Digital Roadmap & Feasibility Consulting
For organisations deciding what to build, improve, replace or integrate — and needing an evidenced view before committing budget.
FromFrom €1,000
Indicative1–3 weeks
Registered activity 62020
Four services
Decide with evidence, before the budget is committed
Registered activity 62020 covers information technology consultancy. The work is analytical: clarifying what a business actually needs, comparing the routes available, reviewing what already exists, and setting out a defensible plan before anyone starts building.
What consultancy achieves
Nine problems a consultancy engagement can address
Consultancy is bought when a decision is expensive, contested or unclear. Each item below describes a situation where analysis is worth more than immediate development.
- Clarify software requirementsTurn a collection of opinions and wish-lists into a written, prioritised set of requirements that a developer could actually quote against.
- Evaluate technical optionsCompare realistic routes — configure an existing product, extend current systems, or build something new — against criteria that matter to the organisation.
- Plan a digital roadmapSequence work into phases so that each stage delivers something usable, rather than committing to one large project with a distant payoff.
- Reduce project uncertaintyIdentify the assumptions a plan depends on, test the risky ones early, and record what remains unknown instead of pretending it is settled.
- Improve delivery processesIntroduce clearer requirements, acceptance criteria and review points where a project is already under way but progress is difficult to judge.
- Review an existing applicationAssess usability, maintainability, architecture and operational risk in software already in service, and set out what should change first.
- Prepare a modernisation strategyEstablish whether an ageing system should be improved, partly replaced or retired, and in which order the work should happen.
- Assess integration possibilitiesEstablish which systems can realistically exchange data, what their interfaces permit, and what the provider terms and licence costs imply.
- Structure vendor or development decisionsDefine what to ask suppliers, how to compare their responses, and which questions reveal the difference between a good proposal and a persuasive one.
An honest limit. Consultancy improves the quality of a decision; it cannot guarantee an outcome. No promise is made that a recommendation will produce financial savings, revenue growth or a successful project, and no consultancy deliverable is a substitute for the client's own legal, financial, tax or regulatory advisers.
Category 03 & 04
Four consultancy services
Two categories, two services in each. Every engagement produces written output that survives the meeting it was discussed in.
Solution Architecture & Technology Selection
How a proposed solution should be structured, which components it needs, and which technical approach suits the organisation maintaining it.
FromFrom €1,300
Indicative2–4 weeks
Software Delivery & Process Advisory
For projects already running that lack clear requirements, acceptance criteria or a structure for judging progress.
FromFrom €1,100
Indicative2–6 weeks
Application Review & Modernisation Strategy
A structured review of software already in service, followed by modernisation options ordered by priority, effort and risk.
FromFrom €1,200
Indicative1–3 weeks
Engagement types
Consultancy standing alone, or leading into a build
Both routes are legitimate and neither is treated as a lesser outcome. Roughly a third of enquiries are best served by advice that ends with "do not build this yet".
Independent engagement
Booked and completed on its own. The deliverable belongs to the client and can be given to any supplier, an internal team, or kept on file until budget appears. There is no obligation to use DEVNOVA for any resulting work.
Pre-development engagement
Analysis carried out specifically to define a build. Where the client chooses to continue with DEVNOVA, the completed work becomes the basis of the development proposal instead of being repeated as billable discovery.
Parallel advisory
Support alongside a project already being delivered by another supplier or an internal team — clarifying requirements, setting acceptance criteria and giving an independent read on progress.
Independence in practice
Where an engagement compares options, the comparison includes routes that would produce no development work for DEVNOVA — configuring an existing product, extending a current system, or changing a process rather than buying software. A recommendation that always ends in a build is a sales document, not analysis.
Decision framework
How options are compared
Every option is assessed against the same six criteria, so a comparison is a judgement about the organisation rather than a preference about technology.
01 — Fit to the requirement
How much of the actual need the option covers, and how much would still be handled manually or by a workaround.
02 — Total cost over time
Initial build or licence cost, plus recurring subscriptions, hosting, support and the internal effort each option demands.
03 — Maintainability
Who can realistically maintain it, how easily that skill can be replaced, and how dependent the organisation becomes on one supplier.
04 — Integration reach
Whether the option can exchange data with the systems already in place, and what the providers' interfaces and terms permit.
05 — Time to first value
How long before something usable exists — a strong factor when a process is causing daily friction right now.
06 — Risk and reversibility
What happens if the option proves wrong: how much is lost, how quickly a different route could be taken, and where the data would sit.
Deliverables
What arrives at the end
Consultancy output is written, structured and specific to the organisation. The exact contents depend on the service and the agreed scope, and are listed in the proposal before work begins.
