Two engagements. One playbook. Most audits become retainers.
Every engagement is sized and scoped before we start. Fixed fee on the audit, monthly retainer for ongoing work, no discovery bait-and-switch. You will know what you are getting, and what it costs, before you sign.
SaaS Replacement Audit
Start here.
The wedge engagement. Where most clients start. We map every SaaS line on your books, calculate the true cost (license + integration + lock-in + bad-data drag), and ship a 12-month roadmap to replace 3–5 of them with custom software you own. Backed by what we did at CWS.
- Full SaaS inventory with true-cost accounting per tool
- Build / buy / keep / kill matrix with rationale per recommendation
- 12-month replacement roadmap, sequenced by ROI and dependency
- 30–40 page written report your team can act on without us in the room
- 90-minute strategy session walking through findings and roadmap
Owner-operators running $5M+ businesses who suspect their SaaS spend and workflow friction are costing more than they realize. Typical year-one savings: $200k–$500k on a $25k audit.
Fractional CTO Retainer
Where most audits go next.
Ongoing technology leadership for companies that need a CTO but not yet a full-time one. Includes 4–8 hours of senior engineering per week and a senior engineer doing the implementation work. Roadmap execution, build-vs-buy on every new tool, AI agent deployment, on-call for the hard ones.
- 4–8 hrs/week of senior engineering inside the retainer
- Implementation projects ($50–100k each) bundled inside the retainer scope
- Custom software builds replacing SaaS tools from your audit roadmap
- AI agent deployment for repetitive ops work — running on team-subscription inference, zero marginal cost
- Hiring, due diligence, on-call escalation, monthly architecture review
- Quarterly written "state of the stack" report
Owner-operated companies with enough technology dependency to need a CTO, but not yet enough scale to justify a full-time hire. Typical engagement: 12+ months. Most retainers start by executing on an audit roadmap.
Not sure which is the right starting point?
Book a 30-minute call. We'll discuss your current stack and workflow, and I'll tell you honestly whether any of the engagements above is a fit — or whether you don't need me at all.