Independent advisory

Bridge the gap between buying the software and earning the business case.

For the 18–36 months between contract signature and value realisation, you need someone on your side of the table who doesn’t get paid by the vendor. That’s us. We sit beside you through Select, Implement and Realise — across ERP, CRM, HRIS, ITSM, EAM and AI. We don’t sell software. We don’t take vendor commission. We leave when you can run the next programme yourselves.

£0
Vendor commission, ever
M+12
Exit date in your contract
1 day
To a board-ready scorecard
APTIM·Bridge mark
01 / What we cover

Whatever stack you’re choosing, the method is the same.

We work across three overlapping markets. The vendor list is different in each. The discipline isn’t — your processes, your data, your people, your decisions.

01 / ERPERP
You're 18 months from go-live and you've been told the systems integrator's plan is on track. We're the second opinion that isn't on their payroll — independent through Select, Implement and Realise.
INDEPENDENT
02 / SOFTWARE PORTFOLIOSoftware
CRM, HRIS, ITSM, EAM. Shorter cycles than ERP, same discipline. One advisor across your whole portfolio — so the third selection benefits from what we learned on the first two.
ONE METHOD
03 / AGENTS AND AIAI
Decision-Authority Design first. Pilot under explicit governance. We help you ship only when the evals say so — and instrument what happens after.
GOVERN FIRST
02 / Where we stand

On your side of the table. Every meeting.

The simplest test: who pays us, and who else pays us? You do, and nobody else. No vendor commissions, no preferred-partner kickbacks, no implementation business waiting in the wings.

We are…

  • Your independent advisor — we never sell, resell or implement vendor software.
  • Your programme leadership — running governance, vendor management and value defence beside you.
  • Your professional brain on the SI — sceptical, calibrated, accountable for the business case.
  • Your knowledge-transfer team — every artefact we produce is built to be handed over.

We are not…

  • Not the systems integrator. We don't build to the SoW; we hold the SI to it.
  • Not a reseller. No vendor margin, no kickback, no preferred-partner conflict.
  • Not a staff-aug shop. We turn up with method and IP, not contractor badges.
  • Not a consultancy that quietly extends itself. We engineer the exit from week one.
03 / How we work with you

Select. Implement. Realise.

Three phases for ERP, CRM, HRIS, ITSM and EAM. Four for AI — Select, Pilot, Productionise, Operate. The same disciplined arc from the day you start scoping to the day you can run it without us.

SelectAPTIM · OPTIMISE0–6 MONTHSImplementAPTIM · BUILD6–24 MONTHSRealiseAPTIM · INNOVATE12–36 MONTHS→ OPERATE · CONTINUOUS
0–6 months

Select

APTIM verb · Optimise

Business case, vendor long-list, ITT, demo scripts, contract negotiation. We sit beside you — never beside the vendor — so the choice you sign is the choice that fits.

6–24 months

Implement

APTIM verb · Build

Programme governance, vendor management, design challenge, data readiness, go-live assurance. We’re accountable for your business case — not for the SI’s cutover plan.

12–36 months

Realise

APTIM verb · Innovate

Value realisation, adoption recovery, process maturity, second-wave automation. We finish the job by handing your operating model back to you — running.

04 / What we score

The Four-Input Scorecard.

Most programmes track outputs and hope. We track the four inputs underneath. Get those right and the outputs follow. Get them wrong and no amount of programme management will save the date.

INPUT · 01Process Design Fitness
Will your high-volume processes survive a standard software model unmodified — or are you about to pay for years of bespoke configuration?
INPUT · 02Master-Data Ownership
Who owns the canonical record after go-live? Who owns the data the agent reads at runtime? Name them — by role and by name — before vendor day.
INPUT · 03Role Clarity
Does every step in your high-volume processes have a single accountable role today? If two people own it, nobody owns it.
INPUT · 04Decision Authority
For your agents: which steps are human-decided, human-approved, agent-with-audit, or autonomous? With what rollback and escalation when it goes wrong?
THE SCORECARD

Every recommendation we put in front of you ladders back to one of these four answers. No abstract maturity scores. No 47-page assessments. One page; four inputs; named owners; clear next actions.

