Get your technology under control. Deliver the first thing.
Foundation is a fixed-scope engagement over 4–8 weeks for an established company whose business-critical system lacks an end-to-end owner, or whose current owner lacks capacity or wants to delegate the mandate. Your IT team can continue to own the core. The first two weeks are the review; at the checkpoint, decide whether evidence supports a bounded first production change.
01 / Weeks 1–2: understand what the business depends on.
Foundation has a fixed scope, price and deadline. Payment is 50% at the start and 50% at conclusion.
We start with how the business makes money and delivers its service. Then we trace the systems, vendors, integrations and people those processes depend on. The recommendation can be to stabilize, modernize, buy software, rebuild a bounded part or retire a system.
- Business dependency map and systems and vendor inventory.
- Control and access map: who owns the accounts and who can grant access.
- Key-person and vendor dependence, including undocumented knowledge.
- Security and AI exposure, backups and recoverability.
- A quantified roadmap with assumptions, value and a recommendation.
The review contains no prototype before a build decision. Its job is to make the decision understandable.
02 / A checkpoint with clear ways to stop.
The first two weeks are the review. If it cannot show at least 10× the two-week review fee in value you agree is real, in revenue, cost or risk removed, we return the deposit and stop. If it can, we build.
| At the checkpoint | What happens |
|---|---|
| You agree the value is real and choose to continue | We establish control and deliver the agreed first change. |
| You do not agree the review demonstrates the threshold | We return the deposit and stop. |
| You agree the value is real but stop for budget | You keep the roadmap; the deposit is not refunded. |
Either side can stop at the checkpoint. The 10× test applies to the Foundation review only. It does not apply to Tech Team fees or promise that a projected business result will occur. See the complete published guarantee conditions.
03 / Weeks 3–8: establish control and put the first change into production.
Implementation starts after the checkpoint and build decision. The first delivery may be a small production version, a stabilization change or an integration with bought software. We agree what passing means, how to reverse the change and who accepts it.
An HR or workforce example: decide whether one approved employee or schedule update can move from the current HR system into payroll safely, before planning a broader rollout. First confirm whether the software vendor already supports the workflow. If further work is warranted, agree tests such as:
| Acceptance check | What the business can verify |
|---|---|
| Approved change | One approved representative update reaches the intended destination once, with the agreed fields. |
| Rejected or duplicate record | The record is surfaced for review rather than silently applied twice. |
| Failed handoff | The owner can identify what failed, who may correct it, and how to reconcile the workflow before normal processing resumes. |
These are illustrative acceptance checks, not a claim about a specific vendor or a reported outcome. The agreed scope names the systems, relevant fields, acceptance owner and recovery steps. A multi-location or multi-country rollout is assessed and phased separately; it is not promised within the 4–8 week Foundation engagement.
The handover includes Operations Record v1: the system map, account inventory, deployment and recovery instructions, decisions, acceptance criteria and roadmap. It becomes the working record for ongoing coverage.
Two examples show why the first change should follow the business need: the pump-service checklist addressed a loading problem with a small application, while Ingresse used diagnosis and a phased migration around an existing ticketing system.
04 / Make the value sheet something you can challenge.
| Value line | Evidence to bring | Keep the estimate honest |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue protected | Which contracts, orders or customers depend on the system | State the dependency; do not count all revenue as savings. |
| Cost removed | Current manual steps, rework and avoidable vendor costs | Separate recurring cost from a one-time saving. |
| Risk reduced | Known failures, recoverability gaps and transaction consequences | Show the likelihood and impact assumptions; avoid double counting. |
Your agreement is part of the test. A technical finding with no credible business consequence does not make a value line real.
05 / Keep control of the result.
Your company controls the repositories, cloud, domains, data and credentials from day one. You own project-specific code, configuration, documentation, prompts, evaluations and deployment definitions as each milestone is paid. We retain our background tools and methods, with a perpetual, transferable license to anything embedded in your system.
Read the ownership and handover checklist. After Foundation, Tech Team can own the covered systems and the next roadmap. You can also take the record to another provider.
06 / Common questions
Can Foundation recommend software we buy?
Yes. Selecting, implementing, integrating and running bought software is part of the function. A build is justified only when the business need warrants it.
Does every review lead to a rebuild?
No. The recommendation can be stabilization, modernization, bought software, a bounded rebuild or retirement. The review happens before any prototype or implementation decision.
Is Foundation a standalone audit?
Foundation includes the review and the agreed first production delivery. Either side can stop at the review checkpoint under the stated conditions.
Can Foundation roll out an HR system across multiple locations in 4–8 weeks?
Foundation may deliver one bounded HR or workforce workflow, but a multi-location or multi-country rollout is not promised within 4–8 weeks. First we check whether the existing software vendor supports the need, then agree the systems, owner, acceptance tests and recovery plan for one production change. Any wider rollout is assessed and phased separately.
Updated September 28, 2026 · About the team
Your technology
Start with the business
Your business depends on it.
Tell us which system matters, what has changed and who controls it. We will define a reviewable next step. Read Foundation and the commitments and evidence.