Engagement process
- Initial discussion of the decision to be made and the constraints around it
- Written proposal setting out scope, deliverables, access needed, timescale and price
- Information gathering: interviews, documents, system access, existing material
- Analysis and option development against the agreed criteria
- Draft findings shared for factual correction
- Final deliverable and walkthrough session
Status of a deliverable. A consultancy report is professional advice based on the information available at the time. It is not a legally binding guarantee, a certification, or a warranty of any commercial result. Decisions taken on the basis of it remain the client's own.
- A written reportFindings, reasoning and recommendations in plain language, readable by a non-technical decision-maker.
- Structured comparison materialOptions assessed against agreed criteria, with the trade-offs made explicit rather than buried.
- Diagrams where they add clarityComponent maps, data flows or phase plans — included when they explain something words alone would obscure.
- A prioritised set of next stepsOrdered by value, dependency and effort, so the first action is obvious on the day the report is read.
- A record of assumptions and open questionsWhat the analysis assumed, and what remains unknown. Unknowns are stated, not concealed.
- A walkthrough sessionA discussion of the findings, so the reasoning is understood rather than just the conclusion.
Pricing
Consultancy prices and what changes them
Consultancy engagements start between €1,000 and €1,300. Price follows the amount of material to review, the number of people to speak to and the depth of the written output.
| Service | Category | Starting price | Indicative duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Roadmap & Feasibility Consulting | Technology Direction & Architecture | From €1,000 | 1–3 weeks |
| Solution Architecture & Technology Selection | Technology Direction & Architecture | From €1,300 | 2–4 weeks |
| Software Delivery & Process Advisory | Delivery, Review & Modernisation | From €1,100 | 2–6 weeks |
| Application Review & Modernisation Strategy | Delivery, Review & Modernisation | From €1,200 | 1–3 weeks |
What increases a consultancy fee
- A larger number of stakeholders to interview across several departments
- Substantial existing documentation or code that must be reviewed properly
- Several distinct options requiring detailed comparison rather than two obvious routes
- Formal presentation material for a board or an external funder
- Extended advisory presence over a longer delivery period
What keeps it efficient
- A specific decision to be made, stated clearly at the outset
- Prompt access to systems, documents and the people who use them
- One nominated contact who can arrange access and answer questions
- Willingness to accept a short, direct report rather than a long formal document
Pricing notice. All prices are indicative starting points. Final pricing depends on project scope, complexity, integrations, documentation, timescale and agreed deliverables. Applicable taxes and third-party costs are confirmed in the written proposal where relevant.
Consultancy questions
Questions specific to advisory work
No. A consultancy engagement is a complete piece of work in its own right. The deliverable belongs to the client and can be handed to any supplier, used by an internal team, or held until circumstances change.
Several engagements are written specifically so that another supplier can quote against them, which is a legitimate and useful outcome.
Yes, and that conclusion is delivered when the evidence supports it. Common versions include configuring a product already owned, changing a process rather than automating it, or waiting until a business decision elsewhere is settled.
An engagement that ends this way has still done its job: it has prevented spending on software that would not have solved the problem.
It depends on the service. A roadmap engagement mainly needs conversations and existing documents. An application review needs read access to the software, ideally to its source code, and a description of how it is hosted.
Access requirements are listed in the proposal before the engagement begins, so the client can confirm what is possible and arrange approvals in advance. Where access cannot be granted, the analysis states what could not be examined.
An application review may note observable risks — outdated components, weak access separation, or handling of data that looks inappropriate for its sensitivity. Those observations are included where they are visible.
That is not a formal penetration test and not a security certification. Where a formal assessment is required, it should be commissioned as a separate specialist engagement, and the review will say so plainly rather than implying coverage it does not provide.
Information shared during an engagement is treated as confidential and used only for the purpose of that engagement. A confidentiality agreement can be signed before any material is shared, and clients are welcome to use their own.
No client information is published, and no organisation is named as a reference without written permission. Further detail is set out in the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions.
Yes. Parallel advisory is a recognised engagement type: clarifying requirements, defining acceptance criteria, reviewing proposals and giving the client an independent read on progress.
The role is advisory to the client, not supervisory over the supplier. Contractual authority stays with the client, and the arrangement works best when the supplier knows it exists.
Consultancy enquiry
Start with the decision, not the solution
Describe what needs deciding, who disagrees about it and what would change if it were settled. That is usually enough to identify which consultancy service applies and how long it should take.
- Registered activity
- 62020 — Information technology consultancy activities
- Telephone
- +44 7853 151 992
- support@devnovasolutions.tech