The situation
The firm had grown quickly, from a small professional services practice to a mid-sized business in just a few years, through a combination of acquisition and organic growth. That pace created a common problem: the IT arrangements that had suited a small practice had not evolved with the organisation around them.
The board and executive team were concerned that their incumbent IT provider had not kept up with the changing circumstances, and was no longer delivering to their requirements cost effectively. Before deciding what to change, they wanted an objective view of where their technology actually stood, independent of the provider responsible for it.
Why independent advice mattered
Asking the incumbent provider to assess its own performance was never going to produce an answer the board could rely on. The provider had a commercial and reputational stake in the verdict, which is precisely the conflict that makes self-assessment unreliable.
As independent technology advisors with no stake in the provider relationship and nothing to sell, our role was to give the board an evidence-based picture it could trust, and act on. That is the whole point of an independent assessment: the findings are shaped by what is right for the business, not by what any supplier wants to defend.
What we did
The review brought three separate lenses together into a single independent view for the board.
Reviewed the IT service experience
We assessed whether the technology, and the way it was supported, was capable of meeting the growing business’s expectations and its increasingly digital future, rather than the needs of the smaller firm it used to be.
Benchmarked IT costs
We compared the organisation’s IT spend against benchmarks for organisations of a similar size and context, so the board could see whether it was paying a fair price for what it received, measured against evidence rather than assertion.
Examined the IT risk profile
We assessed the organisation’s IT risk position and considered it against comparable organisations, surfacing exposure the business had not been able to see from the inside.
Framed the findings for the board
We brought capability, cost and risk together into one independent assessment the board could use to make decisions about its provider and its future technology direction.
The outcome
- An independent, evidence-based view of whether IT was meeting the needs of the larger organisation, free of the incumbent provider’s influence
- A benchmarked read on whether IT costs were reasonable for the firm’s size and context
- Visibility of the organisation’s IT risk profile relative to comparable organisations
- A clear basis for the board to make informed decisions about its IT provider and future technology direction
The value was in the quality of the decision that followed. The board moved from a general unease that IT had not kept pace to a costed, benchmarked and independent understanding of exactly where it stood, and what to do next.
Concerned your IT has not kept pace with your growth?
If your organisation has scaled quickly and you need an independent read on whether IT is still fit for purpose, that is exactly where our reviews begin.
No pitch, no sales process. Just a senior view.
