Independent software and systems consulting
How to work with me, and which thing you need
Four services, three ways to engage, one entry point. Prices, minimum terms and the working arrangements are published below rather than sent on request.
1–2 weeks$500 fixed
3 weeks – 4 monthsFrom $4,000
Three month minimumFrom $1,200/mo
Systems review fee credited against any project that follows
Practice
This is one practice, not a menu. Almost every engagement starts with the same review regardless of which service it ends in, because what a business needs is usually not the thing it arrived asking for.
Companies arrive asking for an ERP and leave with two integrations. They arrive asking for a custom platform and find the off the shelf tool they already pay for does eighty percent of it. The review costs $500 fixed and exists so that decision is made on evidence rather than on whichever service I would rather sell. It is credited against whatever follows.
Services
Custom platforms and software
Products built from a blank page, or systems that connect the ones you already run.
ERP and Odoo implementation
Scoping, configuration, custom modules and rollout for businesses outgrowing spreadsheets and disconnected systems.
Read the full service →Systems and process review
A written assessment of what you have, where it is costing you, and what to do about it.
Read the full service →Automation and integration
Connecting the systems you are keeping and removing the manual work between them. Usually the cheapest fix available and usually the one nobody proposed.
Read the full service →Your systems are a mess. Fine.
Find the sentence closest to how you would describe the problem out loud. If two of them fit, the answer is the review.
"I am rekeying the same order into three systems and nobody trusts the numbers."
Points toERP implementation"I bought software and it does not fit how my team actually works."
Points toSystems review"The thing I need does not exist. Everything off the shelf is close but wrong."
"My team spends two days a month building one report out of four exports."
Points toAutomation and integration"Something is wrong but I cannot name it, and every quote I get is for a different thing."
Points toSystems reviewThe ladder in full
What each rung includes, and more usefully what it does not. Figures are starting points; the proposal after the review carries the real number and it does not move afterwards.
| 01 · Systems review | 02 · Fixed price project | 03 · Monthly retainer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From | $500 fixed | $4,000 | $1,200/mo |
| Duration | 1–2 weeks | 3 weeks to 4 months | Rolling, three month minimum |
| Included | Interviews with the people doing the work, a map of current systems and data flows, a written recommendation with costs, and a scoped proposal if there is work worth doing. | Agreed scope at a fixed price, phased delivery, testing, data migration, user training, documentation and 30 days of post launch support. | A set number of days each month for changes, support, integrations and advice, with unused priority carried one month forward. |
| Not included | Any building. The review is diagnosis only, and it frequently concludes that the cheapest option is to do less than you planned. | Work outside the agreed scope, third party licences and hosting, and open ended support past the 30 days. | Large new builds. Anything beyond the monthly allocation is quoted as a project rather than absorbed quietly. |
| Terms | Paid in advance. Credited in full against a project started within 90 days. | 40% to start, balance on milestones. No hourly billing. | Invoiced monthly in advance. 30 days notice either side. |
How engagements actually run
The same five stages every time, and the arrangements underneath them.
01
Review
One to two weeks. Interviews, systems map, written recommendation.
02
Proposal
Scope, price and dates, agreed in writing before anything is built.
03
Build
Phased, starting with whatever is costing you most right now.
04
Handover
Training, written documentation, credentials and source transferred.
05
Support
Thirty days included, then a retainer only if it earns its cost.
COMMUNICATION
A written update every Friday, whether or not there is good news, plus a call whenever you want one. No status meetings for their own sake.
CODE OWNERSHIP
Yours from the first commit. Work happens in your repository and your accounts where possible. Nothing is held hostage at the end.
SCOPE CHANGES
Priced as a written variation before the work starts. Small things inside the same effort are absorbed rather than itemised.
INVOICING
Projects: 40% to start, the balance against milestones. Retainers: monthly in advance. Payment terms 14 days. No hourly billing anywhere.
NOTICE
Retainers end on 30 days notice from either side, no reason required. Projects can be stopped at a phase boundary, paying only for what is done.
CONFIDENTIALITY
NDA signed before the review if you want one. Nothing appears as a case study without written approval, and figures can be redacted.
Questions about working together
Questions about a particular service are answered on its own page. These are the ones about hiring one person.
What happens if you are unavailable, ill, or hit by a bus?
All credentials and access are kept securely and recoverable by a trusted associate if I am ever unreachable, so nothing is lost.
Beyond that, for retainers above a certain size I can name a trusted associate in the contract who is briefed on the account and able to pick up an engagement if needed. This is the real argument for hiring an agency, so it is worth answering properly: an agency gives you redundancy and charges for a project manager to coordinate it. This arrangement gives you the same continuity without that layer in between.
You are not sure which service you need.
Then take the review. That is what it is for, and most clients who arrive certain of what they need are wrong about it in some useful way.
It costs $500 fixed, takes one to two weeks, and the fee comes off whatever you commission afterwards. If the answer is that you should do nothing, you have spent $500 fixed to avoid spending forty.
Can you work alongside our existing developers?
Yes, and it is often the better arrangement. Your team knows the business; I bring the systems view and the delivery structure.
In practice this means I scope and specify, your developers build the parts they are best placed to build, and I handle the integration work and the pieces outside their experience. It needs one thing agreed up front: who decides when there is a disagreement about approach.
How do time zones work?
I am based in South East Asia. That overlaps a full working day with Asia and Australia, and the morning with Europe.
For clients in the Americas the overlap is narrow, so those engagements run on written updates with two scheduled calls a week rather than ad hoc availability. I say so before work starts rather than after.
What does the contract look like?
Short. A scope document, a payment schedule, an IP clause assigning everything to you, and a mutual NDA if you want one.
I am happy to work on your paper instead. If your legal review takes six weeks, say so early and I start with the review, which needs almost nothing signed.
What happens at the end of a retainer?
You keep everything, including the documentation, credentials and a handover session for whoever takes it on next.
Retainers are meant to end. A system that still needs me every month a year after launch is a system I built badly. Most clients step down to a smaller retainer and then to nothing, and I will tell you when I think you have reached that point.
What this looks like when it is finished
POSFlow Solutions
Point of sale implementation, integration and support for hospitality and retail businesses in Cambodia.
Buqq
B2B restaurant reservation platform for Southeast Asia, taken from idea to live product.
RielSync
Records the National Bank of Cambodia's daily official KHR/USD rate and writes it into a client's ERP or POS — Odoo, SambaPOS, QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, SAP Business One.
Start where everyone else starts
One to two weeks, $500 fixed, credited against whatever follows. You get a written recommendation with numbers attached, including the recommendation to do nothing.