Before you commit, ask who gets paid if you do
The vendor earns the licence. The agency or integrator earns the build. The consultancy with delivery partners earns the referral or the programme. None of this is improper; all of it shapes the recommendation. The only advisor who can write “you do not need this” without cost to themselves is the one who was never going to earn from the alternative.
What Barking Cat is not
This is not interim cover. Barking Cat guides the work, shapes it, and will contribute to it, but it is not a substitute for a role you have not filled. If the honest answer is that you need a permanent operator in the seat, that is the advice you will get, not an invoice for a stand-in.
How Barking Cat Advisory is paid
Fixed fee, stated in writing before instruction. Scope adjusts to the business; the price does not adjust to the answer.
- No execution. Barking Cat does not implement, build, deliver, select vendors on commission or place people. Where a plan needs delivery capability, the client contracts it directly.
- No contingent reward. No success fee, no fee linked to valuation or exit, no equity, no carry, no referral arrangement in either direction.
- One side of a deal. Barking Cat does not read a target for a buyer where a client-side engagement with that target is live or was live inside the prior twelve months, and does not advise a seller on a business it has read for a buyer.
- Disclosure. A register of vendor advisory relationships and delivery partner arrangements is shared with every engagement.
Four questions that tell you whether an advisor is independent
| Agency or integrator | Platform vendor | Barking Cat Advisory | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sells the technology | Sometimes | Yes | No |
| Earns from the build | Usually | Yes | No |
| Will write “you do not need this” in the report | At a cost to themselves | At a cost to themselves | Yes, and has |
| Has run the P&L the decision lands on | Varies | Rarely | Since 1999 |
Why this is the house rule
Sometimes the honest finding of a Review is that the replatform is unnecessary, the agency is not the problem, or six months of data and pricing discipline would return more than a £3m programme. That finding is only available from an advisor who does not depend on the follow-on. It is the reason the Review earns its keep whether or not the next step is Barking Cat.
Should we replatform? Six questions to ask before the vendor answers for you.
