IT Strategy and Advisory for Small Businesses in Lancashire

Independent IT strategy and advisory for small businesses in Lancashire. Before you renew a support contract, sign off on new software or accept a supplier’s quote, we’ll review what you actually need and give you an honest recommendation, in plain English.

We don’t resell anything and we don’t take commission, so there’s no incentive for us to point you towards the expensive option. If the right answer is “keep what you’ve got,” that’s what we’ll tell you.

Most engagements start with a single conversation. Book a free, no-obligation call and we’ll tell you whether we can help before you spend a penny.

Book a free, no-obligation call

What is IT strategy & advisory?

IT strategy and advisory is independent help with the decisions that sit around your technology: what to buy, what to keep, what to replace, and who to buy it from. It covers audits, procurement, vendor selection and security reviews, and it ends with a written recommendation rather than a sales pitch.

Most small businesses don’t need a full-time IT director. They need a few days of straight thinking at the right moments — usually just before a big renewal, a big purchase or a big change. That’s what this is.

What we do

IT audits

A proper look at everything you’re paying for: hardware, software, subscriptions, support contracts, and how they’re actually being used. Most audits turn up at least one licence nobody remembers buying and one tool doing a job another tool already does.

We map what you have, what it costs and what it’s for, then flag the gaps, the overlaps and the things quietly costing you money. Everything goes in writing, in plain English, so you can act on it whether you use us afterwards or not.

You get: a written audit report covering costs, risks and recommendations, and a call to walk you through it.

Procurement

When you need to buy something – new machines, a phone system, software for the whole team – we work out what spec you actually need, which is usually less than the person selling it says.

Then we gather comparable quotes and read the small print before you sign anything. We don’t resell hardware or software, so the price you pay is the supplier’s price. There’s no markup hiding in our recommendation.

You get: a requirements spec, quotes compared side by side, and a recommendation with the reasoning shown.

Vendor selection

Choosing an IT support company, a software vendor or a developer is hard when every proposal uses the same words and promises the same things. We translate the proposals, ask the suppliers the awkward questions, and score the options against what your business needs rather than what the brochure leads with.

We sit on your side of the table for this. No supplier pays us a referral fee, so we have no favourite going in.

You get: a shortlist, a plain-English comparison, and a clear recommendation you can challenge us on.

Security reviews

A practical check of how exposed you actually are: passwords, backups, who can access what, and what happens on the day a laptop goes missing or an email account is broken into. We’re not selling a security product at the end of it, so the review tells you what matters and what doesn’t, ranked by real risk to your business. Most of what we end up recommending costs little or nothing to fix.

You get: a prioritised list of issues, what each would take to fix, and which ones can safely wait.

Advice with nothing to sell you

Most IT advice comes from companies that also sell IT. The audit is free because the recommendation pays for it — more licences, a bigger support contract, a migration to whatever they happen to resell. They may be perfectly decent people, but the maths only leans one way. We set this service up differently on purpose. We don’t resell hardware, software or licences, and we don’t take commission or referral fees from suppliers.

We charge for our time, and our time costs the same whether we recommend a £200 fix or a £20,000 project.That changes the advice. “Do nothing for now” becomes a recommendation we can afford to make. So does“the cheaper option is fine.” And if we think the right answer is something we’d build ourselves, we’ll say so openly – and you’re free to take that recommendation to someone else.

How it works

No discovery workshops, no twelve-week engagement plans. Most of our IT strategy work follows the same four steps.

A free call

Half an hour on the phone or a video call. You tell us what’s prompted this; we tell you honestly whether we can help. If we can’t, we’ll say so on the call.

The review

We look at the relevant parts of your setup — contracts, costs, systems, quotes you’ve been given. For most small businesses this takes 2 weeks, and we don’t need to camp in your office to do it.

A written report

You get our findings and recommendations in plain English, with the reasoning shown and the costs attached. Then we walk you through it on a call and you can challenge anything in it.

Your move

Act on it yourself, hand it to your existing IT company, or ask us to help with the next step. The report is yours either way.

How we charge

We charge for our time. That’s it. No percentage of what you spend, no finder’s fees from suppliers, no “free audit” that exists to sell you a support contract. Our day rate is £600, and a typical IT strategy engagement for a small business is five to seven days depending on how much there is to look at.

You’ll get a fixed quote after the free call, before any work starts, and the quote is the price – if it takes us longer than we estimated, that’s our problem, not yours.

If all you need is an hour of straight answers before signing something, we do that too.

Who is this for?

You don’t need an IT strategy review every year. You need one at moments like these:

Your IT support contract is up for renewal

And you’ve no idea whether what you’re paying is reasonable, because there’s nothing to compare it against.

You’ve been quoted for something big

A new system, a migration, a rebuild — and you’d like someone with no stake in the outcome to read it before you sign.

The business has grown but the IT hasn’t

Things that used to take minutes now take hours, and nobody can say which bit is the problem.

Something gave you a scare

A dodgy email that nearly worked, a laptop that went missing, and now you want to know how exposed you actually are.

Why us?

BRNB is Brad and Nicole. That’s not the leadership team – that’s everyone. The person who answers your first call is the person who does the work and writes the report.

Nothing to resell
We don’t carry products, partnerships or sales targets, so the advice doesn’t have a destination in mind.
Lancashire-based
We can be in the room when it matters, not on the end of a ticket queue.
Plain English in writing
Every recommendation comes with the reasoning shown, in language you can forward to your accountant without translating.
Fixed quotes
You know the cost before we start, and it doesn’t move.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an IT audit cost?

It depends on how much there is to audit, but for most small businesses it is two to five days of our time, quoted as a fixed price after a free call. There is no charge to find out; the first conversation costs nothing.

Will you try to sell us something afterwards?

No. We do not take commission, and we do not resell anything, so the report is not a sales document. If a recommendation happens to be something we could build, we will say so openly, and you are free to take it to someone else.

How long does an IT strategy review take?

Typically one to two weeks from the first call to the written report, depending on how quickly we can get access to contracts and systems. We will give you a date upfront and stick to it.

Do you work alongside our existing IT support provider?

Yes, and it is common. We are not after their contract; we are a second pair of eyes. Often the outcome is a better arrangement with the provider you already have. We also offer IT support ourselves, but advisory clients are never pushed towards it.

Do we need to be in Lancashire?

No. We are based here, and most of our clients are local, but the work itself, reviewing contracts, comparing quotes, security checks, travels fine. For anything that needs us on site, we will tell you honestly whether the travel makes sense.

What size of business do you work with?

Mostly businesses between 2 and 50 people: big enough to have real IT decisions, small enough not to have anyone whose job it is to make them. If that sounds like you, it probably is.

Start with a conversation

Tell us what has prompted this, a renewal, a quote, a nagging doubt, and we’ll tell you whether an IT strategy review would actually pay for itself and what it would cost. If the answer is “you do not need us”, you will get that for free too.