Advice from people who will still be here when it has to work.
Strategy, architecture and second opinions from engineers who implement what they recommend, which is a useful constraint on the advice.
Engineering offices in Egypt, delivering on site across Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and supporting clients remotely across the Gulf, Africa, Europe and the United States.
Most people call. It is faster, and you speak to an engineer, not a form.
What a consulting conversation covers
Where IT decisions go wrong
We are often asked for a second opinion after one of these, and occasionally in time to prevent it.
A strategy nobody can execute
A well-written document, produced by people who will not be there for the implementation, describing an organisation with more time and staff than yours.
A solution chosen before the problem was defined
The product was picked at a conference or by a board member. The requirements were then written to fit it, and the gap shows up in year two.
Advice from someone who does not carry the consequence
Recommendations that are easy to make because the person making them will not be on the phone when it fails at month end.
Everything at once
A transformation programme with twelve workstreams in an organisation that can realistically run two. Momentum dies, and the cheap wins are still undone a year later.
How we work with you
Small, honest engagements that produce a decision. We would rather be useful in two weeks than impressive in three months.
Assessment and honest current state
Written for you rather than for the file. Short, specific, and uncomfortable where it needs to be.
- Infrastructure, network, security and cloud reviewed as one estate
- Risks ranked by likelihood and business impact, not by severity label
- Team capability and workload assessed honestly
- Supplier and contract position reviewed
- Quick wins separated from structural work
- A findings document you could hand to your board
You get the assessment whether or not you take the implementation to us.
Architecture and design
Deciding what to build, in what order, with the trade-offs written down rather than glossed over.
- Target architecture that fits your size and your team
- Cloud, on-premise or hybrid decided on evidence and cost
- Resilience designed to targets the business agreed
- Security built into the design instead of added later
- Vendor selection against your requirements, not our preference
- Documented decisions, including the options rejected and why
We record why a decision was made, so the next person does not undo it blindly.
Roadmap, budget and sequencing
The plan is the sequence. Doing the right things in the wrong order wastes most of the money.
- Phased plan with dependencies made explicit
- Indicative budgets, capital and operating, per phase
- Sequenced so the biggest risks fall first
- Deliberately sized to what your organisation can absorb
- Business case in language a finance director will accept
- Review points where the plan can legitimately change
A plan you can actually run beats a plan that impresses in a slide deck.
Second opinions and vendor scrutiny
One of the most requested and least expensive things we do.
- Review of a proposal or quotation you have received
- Requirements checked against what is actually being sold
- Sizing and licensing verified before you sign
- Lock-in, exit costs and renewal terms made visible
- Questions to put to the vendor, in writing
- A plain recommendation: proceed, negotiate, or walk away
We will tell you when a competitor’s proposal is the right one. It happens.
Delivery, or handover to your team
Advice is worth what the execution is worth, so we stay accountable for it.
- Implementation by the same engineers who designed it
- Or a handover pack complete enough for your team to run
- Governance so the plan survives contact with day-to-day work
- Progress reported against the roadmap, not against activity
- The design revisited when reality disagrees with it
- Long-term support if you want it, no obligation if you do not
Ongoing operation can sit inside Managed IT.
Where we have advised
Real Stark work. Client identifiers are withheld under confidentiality. Sector and scope only.
Data centre programme
Advised and delivered from requirements through design to a live national data centre, under strict security and confidentiality requirements.
Architecture for a national payment platform
Design decisions taken where availability, segmentation and evidence are regulated rather than optional.
ISO 27001, TISAX, PCI DSS and SOC
Advisory through certification programmes, including scoping the certificate to what the client actually needed rather than the widest possible boundary.
Second opinion before signing
Proposals and quotations reviewed before commitment. Sizing, licensing and exit terms checked while it was still cheap to change course.
References can be provided directly, on request, with the client’s agreement.
Three things we will tell you not to do
The questions we get asked most
Do you charge for the initial conversation?
No. The first conversation and a high-level view of where you stand are free, because they are as much use to us as to you in deciding whether we are the right fit. A full written assessment is chargeable work and we will quote it before starting.
Will you recommend your own services?
Sometimes, and you should discount for that accordingly. What we can commit to is telling you when the answer is a competitor, an internal hire or doing nothing. All three have been the honest recommendation before.
Can you review a proposal from another supplier?
Yes, and it is one of the more valuable things we do. We check the sizing, the licensing, the assumptions and the exit terms, and give you a written list of questions to put to them. It costs a fraction of the contract and frequently changes it.
We have an internal IT manager. Does consulting undermine them?
It should strengthen them. Most internal managers know exactly what is wrong and need it independently stated to get budget. We work with them, share findings with them first, and do not present as a replacement.
How long does an assessment take?
For a typical mid-sized estate, a couple of weeks from access to written findings, depending on how much documentation exists. We would rather scope it after seeing the environment than quote a duration here that we then have to defend.
Tell us the decision you are stuck on.
A quotation you are unsure about, a certificate a client is demanding, or an estate you inherited. Ten minutes usually clarifies which problem is actually the problem.
Sunday to Thursday, 9am to 6pm · Egypt, and remote worldwide
Our other IT services
Every service below is delivered by the same team, under the same agreement.