A ninety-minute agenda that works
Goal: Calm and clarity, not a surprise shopping trip for SaaS. A simple split: about 45 minutes on truth and pain, about 30 on one bet for the next quarter, and about 15 on who owns the follow-through and when you will check in again. One room, a short pre-read, and no live vendor pitch unless the bet is already named in your own words.
Book a free systems review to facilitate; we are in Teesside and the North East and work remotely when the fit is right. Ongoing system care is for a partner a few times a year, not a full rebuild every quarter. What we offer covers audit, build, and care.
The four blocks: ownership, data, pain, and one bet
1. Ownership (about 15 minutes): For the top three things the board or the floor still argue about, who has the decision? Nobody and we all do are not job titles. If the room reaches for a new app before naming an owner, the problem is more often a handoff than a missing SKU — see map the process before you buy software and the risk of a heavier stack than the work needs.
2. Truth of data (about 15 minutes): For each fact the P&L trusts, where is the system of record? If a spreadsheet is still the brain for a line of the business, name it and plan a sensible next step, not a moral lecture about Excel.
3. Pain and time sinks (about 15 minutes): The top three time sinks and top two rework events in the last 90 days, one line each. Compare to time, rework, and speed to cash. This is a habit, not a procurement meeting with a vendor in the room.
4. One bet (about 30 minutes): One change for the next quarter, a process, a small integration, training, or a governance fix — not a list of fifteen projects. Everything else goes in a parking lot for the quarter after. If build vs buy is honestly open, the same hour in the room as the build-or-buy list is enough to stay out of shelf theatre.
When the answer really is a new tool
A strategic gap, where the business cannot serve a customer or meet a regulator without a new capability, is different from a discipline problem or a data quality problem. Another login is rarely the first fix for a mess the team is not willing to own — the conversation we describe in why a free systems review often lands first. If a build or a licence is genuinely on the table, the bespoke vs off the shelf: twelve questions article and is custom software worth it? keep the business case honest, and when to automate tells you when a script is a liability as much as a win.