Best Practice Review of Existing Software
An independent four to six week review of software already in place that answers a single question: keep, fix or replace. Then, if the answer is fix, the endorsed plan delivered in releases of four to eight weeks, highest value first, each one measured and handed to your own people.
Four to six weeks to an endorsed plan. Releases of four to eight weeks after it. Vendor neutral. No commissions, ever.
At a glance
Stage one answers keep, fix or replace and ranks every improvement into one endorsed plan. Stage two delivers as much of that plan as you choose, highest value first. Each stage is its own project, and the decision between them is yours.
One question answered: keep, fix or replace.
Every improvement found, ranked by value and effort.
One plan, endorsed by your executive at the final gate.
The endorsed plan, delivered in releases, highest value first.
Each release measured against the baseline the review set.
Process and ownership handed to your own people alongside the configuration.
The review ranks every improvement. Stage two delivers as many of them as you choose, in order, so the more of the plan you take on, the more of what the review found gets fixed. Scope is set at endorsement and can widen release by release.
Stage two is your call. If the review says keep, it ends there.
Too many systems never deliver the business case. The pattern is predictable.
Workarounds set in. Spreadsheets grow beside the system to do what it was bought to do, and nobody can say which one is the record.
Paid for, never used. Features in the licence that were never configured, because go-live took everything the project had.
Replace by default. Once the system is blamed, the next conversation is about a new one, before anyone has asked what the current one can do.
Left as it is, the workarounds harden, the benefits in the original business case stay unmeasured, and the replacement conversation arrives with no evidence on either side.
Most systems fall short because of configuration, process, data and adoption, not the underlying technology. Replacing the software without fixing those four swaps one set of complaints for another, after another multi-year business case and implementation.
The review tells you, in order:
Which of the four is actually failing.
What it is costing in rework, risk and missed benefits.
Whether you are better served by stabilising, remediating or replacing, and what each would involve.
We sit on your side of the review. We have worked with many top vendors across the technology stack. We do not sell software and we take no commission.
Vendor neutral. No stake in whether you keep, fix or replace the system. Only in what works for your organisation.
Evidence, not opinion. Configuration against best practice. Benefits against the original business case. Every gap recorded with its cause, effect and owner.
We never change the system ourselves. During the review nothing is touched. In the releases, your team or vendor makes the changes we've designed with you, and we test them and call go or no-go.
Four gates over four to six weeks. Each gate gets your sign-off before the next begins.
Week 1. Review plan agreed. System access confirmed. Configuration, documentation and the original business case pulled.
Weeks 2 to 3. Workshops and interviews with the people who use and own the system. Configuration, data and usage assessed. Benefits compared with what the business case promised. We talk to your vendor too, with your permission.
Week 4. Gap register ranked by risk, cost and benefit. Remediation plan with an owner, effort and sequence for every item, grouped into releases. Draft report issued.
Findings and plan presented to the executive. A decision paper records what is endorsed and what happens next.
Four weeks covers the core review. Where data and reporting, and business processes and workforce, are in scope, allow six.
At the end of the review you have:
A clear verdict: keep, fix or replace, with the reasons written down.
A configuration assessment: how the system is set up against how your organisation actually works, and the capability paid for and not used.
A quantified benefits view: what the system was meant to deliver against what it delivers today, where the data allows.
A ranked gap register: every material gap with its cause, effect and owner, ranked by risk, cost and benefit.
A remediation and release plan: quick wins and longer initiatives, each with an owner, effort, dependencies and sequence.
An executive decision paper that records what is endorsed and what happens next.
We check a review is the right first step.
Live and not delivering. The system is in, the complaints are constant, and nobody can say whether it is the software or the set-up. Straight into Plan (G1).
Renewal or upgrade ahead. You want to know what you have, and what you use, before you sign again. Plan (G1), timed so the findings land before the renewal decision.
Replacement is on the table. Replacement is being discussed before anyone has asked what the current system can do. We tell you which it is. If it is the system, we say so and recommend Software Selection.
You already have the plan. From us, the endorsed plan is the input and we go straight to Confirm. From elsewhere, we confirm it first: what still holds, what is missing, what order.
Not yet live, or mid-implementation? This is not the right offer. Software Implementation is.
Two things usually happen after a review. The report goes on the shelf while the quarter takes over, and six months on the gap register reads the same. Or the whole plan becomes one program, nothing lands for months, and the people who were keen at the review have moved on. Releases avoid both.
Each release runs through five stages: Confirm, Design, Build, Adopt, then Prove and hand over. The ranked plan sets the order; the highest-value release goes first.
The endorsed plan is re-read against what has changed since the review. Releases are cut and sequenced, each given one measure and one internal owner. Where the plan is not ours, we confirm it before anything is scheduled.
Configuration, process and role changes designed with the people who do the work. Signed off before anything is built.
Your team or your vendor makes the changes to the signed-off design. We govern the work, track defects to resolution and test against the design.
Process documented and owned, training aimed at the gap, workarounds retired on a date rather than when people feel ready.
The release measure read against the review baseline. Owner, documentation and open items handed to your team. The next release starts.
Each release runs four to eight weeks. The number of releases comes from the ranked plan, is agreed at Confirm, and can stop after any release.
Each release tells you, in order, whether the change took, what it moved, and who owns it now.
You see the work as often as you want to. We carry the analysis, the design, the drafting, the coordination with your vendor, the testing and the measurement. Your people give us access, time with the teams whose work changes, an owner for each release and decisions on time.
A release plan the executive can read: what, in what order, each with one measure and one owner.
Configuration that matches how you work, made to a signed-off design and tested before anyone relies on it.
Processes documented and owned, so the change holds when the people who made it move on.
Capability where the gap was: targeted training and work guides, not a generic refresher.
A benefits read at every release, against the review baseline, in a format that can sit behind a Board paper.
We design, govern, test and own the go or no-go. Your team or your vendor makes the changes to the signed-off design.
After the last release, LevelUp™ keeps the system under review. Continual improvement, so you keep getting more from the technology you have. Where the plan points to a connection between systems, System Integration follows. Where the verdict is replace, Software Selection does.
A self-scored read of each core system, resolving to keep, fix or replace, and what is holding it back.
Your name, work email and organisation. We email the document to you.
A Strategy Call with a senior consultant, 30 or 45 minutes, whichever suits the discussion. No pitch, no software, and we will tell you if we are not the right fit.