Smylyx / Services
Strategy, technology
and design.
Four disciplines held by one senior consultant. Because the same person carries the strategy, the procurement and the build, the trade-offs get made once — in the open, with you in the room.
Strategy, roadmaps & management consulting
Where the business is going, what that means for technology, and the sequence that gets you there without stalling the day job.
Most roadmaps fail not because the thinking was wrong but because nobody sequenced it against the capacity of the team that has to deliver it. We start with the commercial objective, work backwards to the capabilities you actually need, and produce a plan with an honest critical path.
Typical scope
- Operating model and capability review
- Technology strategy and target architecture
- Sequenced delivery roadmap with dependencies
- Build / buy / partner assessment
- Board and investor-ready papers
IT sourcing, procurement & governance
Specifying, tendering and holding suppliers to account — so you buy the right thing on terms that stay reasonable in year three.
Software procurement goes wrong in the specification, not the negotiation. We write requirements that are testable, run a comparison that is genuinely like-for-like, and set up the governance that keeps a supplier honest long after the sales team has moved on.
Typical scope
- Requirements specification and scoring matrix
- Vendor longlist, shortlist and structured evaluation
- RFP / ITT authoring and tender management
- Contract, SLA and exit-provision review
- Supplier governance and service review cadence
Software & app development
Custom web and mobile software, built small and built properly — with the smallest first release that can prove the idea.
We build the thing that solves the problem, not the platform that might one day solve everything. That means a tight first release, real users on it early, and an architecture that can be extended rather than one that has to be justified.
Typical scope
- Web applications and internal tooling
- iOS and Android applications
- API design, integration and data migration
- Technical due diligence and code review
- Handover, documentation and team enablement
Product & UX design and research
Research that changes the decision, and interface design that makes the finished product a pleasure to use.
Design here is not decoration applied at the end. It is how we find out what people actually do, how we test an idea before it is expensive, and how we make the resulting product feel considered in the hand.
Typical scope
- User research, interviews and usability testing
- Service blueprints and journey mapping
- Prototyping and concept validation
- Interface design and design systems
- Accessibility review (WCAG 2.2 AA)
Fixed-price engagements
Priced, scoped, bookable.
Small pieces of work with a fixed fee and a defined deliverable. Everything larger is quoted in a written proposal after a free conversation.
Strategy Consultation
Ninety focused minutes with the founder on your specific problem, followed by a written summary of what we would do and why.
- 90-minute working session
- Pre-read of your material
- Written follow-up summary
- Fee credited against any engagement
Digital & IT Health Check
A structured review of your systems, suppliers and spend, delivered as a written report with a prioritised, costed set of recommendations.
- Systems and spend inventory
- Contract and renewal review
- Risk and data-protection posture
- Board-readable written report
- One-hour findings walkthrough
Procurement & Governance Toolkit
The working templates we use on client procurement engagements — requirements matrix, vendor scorecard, RFP skeleton and supplier review pack.
- Requirements & scoring matrix
- Vendor evaluation scorecard
- RFP / ITT skeleton
- Contract & SLA checklist
- Supplier governance pack
Something larger in mind?
Most work does not fit in a box with a price on it. Tell us what you are trying to do and we’ll come back with a written proposal — fixed fee wherever the work can responsibly be fixed.