Strategy & Advisory
We meet you at the decision, not just the delivery. Most of the risk in software you can’t afford to get wrong is settled before a line of code — in what you choose to build, whether to build it at all, and how you’ll know it’s right. That is where our advice starts.
How we advise
Discovery Sprint
A short, fixed-scope engagement to frame the problem, test the options and cost the path. You leave with a decision-ready brief and a recommendation — not a sales pitch.
AI Readiness Assessment
Where AI can safely help, the data and governance gaps in the way, and a recommended first controlled pilot. The honest front door to Onyx — judgment before commitment.
Architecture & Technical Due Diligence
An independent review of an existing system — or another vendor's proposal — against one bar: defensible, accessible, secure, maintainable. For boards and CIOs about to commit.
Fractional CTO
Senior technical leadership on a retainer for organisations too small for a full-time CTO, or independent oversight of a build someone else is delivering. Judgment, not rented headcount.
Procurement & Vendor Strategy
Help to write the spec, evaluate bids and avoid lock-in — drawing on two decades inside government procurement, on open foundations so you keep ownership.
Assurance
Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA), security posture, and AI governance — evals, audit trails, red-teaming — as independent assurance, not marking our own homework.
Independent when it counts
We run two kinds of advisory and we’re clear about which is which. Independent work — due diligence, fractional CTO, assurance — is vendor-neutral and carries no obligation to build with us; sometimes the right answer is “don’t build it” or “your current vendor is fine,” and we’ll say so. Discovery and AI Readiness openly lead into our build work, and we tell you that up front. Every engineer advising you is a UK or Australian citizen who has held government security clearance.