will be measured against the baseline
- Cost-to-run and total cost of ownership — licence, implementation, transition, dual-running and the ongoing operating cost
- Independent challenge of vendor and internal proposals — the economics tested before the commitment, not after
- Implementation roadmap and governance — sequencing, priorities and the oversight the value at stake justifies
Typical mandate outputs
- Investment case — the economic argument for or against, with sensitivities and a clear recommendation.
- Information and reporting requirements — what the platform must deliver, stated in management's language, ready for vendors or builders.
- Implementation roadmap and benefits baseline — the sequence, the owners and the measures the investment will be judged against.