Independent, platform-agnostic vendor selection — built to avoid lock-in and over-buying, with no referral fee riding on which vendor you pick.
You’re selecting a new ERP, CRM, PIM, or e-commerce platform, and every vendor in the process has a genuine incentive to be recommended — including, often, the implementation partners advising you on the shortlist. What you don’t have is a genuinely independent voice in the room who has no commercial stake in which name you sign with.
That is what this engagement is.
€15,000. Three to four weeks. Delivered in writing, with a presentation to whoever needs to hear it.
Fixed fee. No implementation work. No commissions. No referral fees from any vendor, ever, under any circumstances.
Why clients commission this before selecting a vendor
- A shortlist has been built primarily by the vendors themselves, through their own sales process, and the board wants an independently sourced comparison instead.
- Previous platform decisions were driven by whoever pitched best, and the board wants a genuinely structured evaluation this time.
- The requirements document itself was drafted with heavy input from a preferred vendor, and needs an independent rewrite before the RFP goes out.
- The business has been burned by vendor lock-in before and wants exit terms and portability built into the evaluation criteria from the start, not as an afterthought.
- Several stakeholders have different, unreconciled opinions about which platform is right, and the board wants an independent tiebreaker grounded in evidence.
Who this is for
Boards and technology leaders selecting a major platform — ERP, CRM, PIM, e-commerce, or similar — who want a genuinely independent evaluation process.
Organisations that have been burned by a previous vendor lock-in decision and want the next selection built to avoid repeating it.
Who this is not for
Organisations wanting the selected platform implemented. We identify and recommend; we do not implement, and we don’t take a percentage of the deal.
Organisations that have already committed to a vendor and want validation after the fact — the Review is most valuable before the decision, not after.
What you receive
The Review gives you an independently run selection process, not just an opinion. Five artefacts, delivered together, in plain language.
An independently drafted requirements document. Built from your actual operational needs, not shaped by whichever vendor got there first.
A structured evaluation framework. Weighted criteria covering functional fit, total cost of ownership, exit terms and data portability, vendor durability, and implementation risk — applied consistently across every shortlisted vendor.
A scored vendor comparison. Every shortlisted vendor assessed against the same framework, with the reasoning behind each score made explicit.
A lock-in and exit risk assessment. Specifically what happens if the relationship needs to end in three, five, or ten years — assessed before signature, not discovered after.
A board presentation. A one-hour session with your board or selection committee, findings presented, challenged, and discussed in the room.
How the Review runs
Three to four weeks, in four phases: scoping and requirements gathering, vendor evaluation and scoring, synthesis and writing, then presentation and revisions ahead of your decision timeline.
Everything is written before it is said. Nothing is presented to your board that you have not read first.
What this is not
An implementation engagement. Once the vendor is selected, implementation oversight can be discussed separately — see Fractional CTO or a Build-and-Oversee arrangement for that ongoing work.
A referral service. We don’t take commissions or referral fees from any vendor under any circumstances — the independence is the product.
Proof
References available on request. Anonymised excerpts from prior reviews available on request.
What happens next
Start a ConversationThirty minutes. We confirm fit, scope, and timing against your selection timeline. No proposal is sent unless you ask for one.