Plenty of firms will sell you a technology assessment. The quality varies enormously, and the difference is easy to spot once you know what to look for.
Here is what a discovery report is worth paying for.
It says what is installed, not what the diagram claims
A full list: servers, workstations, network devices, licences, links and applications, with versions and support status.
Every audit we run finds equipment nobody remembered and licences nobody was using. If a report does not contain an inventory, the assessment did not happen.
It quantifies the problems
"The network needs upgrading" is not a finding. These are findings:
- "Warehouse Wi-Fi drops for an average of 40 seconds per forklift transit; scanning staff work around it by writing on paper."
- "The nightly backup has not produced a restorable set since a schema change in March; we tested it."
- "Month-end close takes 11 working days, of which 6 are reconciling the POS export against the ledger."
Numbers, observed. A finding you cannot measure cannot be prioritised, and cannot be proven fixed later.
It ranks by business impact, not by technical severity
A critical vulnerability on a machine that holds nothing is less urgent than a mediocre one on the machine holding your customer data. A good report understands your business well enough to order the list accordingly, and will explain the ordering.
Be suspicious of a ranking that matches a vendor's product catalogue.
It says what not to do
The most valuable line in any assessment we write is usually the one that says a planned purchase is unnecessary.
If a report recommends everything the assessor also sells, and nothing that reduces the size of the engagement, treat that as information about the assessor.
It is yours
You paid for it. The inventory, the diagrams, the findings and the recommendations should be handed to you in a form you can give to another firm for a competitive quote.
Ask this question before commissioning: "Is the report mine to take elsewhere?" The answer tells you a lot.
It ends with a decision, not a proposal
A discovery should end with a recommendation you can act on, including "do nothing for now", which is sometimes right and almost never offered.
If the only possible next step is the assessor's own implementation proposal, the assessment was a sales document with a technical appendix.
What to ask before you commission one
- What will the report contain? Ask for a redacted example.
- Is it mine to take to another supplier?
- Will you tell me if the answer is to do nothing?
- Who does the work: the person in this meeting, or someone else?
- If we proceed with you, is the discovery fee credited against the project?
That last one is worth asking directly. We credit ours in full. We get paid for the thinking either way, and you do not pay twice for the same work.
