Thinking
What we have learned, written down
Articles and guides from the people doing the work. Each argues from a pattern rather than a named client.
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10 pieces
PinnedArticle · 5 min read
When access is solved by copying
Nobody decides to build six copies of the same dataset. It happens one reasonable decision at a time — and the fix is governance, not a tidying exercise.
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PinnedGuide · 6 min read
The three levers of licensing cost, and why most organizations pull only one
Reducing licensing cost almost always means calling the vendor. Negotiation is one lever of three, and rarely the one with the most money behind it.
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Article · 5 min read
Negotiating with the vendors you already have
In regulated manufacturing, switching suppliers means requalifying parts. The fastest material savings are usually inside the relationships you already hold.
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Article · 6 min read
When procurement runs on two ERPs
Dual-ERP environments are common in manufacturing and rarely written about. The systems are not the problem — the undocumented space between them is.
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Article · 5 min read
The integration opportunities nobody owns
Every business unit optimizes what it can see. The gaps between them belong to nobody, and that is where the largest inefficiencies live.
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Article · 5 min read
Let the data move on status, not on somebody remembering
Most failed integrations are not technical failures — they are a person who was on vacation. The hard part of fixing it is not the code, it is agreeing what the statuses mean.
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Guide · 6 min read
Why knowledge transfer slips, and how to stop it
Transition plans assume the people who do the work will find time to explain it. They will not. Treat knowledge transfer as a project you run rather than something you receive.
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Article · 6 min read
Building a capability center that works as part of the client team
A capability center is not offshore staffing with better marketing. The difference is whether the team understands the work well enough to make decisions in it.
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Article · 3 min read
Build versus buy is the wrong question
Off-the-shelf software gets you running sooner but rarely does everything. A custom build fits exactly and carries no license fees, but takes longer. Most of the interesting work is in the space between the two.
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Article · 6 min read
Nobody evaluates year five
Platform decisions get made on a feature comparison and a first-year price, then lived with for a decade. The two costs that compound — capability you never switch on, and an upgrade that becomes an annual project — are in neither column.
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