Questions before we start.
Scope, evidence, timing and payment, before You commit.
What do You actually do?
I check an IT supplier’s proposal or delivered work against the evidence and give You a signed written conclusion before You sign, pay or accept. A proposal review takes two working days. A milestone review is quoted for the milestone. The decision stays Yours.
Do You sign the acceptance certificate?
No. You approve the milestone and release payment. I provide a signed technical opinion. Whether that opinion is a condition of approval depends on the actual contract and the appointment agreed before the engagement.
What if my contract gives Your opinion no effect at all?
I will say so before we agree the work. A technical opinion alone does not create contractual authority. We first establish whether a suitable appointment or agreed variation is available. If it is not, the engagement must be scoped around what the opinion can actually support.
Is this an audit?
No. Audit and assurance reports are terms of art: They are issued by registered firms under a quality-management standard with an engagement partner signing. What I issue is an expert technical report, signed by me as an individual. If what You need is an audit or assurance report from a firm, I will say so.
Do You use AI to do this?
Yes. The engagement letter says where. I use AI to review documents at volume and assist with tooling. Raw data and telemetry stay in Your environment, and only models Your organization has approved are used on Them. I check the evidence and sign the conclusion.
Why not just run the documents through our own AI?
Your tools can help examine documents and evidence. This engagement also includes the access, conversations and signed technical conclusion agreed in the scope.
You are one person. What happens if You are unavailable?
You get the evidence ledger with every engagement, so what I examined is retraceable by anybody else. For a standing arrangement I’ll say plainly what a single person can and cannot commit to while we are scoping it.
Will You also fix what You find?
Not for You, on that system. If I had helped build it, I could not then give You an independent opinion on it, and keeping those two apart is the entire value of the opinion.
What does it cost?
The Estimate Read is €4,900 for a two-working-day review. The Layer Test and Build Review are quoted after a call; Independent Acceptance is a fixed fee quoted by milestone value. Embedded Delivery Assurance has a rate on request, and Owner-Side Observer is quoted monthly.
Fees exclude VAT; VAT is added where applicable and the treatment is confirmed in Your quote.
Payment terms are agreed individually and confirmed in writing before the engagement.
Will You speak to my supplier?
Yes, where the engagement requires it. I speak to engineers on both sides and examine the evidence agreed in the scope. We establish the access and cooperation needed before work starts.
How quickly can You start?
Tell me Your deadline when You inquire. I confirm availability and the documents and access needed before we agree a start date.
For the Estimate Read, the two working days start on the date we agree after initial clarification, once the scope is confirmed and all required documents are received. The written review is delivered by the end of the second agreed working day.
For the Layer Test and Independent Acceptance, the quote confirms the delivery date after the scope, evidence access and required interviews or tests have been checked.
Who has bought this before?
Two organizations have paid me to review and accept technical deliverables, before I named it. Beyond that the practice is new and I am not going to dress it up: the argument for hiring me is the record of what I found and what it cost me to say it, not a client list.
What do You refuse to do?
Evaluate named individuals' performance. Security assurance. Legal opinion. Construction acceptance. Anything where my fee would depend on the conclusion. And any engagement where what is wanted is agreement with a decision already made.
What does the quoted scope cover?
The Estimate Read covers one supplier proposal package, with the included documents and milestones named before booking. The Layer Test covers one defined delivery problem, with the systems and suppliers listed in the quote. Independent Acceptance covers one defined milestone and its agreed criteria; further milestones and repeat reviews are scoped separately.
If required evidence becomes unavailable or the agreed scope changes, I flag the effect on delivery and agree any revised date, scope or fee with You before additional work starts.