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Advice

Technology choices you can stand over.

Before money is committed, we help you pick the route: an honest picture of the systems you have, the options with their trade-offs, a written record of each decision, and a roadmap your delivery teams can work from.

For boards and management teams in Ireland choosing platforms, AI and cloud while new Irish rules on AI and cyber security take shape.

Talk to us about your projectRead our guide to the AI Act in Ireland
Architecture & Consulting: the three layersA stack of three layers. At the top, a roadmap planned in waves; in the middle, the decisions and the records that document them; at the bottom, the goals and the picture of today’s systems that everything else rests on.01Roadmap planned in waves02Options and recorded decisions03Goals and today’s estate
  1. 01Reviews of your current systems that bring technical debt and risk into the open
  2. 02Options weighed on value, feasibility, risk and full cost, each captured as an ADR
  3. 03Roadmaps ordered by dependencies and business value, with checks during delivery

01 Problems

Moments when a second opinion pays

  1. 01

    A big call is coming and every option sounds sensible

    Which platform, build or buy, which cloud, which supplier. Each choice has a champion, and no one has put them side by side on equal terms.

  2. 02

    Plenty of AI ideas, no priorities

    Every department has a use case. None have been ranked on value, feasibility and risk, and no one has checked which land in the stricter categories of the AI Act.

  3. 03

    The programme is slipping and nobody knows why

    Every status report shows green, yet milestones move, and the steering group wants someone independent to take a look.

  4. 04

    A tender competition is close and the requirements are not

    The organisation can describe the need in business terms but not yet write it into a request for tender that suppliers can answer properly.

02 Delivery ledger

What you get from us

  1. 01 Review of your current architecture

    A methodical look at the estate you run today: applications, data, integrations, infrastructure and contracts. Technical debt is surfaced and ranked in a risk register. Where your organisation works with ArchiMate and TOGAF, so do we.

    What we do

    • Interviews with architects, system owners and operations
    • Inventory of applications and interfaces
    • Assessment of technical debt and risk
    • Review of costs and contracts

    What you receive

    • Architecture of the estate as it stands
    • Risk register, each risk with an owner
    • Findings presented to the people who decide

  2. 02 AI readiness and a portfolio of use cases

    Your AI use cases ranked on value, feasibility and risk, each with a first classification under the EU AI Act and the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026, and a view on whether to build, buy or partner.

    What we do

    • Gathering use cases from every department
    • Scoring for value, data readiness and risk
    • First AI Act classification for each use case
    • Build, buy or partner assessment

    What you receive

    • Ranked portfolio of use cases
    • Three use cases ready to begin
    • Data and platform conditions to meet first

  3. 03 Target architecture and roadmap

    Choices between SAP, Salesforce, Odoo and bespoke software, put in order as waves with their dependencies, their full cost over time and the organisational change each wave asks of you.

    What we do

    • Capability map and guiding principles
    • Options weighed for each domain
    • Full cost of ownership across several years
    • Wave plan with dependencies

    What you receive

    • Target architecture
    • Roadmap planned in waves
    • Input for the business case of each wave

  4. 04 Cloud strategy and sovereignty

    Analysis of where you are locked in, decisions on where data is hosted, and exit plans, so cloud and SaaS choices can be undone where that matters. For State agencies, this is where the cloud-first principle of Connecting Government 2030 is worked out per data class.

    What we do

    • Mapping dependencies and lock-in
    • Data classes and hosting options
    • Estimating the cost of an exit
    • Contract terms to check with procurement

    What you receive

    • Hosting position for each data class
    • Exit plans for critical services
    • Cloud strategy note

  5. 05 Tender preparation for public bodies

    Market sounding, functional requirements and award criteria for a request for tender. We are upfront about the rules on prior involvement: under Article 41 of Directive 2014/24/EU, transposed by S.I. No. 284 of 2016, helping to prepare a competition can affect whether we may tender for it afterwards, and we settle that before starting.

