Insights

Questions we are actually asked, answered properly. No gated downloads and nothing you have to give us an email address to read.

Software development

Building or buying a small internal tool

The build or buy question is usually argued on licence cost against day rate, which is the wrong comparison. Here is what actually decides it.

Software development

Connecting loyalty to an EPOS: what a supplier actually has to build

If you are being asked to connect a loyalty scheme to a till system, here is the work, in order, and the parts that are usually underestimated.

Operation review

Internal IT with no contractual SLAs: how to measure anything

Without penalty clauses there is no external pressure and usually no useful measurement either. Here is how to put a number on internal IT that somebody will act on.

Process optimisation

How to work out what a bad process is costing you

The process everybody complains about is rarely the one costing the most. Here is how to measure one before you change it, using figures you already have.

Service design

What a service operating model actually contains

Somebody has asked you for an operating model and nobody has said what one is. Here is what belongs in it, what does not, and how to tell when it is finished.

Operation review

What an operations review should tell you, and what it usually does not

Most reviews arrive as a long document that makes everybody feel examined and changes nothing. Here is what a useful one contains and how to commission one.

Service design

What belongs in a service catalogue, and what does not

Most service catalogues are a list of everything IT owns, which is an inventory rather than a catalogue. Here is the difference, and how to write one people use.

Software development

What re-triage costs an IT service desk

A ticket reassigned three times before it reaches the right person costs real money. Here is how to count it, and why most dashboards never show it.