Independence
The adviser’s incentive decides the advice.
Implementation partners, resellers and referral-fee advisers reach the shortlist from a different starting point than you do. The difference is not a matter of integrity — it is a matter of where the fee comes from.
Most advisers
Zayn Consulting
Paid by
Partly or wholly by the platform, through margin or referral fees
The client, and only the client
Shortlist
Drawn from the platforms they are accredited on
Drawn from your requirements, with no accreditations to protect
“Keep what you have”
Rarely a recommendation they can afford to make
A legitimate outcome, and sometimes the right one
After go-live
Engagement tapers as the implementation closes
Continues through the first full operating cycles
Holding the vendor to the plan
Constrained by an ongoing commercial relationship
No relationship to protect
The test
If the honest recommendation is to keep the system you already have, that is the recommendation you get.
It is the only reliable way to tell an independent adviser from an accredited one, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to on every selection engagement.
Method
Three phases, each closing on a deliverable you own.
Phases are commissioned separately. Many engagements stop after the diagnostic because it establishes that the platform was never the constraint — a legitimate outcome, and a cheaper one than discovering it after a migration.
Phase 01
Diagnostic
Two to three weeks
How commercial decisions are actually made, where the current systems support that and where people work around them, and what a change would realistically cost in disruption rather than in licence fees.
Deliverable Findings note, prioritised, with an estimate of what each issue is worth
Phase 02
Decision
Four to eight weeks
Requirements written from how the business works, a longlist narrowed to a shortlist, an RFP run end to end, demos scored against the same criteria, and commercial terms reviewed before signature.
Deliverables Requirements document · weighted scorecard · written recommendation, board-ready
Phase 03
Delivery
Through to the first full operating cycles
Implementation oversight, vendor management and configuration work — rate structures, segmentation, forecasting rules, reporting — carried through go-live and the quarter that follows it.
Deliverables Issue log and escalation path · configuration documentation · post-go-live adoption review
How engagements are run
Governance, so nobody has to ask where the project stands.
A single accountable lead
One senior lead carries the engagement from the first meeting to the adoption review. The person in the selection room is the person on the go-live call — no restaging of context, no handover part-way through.
A fixed reporting rhythm
A written status at an agreed cadence: decisions taken, decisions outstanding, risks with owners and dates. Short enough that it is actually read, and written so that a sponsor who missed two weeks can catch up in five minutes.
Documentation the client owns
Requirements, scoring, configuration decisions and the reasoning behind them are written down and handed over. If we are not there next year, the record of why the system is set up this way still is.
A defined exit
Every engagement names the condition under which it ends, agreed at the outset. The objective is a client who no longer needs the engagement, not a retainer that renews by inertia.
Scope and commercials
We scope before we price.
Any figure quoted before the problem is understood is a guess, and the guess is usually corrected later through change orders. We do not work that way.
The first conversation establishes whether there is a problem worth solving. If there is, we define the scope — what is in, what is out, what you receive and when — and the commercial proposal follows from it, in writing, before anything begins.
Phases are commissioned one at a time, so the commitment at any point is the phase in front of you.
- —No vendor commissions The engagement is paid for by the client, which is what makes the shortlist yours.
- —Scope agreed in writing Deliverables and boundaries named before the work starts.
- —No change-order economics Scope changes are discussed as decisions, not discovered on an invoice.
- —Commissioned by phase Each phase stands alone and is approved before it begins.
Before you get in touch
Straight answers to the questions we get asked first.
How small is too small?
Below three properties a full selection engagement rarely justifies the fee. The diagnostic usually does, and it often establishes that the platform was never the constraint.
We have already chosen a vendor. Too late?
No. Most of the value sits in implementation, configuration and adoption, which is where these projects come apart. We are frequently engaged after the contract is signed.
Do you work with our incumbent vendor?
We work with whoever you have chosen. Holding no partnerships means we can hold any vendor to their plan without a relationship to protect.
Do you only do systems work?
No. A substantial share of engagements are strategy and operations with no platform change at all — pricing, segmentation, commercial process and the routines around them.
How do engagements start?
With a scoping conversation, at no cost and under no obligation. It establishes whether there is a problem worth solving before anyone discusses terms.
How is progress reported?
A written status at an agreed cadence, naming decisions taken, decisions outstanding, and risks with owners and dates.