    What we do

    • Needs analysis and market sounding
    • Functional and non-functional requirements
    • Award criteria and scoring model
    • Help with clarification questions while the competition is open

    What you receive

    • Requirements ready to publish on eTenders
    • Evaluation framework
    • Written agreement on later participation

  6. 06 Decision records and assurance during delivery

    Architecture decision records, a design authority and independent assurance reviews for programmes already under way, so every decision can be traced and risks show up while they are still small.

    What we do

    • ADR practice and templates
    • Setting up and chairing a design authority
    • Assurance reviews at set intervals
    • Health checks on programmes in trouble

    What you receive

    • Decision log that people use
    • Terms of reference for the design authority
    • Assurance reports with recommendations

03 Architecture

How we reach a decision

Every advisory engagement follows the same thread. It starts from your goals and today’s estate, moves to options scored against criteria you have agreed, then to decision records that your design authority signs off, and ends in a target architecture and a roadmap planned in waves.

Under each step run the constraints: hosting and exit, the AI Act classification, the procurement rules, and how much your own teams can take on.

Layers in the drawing

Understand
Goals, constraints, the estate as it stands and the risks in it.
Decide
Agreed criteria, the options, your design authority and the decision records.
Plan
The target architecture, a roadmap in waves and assurance while it is delivered.
Illustrative example

  1. Understand

    • Goals and constraints
    • Review of today’s estate
    • Risk register

  2. Decide

    • Criteria: value, risk, full cost
    • Options
    • Your design authority
    • Decision records

  3. Plan

    • Target architecture
    • Roadmap planned in waves
    • Assurance in delivery

  4. Constraints

    • Constraints: hosting and exit, AI Act classification, procurement rules
Goals to roadmap, by way of recorded decisions

An illustration of the method, not a client engagement.

Read the diagram as text

The main path begins with business goals and constraints, continues to a review of the current estate, then to options, then to architecture decision records, then to the target architecture, and ends at a roadmap planned in waves.

The estate review feeds a risk register. Criteria agreed in advance on value, feasibility, risk and full cost shape the options. Your design authority, where your own architects decide, signs off the decision records. Assurance reviews follow the roadmap during delivery.

A band of constraints runs underneath, covering hosting and exit, AI Act classification and procurement rules.

04 Considerations and limits

What to weigh up, and where the limits are

  • Independence

    How we handle it

    We build and operate systems as well, on SAP, Salesforce and Odoo among others. So in advisory work we agree the criteria with you before any vendor is looked at, and we write down why each option got its score.

    Limits and dependencies

    If you want advice from someone who will not deliver the work afterwards, say so. We will commit to that at the outset, or point you to a firm that only advises.

  • Regulation and law

    How we handle it

    Our architects bring hands-on knowledge of the AI Act and the Irish Act of 2026 that gives effect to it, the GDPR, NIS2 and the National Cyber Security Bill, and the procurement rules into each decision.

    Limits and dependencies

    We are not legal advisers. Our classifications and readings are input for your solicitors or in-house legal team, who decide the legal position.

  • Roadmaps meet the real world

    How we handle it

    We order roadmaps by dependency and by the capacity you have, and revisit them when each wave closes.

    Limits and dependencies

    Every roadmap changes. What it is worth lies in the decisions it spells out, so we keep it current through assurance reviews instead of handing it over as a static document.

05 How we work

How we work

Brief, structured and grounded in evidence, with your own architects at the table.

  1. 01

    Settle the question

    What needs deciding, who decides, the deadline, and the criteria that matter.

    OutputDecision brief

  2. 02

    Collect the evidence

    Interviews, documents, system data and costs, as much as the decision needs and nothing beyond it.

    OutputEvidence and a picture of today’s estate

  3. 03

    Weigh the options

    Between two and four realistic options, scored on the agreed criteria, with their risks and costs.

    OutputOptions analysis

  4. 04

    Decide and document

    Your design authority makes the call; we write up the decision record and the roadmap that flows from it.

    OutputDecision records and roadmap

  5. 05

    Check delivery

    Reviews at set points that test whether delivery still follows the decisions, and say when one needs another look.

    OutputAssurance reports

06 Human control

Who makes the call

We give advice. The decision belongs to the people who answer for it.

