Second Opinion

What is actually happening

You have been handed a document you are not equipped to evaluate, by somebody who is very well equipped to write it. That is not a failure of intelligence. It is an information problem, and it is the normal condition of buying technology when you run a business that does something else for a living.

The vendor says it is fine. They may well be right. You have no way to test that, and the one person you would ask is usually the person selling it.

How this gets sold elsewhere

Technology advisors and brokers will review your options for free, because they earn a percentage of what you end up spending — paid every month you stay, for as long as you stay. The published range is below.

That is a legal, disclosed and extremely common arrangement, and it also means the recommendation is not free. It is paid for by you, later, through the thing you bought.

Your existing provider will also give you a second opinion, on a proposal that competes with theirs.

Independent review, paid for directly and taking nothing from the outcome, is the arrangement almost nobody offers — because it is a worse business than the alternative.

What we do

We read what you have been sent, including the parts at the back.

We work out the real number: what you are committed to over the full term, what escalates, what renews automatically, what is priced per user as you grow, what is excluded, and what happens if you want to leave.

We separate what you need from what is being sold to you. Half of a typical proposal is usually defensible and the other half is either already covered by something you pay for, or solving a problem you do not have.

We check whether the thing being replaced is actually the problem. It frequently is not.

Then we write it down: what to ask for, what to cut, what to negotiate, what looks fine, and whether to walk away.

What you get

A written review, in plain language, that you can send to the vendor.

The whole-term cost, which is usually not the number on the front page.

A list of questions to ask, written so you can ask them without needing us in the room.

Where relevant, what the alternatives would cost and what they would give up.

What we measure

Committed cost over the full term against what you actually needed. Where you renegotiate, the difference between the first number and the signed one.

What this is not

Not negotiation. We advise; you or your attorney negotiate and sign.

Not legal review. Contract terms are your attorney's. We tell you which ones to send them.

Not an attack on your provider. Sometimes the answer is that the proposal is reasonable and you should sign it, and we have said that.

We have no stake in the outcome and we take nothing from anyone if you buy. That is the entire reason this service is worth anything.

What this costs

We do not publish a price, and here is the reason rather than an excuse: we would be guessing. Two businesses with the same symptom are frequently a factor of five apart in what the work involves, and a published number would either scare off the smaller one or shortchange the larger one.

What we will commit to:

The quote is fixed before any work starts, and it is a single number, not an hourly rate that grows.

We name it after we have seen the work, not before. Which means the first conversation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.

If we think something is not worth doing, we say so — including when what you are asking for is the thing we would be paid to do.

Nothing renews automatically. Every engagement has an end.