Service
Technology strategy
We develop your AI, data and technology strategy, plan how you will meet the goals and KPIs you are held to, and help you choose vendors. We work out what your technology investments return, and where spending can be reduced. The service also covers governance, compliance and security, and local hosting and emergency readiness.
Why it matters
Every leadership team is held to goals, whether set by its board, a regulator or its own plans. Technology and AI are now part of how most of those goals will be met, and the choices are harder to reverse than they first appear.
Leaders are also asked to show what that spending returns. Early findings from researchers working with MIT Project NANDA showed that only 5% of the organizations they studied had turned generative AI into a lasting gain in productivity or profit.
How we help
The strategy starts from the goals and KPIs your organization is held to, and from how the work is really done today. We can also stay with you while it is put into practice.
This service also covers governance, compliance and security, and local hosting and emergency readiness.
A strategy tied to your goals
We build your AI, data and technology strategy around the goals and KPIs your organization is held to.
A clear view of how work is done
We study how the work is done today, so that the strategy starts from what is real.
The right opportunities
We identify where technology and AI would make the most difference, including options that use no AI, and set priorities.
Readiness to proceed
We assess whether your data and systems are ready for the plan, and what must be in place first.
The organization to run it
We define the roles, skills and structure your organization needs to run what is chosen.
A plan you can follow
We set out the work needed to meet each goal, and the order in which it should be done.
Choosing vendors
We help you set the criteria and, where you need one, prepare the request for proposal you send to vendors. We then assess every option against the same measures, so that you can choose.
Oversight of delivery
Where another party builds what was chosen, we oversee the work and report its progress against the plan to your leadership.
An advisor for your leadership
Where your leadership team needs AI advice for a period, one of our specialists can join it as an interim advisor.
Return and cost
We work out what a technology or AI investment should return, and where your current technology spending can come down. In our view, the expected return and the assumptions behind it should be agreed before money is committed.
Savings, freed capacity and reduced risk are counted separately, so that each can be tested on its own.
The return on an investment
We work out what a proposed technology or AI investment should return, with every assumption stated.
The full cost over its life
We count what a system will cost to run and support over its whole life, well beyond the purchase price.
Lower technology spend
We review what you spend on technology today and find where it can be reduced.
Why we do not offer an ROI calculator
A credible return depends on your organization’s own processes, costs, data and obligations. A calculator cannot capture them, and a figure produced without them would misrepresent the work this service does.
How we work with you
The scope covers the parts your organization needs, and no more.
Understand your organization
Our specialists work at your offices to learn how the work is done and what it is measured against.
Confirm the goals
We agree every goal and KPI your organization is held to, and who set each one.
Establish the starting point
We establish where your organization stands against each goal today, and what you spend on technology, using your own data wherever possible.
Plan the route
We write the plan for each goal from what we found. Each projected return is shown with its assumptions, and every forecast is presented as an estimate.
What you gain
Everything is written for a board or committee that took no part in the work. The decision on whether to proceed, and with whom, stays with you.
- A written strategy, including the options considered and why any were set aside
- A plan against each goal and KPI, with its assumptions stated
- A financial model that your own team can update as costs change
- Where current spend is in scope, the savings we identified
- Where we oversee delivery, reports on its progress against the plan
- A record of what was decided, on what evidence and why
Governance, compliance and security
Boards, regulators, customers and auditors expect an organization to show how it governs its technology, data and AI, and how it protects the information entrusted to it. The obligations grow as an organization adopts AI and works in more places.
International standards for managing AI, published in 2023, now give leaders a recognized benchmark for doing this well.
Every organization answers to its own mix of laws, regulations and standards, depending on where it operates and what it does. We start from yours.
Governance you can demonstrate
We set clear responsibilities and decision rights for technology, data and AI.
A clear view of your obligations
We identify the laws, regulations and standards that apply to you, and show how each is addressed.
Privacy protection
We protect personal and sensitive information from the moment it is collected until it is deleted.
Security
We put in place the security measures your organization needs, and carry them into your contracts with suppliers.
Responsible use of AI
We set the rules for how AI is chosen, used and overseen, in line with recognized international standards.
How this work runs
Each engagement starts from the obligations that apply to you and the practice already in place. We identify the laws, regulations and standards that apply to your organization, and what each one asks of you.
Working at your offices, we look at how decisions about technology, data and AI are made, and how sensitive information is handled. We then design the governance, privacy and security measures with your team, and hand over everything needed to keep them working.
What you gain
Everything is written so that your own team can keep it current and show a regulator or auditor how each obligation is addressed.
- Clear accountability for decisions about technology, data and AI
- A single view of your obligations and how each one is addressed
- Privacy and security measures, with the reasoning behind each
- The requirements to carry into your contracts with suppliers
Local hosting and emergency readiness
Leaders are accountable for keeping essential services running and for knowing where their organization’s data is held. When everything depends on one location or one provider, a single failure can stop the service.
In September 2026, AWS reported that it could not restore customers’ access to data held in a single location after physical damage to its facilities. In our view, recovery should be tested before it is needed, and that applies equally to a data centre you own.
We design, set up and run the systems. Hardware and hosting come from partners, chosen to fit the design you approve, and the public cloud stays part of the answer wherever it fits.
Hosting on your own premises
We set up and run systems in facilities you control, for the services that need it most.
Hosting inside your country
We place systems and data with hosting providers in the country your rules require.
The right place for each system
We combine your own facilities with cloud services, placing each system where cost, performance and your obligations are best met.
Keeping data where it belongs
We identify the rules on where each kind of data may be held, and keep a record your auditors can follow.
Recovery you have tested
We agree how much data each system could afford to lose and how quickly it must be running again, then test recovery on a schedule.
A way out if you need one
We prepare each system to be moved to another location or provider, so that no single supplier or site holds you in place.
How this work runs
No hardware or hosting is bought until you have approved the design.
Assess and design
Working at your offices, we review each system and recommend where it should run and how it will be recovered.
Ends when you approve the design and the recovery targets for each system.
Set up
We put the design in place with our hosting partners, moving systems in an agreed order and testing recovery before each one goes live.
Ends when every system in scope runs in its agreed location, with a successful recovery test on record.
Run
We operate the systems to the agreed targets, carry out regular maintenance and recovery exercises, and report the results to you.
Ends when the agreed term ends, or your own team takes over with the procedures and records it already holds.
What you gain
Everything is documented as the work proceeds and handed over in full.
- A clear decision on where each system runs, and why
- A record of where your data is held and the rules that decided it
- Agreed limits on data loss and downtime for each system
- Recovery that has been tested, with the results on record
- Clear operating procedures that your own team can use