  • Your design authority signs off

    Each architecture decision record is approved by your design authority or by an owner you appoint, and never by us on our own.

  • Criteria are fixed first

    You settle the criteria and their weighting before any option is scored, so nobody can steer the result later.

  • Disagreement stays on record

    If stakeholders differ, the decision record lists the other options and why they lost out.

07 Example

An example, for illustration

Illustrative example

An application map and roadmap for a city council

01The situation
A city council runs well over a hundred applications, from planning and housing to roads and payroll, many bought one at a time. Several contracts end within three years, a few systems cannot publish in Irish and English, and the IT team is small.
02What we would put in place
A map of every application with its owner, contract end date and risk, an options analysis for the domains up for renewal (renew, replace via a request for tender, or consolidate), and a roadmap in waves aligned with Connecting Government 2030.
03Where staff decide
The council’s management team sets the criteria and takes the decisions; heads of service review the effect on their teams before each wave is approved.
04How we would judge it
Full cost of ownership over the planning period, number of applications and interfaces to maintain, and the share of online services available in Irish and English.

08 Sector lens

By sector

  • Public Service & Government

    Target architectures for Government departments, State agencies and local authorities in line with Connecting Government 2030, requests for tender, and roadmaps that respect national and EU interoperability rules. See more on Public Service & Government.

  • Financial Services

    Decisions recorded in a form a supervisor can follow, for banks, insurers, fund administrators and payment firms, with ICT third-party risk and exit plans built in.

  • Manufacturing & Industry

    ERP and plant systems simplified across pharma, medtech and electronics sites, with a roadmap that fits around production schedules.

Ireland

Two regulatory shifts, one set of decisions

Irish organisations are planning around two changes at once. The AI Act already has an Irish law behind it: the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Act 2026 was signed on 21 July 2026, and the AI Office of Ireland coordinates supervision with sector authorities. NIS2, by contrast, is still on its way through the National Cyber Security Bill as of autumn 2026. Public bodies add Connecting Government 2030, with its cloud-first and secure-by-design principles, the procurement rules in S.I. No. 284 of 2016, and the Interoperable Europe Act.

We turn those rules into explicit criteria in every options analysis and record how each decision meets them, so your reasoning holds up in front of a board, an auditor, a supervisor or a tender evaluation panel.

Architecture and consulting: your questions

How long will an architecture review take?

That comes down to scope. Reviewing a single domain or a single decision takes some weeks; looking at the whole estate takes longer. Before we begin, we set out the scope, the questions and the timing in a short decision brief.

How can you stay independent when you also build?

By showing our working: criteria agreed before any option is scored, every score written down, and the rejected options kept on record. If you need advice and delivery fully separated, we either commit at the start not to tender for the delivery, or we suggest you use a different adviser.

Are you biased towards SAP, Salesforce or Odoo?

We are a partner of all three (Salesforce Summit Partner, SAP Gold Partner, Odoo Gold Partner) and we write bespoke software as well, so there is no one platform we need to sell. Each suits different circumstances, and the best answer can be a combination, such as SAP for the group and Odoo for smaller subsidiaries or an owner-managed business.

Could you help prepare our tender and then compete for it?

Perhaps, though never by default. Directive 2014/24/EU, given effect in Ireland by S.I. No. 284 of 2016, permits prior involvement only where the contracting authority makes sure competition is not distorted, for instance by sharing what we produced with every tenderer. We raise this before we begin, and the decision is the authority’s.

Where is the best place to begin with AI?

With a portfolio rather than one pilot. Gather the candidate use cases, score each on value, data readiness and risk, and begin with two or three that are worthwhile, doable and modest enough in risk to learn from. With the AI Office of Ireland in place and the Annex III obligations due from 2 December 2027, it pays to classify early. Our AI Engineering & GenAI teams then build the chosen cases with evaluation running before the first release.

Who would we be working with?

Senior architects who have delivered projects themselves, joined by specialists in security, data, AI or a particular platform from a company of 2,400+ colleagues whenever a question calls for them.

What decision is waiting on you?

We will suggest how to frame it, what evidence it calls for and how long a well-founded answer would take.

Talk to us about your projectPublic Service & Government