What you walk out with

On day one of the Readiness Review you leave with your filled-in Scorecard, a single accountable owner for each input, and the handful of actions that have to land before any vendor conversation is worth your time.

05 / What you get that’s different

Four practices most advisors don’t carry.

Three of these apply to every software programme you’ll run. The fourth is what makes AI safe to actually ship.

Practice · 01

The Four-Input Scorecard

Process Design Fitness, Master-Data Ownership, Role Clarity and Decision Authority. One page that tells you — and your board — what’s actually ready and what isn’t.

Practice · 02

The documented exit

Every artefact lives in your wiki, in your naming, from day one. The exit is written into the engagement letter as a milestone — with a target date you sign off.

Practice · 03

The Value-Tracker

A live dashboard from contract signature through M+36. Every line of the business case tracked monthly: target, actual, owner, action. It’s software, not slides.

Practice · 04

Decision-Authority Design

For your AI and agentic systems: a per-process matrix — human-decided, human-approved, agent-with-audit, autonomous. The contract that keeps an agent useful instead of frightening.

06 / How it ends

Twelve months to handover. The exit is the deliverable.

Most advisors commit to “complement your team and deliver results.” That’s an invitation to stay. We commit to leave. The taper from co-chaired governance to your team chairing the room is in the engagement letter from week one.

BRIDGE PRESENCEYOUR OWNERSHIPM1Artefacts in your wikiWe hold read-only mirrorsM3Co-chaired governanceWe share the room with youM6You chair the roomWe attend and reviewM9Fortnightly reviewDaily ops are yoursM12Exit conversationYou should not need us.
The closing line at month 12

“You should not need us. If you want a second set of eyes in twelve months, ask then.”

07 / How to start

Three ways in.

The front door is deliberately narrow. Each step earns the next — and we’ll tell you, in writing, if we don’t think you should continue with us.

Conversation

The 30-Minute Conversation

30 minutes · phone or video

No software. No sales. A straight conversation about the programme in front of you — what’s running, what’s stuck, where the inputs aren’t in evidence yet. You leave with a useful sketch of what comes next.

Book a slot
On-siteMost booked

The Bridge Readiness Review

1 day · on-site

One day, on-site at yours, fixed agenda. You leave the room with your Four-Input Scorecard filled in, a board-ready findings pack, and a list of the actions that need to land before vendor selection is worth starting.

Request a review
Engagement

Bridge Define

2–4 weeks

Two-to-four weeks of structured discovery culminating in four signed documents: Agenda, Discovery, Workshop Pack, Engagement Brief. You leave with a procurement-ready next phase — Selection, Operating Blueprint or Programme Defence.

Scope an engagement

Our walk-away rule. If the four inputs aren’t in evidence by week 6, we’ll recommend you pause — not push on. We’d rather lose the engagement than watch you spend money against a business case that won’t earn.

08 / The choice in front of you

Four ways to run the programme. We’re option four.

Your realistic alternatives reduce to four. We name them honestly — including the three that aren’t us — and then tell you why option four exists.

1

Run it with your own team

Internal resources only

You know your business better than anyone. But the team that runs the day-job can’t also run the programme, and the programme is the day-job for the next 18 months.

2

Hire a freelance advisor

One contractor on your side

Cheap and fast to start. Single point of failure when it counts. No team to escalate to when the SI pushes back on the design challenge at month nine.

3

Use the vendor or SI’s consulting arm

Their advisory, their delivery

Convenient on paper. Structurally conflicted in practice — they don’t get paid to recommend a different vendor, or to tell you to slow down.

4

APTIM·Bridge

Independent advisory

Independent. Methodology-led. Accountable for your business case, not the SI’s cutover plan. Documented exit on the date you signed.

09 / Talk to us

Thirty minutes. No software. No sales. A real conversation about your programme.

If the conversation is useful, we’ll tell you what a Readiness Review would look like for you. If it isn’t, you’ve spent thirty minutes thinking out loud with someone who’s done this before. Either way you owe us nothing.

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Andrew Stark
Founder · APTIM-Solutions
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