01 — Advisory
Decide what fits.
Get the defensible answer before you commit to the wrong platform or the wrong build. We map where your technology is breaking down, diagnose fit-to-process and return the call: stay, extend or build, with the numbers your board can act on. No platform allegiance. No implementation hours to protect.
Book a Discovery CallWhy this exists
Most technology decisions are made with a vendor in the room.
The platform vendor has a licence to sell. The implementation partner has hours to bill. The internal champion has a preference to defend. What's missing is the party whose only deliverable is the right answer.
That's the role we take. The engagement ends with a written recommendation you can defend to a board, a sponsor or yourself, plus four honest exits: act on the document alone, transition into a Build, keep us on as advisor, or get referred to the right partner when the scope sits outside our depth.
What we advise on
Six domains. Deliberately narrow.
Software & Platform Strategy
Build vs buy. Stack rationalisation. Architecture decisions. Platform replacement assessments. Technical debt audits.
Process Fit Diagnosis
Where your teams bend to their tools: the CRM contortions, the five-tool stitches, the spreadsheet layer. We price the misfit and name the fix.
AI Strategy & Opportunity Assessment
Where AI actually belongs in your business. What to build AI-native, what to add AI to later, what to leave alone. The honest answer.
Technology Due Diligence
For PE firms, boards and investors evaluating technology in an acquisition, investment or roll-up. Independent, fast, defensible.
Commerce Ecosystem Strategy
Stack audits and architecture for D2C and mid-market commerce operators: Shopify, 3PL, analytics, attribution. Implementation, where needed, runs through named partners; we stay on the architecture and the assessment.
Marketing, Brand & Automation Strategy
CRM, email, attribution, automation. Where HubSpot or Klaviyo is the right call and where a bespoke stack makes more sense.
We don't advise on ERP back-office beyond our platform expertise, HR or real-estate systems beyond software selection, or generic "digital transformation roadmaps." When your question sits outside these six domains, we say so and refer you well.
How delivery works
We sell no software. We advise or we build.
When an advisory engagement ends in software to be built, that is Insightive's own work, one hundred percent. No subcontracted builds, no white-labels.
When the recommendation calls for execution outside our build scope (commerce platform implementation, Amazon marketplace operations, logistics and warehousing, growth and marketing) we engage partners who are experts in exactly that and we name them against the relevant advisory domain above. Today those partners are Devsinc (Shopify), ThisWayUP (Amazon marketing), Unity Retail (logistics and warehousing) and Synarc (digital marketing and retail intelligence). Partner-delivered work is always labeled as partner-delivered; the advice that led to it stays independent, because we take no margin disguised as a recommendation.
That's the whole model. We never sell you software. Either we help you decide or we build what you'll own.
How it runs
Diagnose. Decide. Close or continue.
Diagnose
Stakeholder interviews, systems inventory, real cost analysis. We map what's breaking down and what it costs you per year.
Decide
The written recommendation: stay, extend or build, backed by TCO and ROI across 3- and 5-year horizons. One answer, not a three-option deck.
Close or continue
Take the document and act on it. Transition into a Build. Keep us on as advisor. Or get handed to the right partner, cleanly.
Who this is for
Operators with a decision on the desk.
A founder deciding whether the stack survives the next stage of growth. An SME operator with a customisation quote that feels wrong. A board or PE sponsor who needs an independent read on technology before money moves. If you're holding a decision like that, the diagnosis pays for itself in clarity alone.