On demand.
Use agreed expertise as work arises. Expand the mix as priorities change.
A dependable delivery system. Capacity that adapts.
Access coordinated expertise, usable operating knowledge and continuous improvement. Pay-for-use shared services let consumption change with demand, without a long-term shared-service commitment.
The system behind the work
Keep the approach. Adapt the capability.
A migration, acquisition, growing workload or smaller team changes what you need. Draw on one coordinated delivery system and adjust agreed shared-service consumption as demand changes.
- 01
A coordinated mix of skills
Business analysis, functional expertise and technical delivery brought together around the agreed responsibility. Confirm specialist capability and capacity before committing the work.
- 02
Management that connects the work
Your dedicated Client Solutions Manager coordinates priorities, handoffs, coverage and escalation. Your team retains business decisions and approvals.
- 03
Knowledge the organization keeps
Capture procedures, decisions and exceptions in operating documentation your team can access and use. Practice handovers so knowledge can extend beyond one person.
- 04
Improvement inside delivery
Study effort and recurring demands. Use better processes, permanent fixes, suitable automation and tested AI assistance to improve how the operation runs.
- 05
Capacity and spending that can change
Increase or reduce pay-for-use shared services with agreed demand, without a long-term shared-service commitment. Reserve dedicated capacity or scope a project when the work calls for a different commitment.
- 06
Budget control for the next decision
Set the budget and review activity, effort and charges through OpenBook. Your included manager can hold weekly budget meetings when requested and automation reviews to identify lower-effort ways to operate.
The deflationary model
Better operations should benefit your budget.
We use the knowledge gained doing the work to simplify it. That can mean a better process, clearer ownership, a permanent fix or automation.
The goal is lower effort and cost for the work being improved. New demand, expanded scope and projects can change total spending.
Your budget. Your priorities.
Adapt capacity while keeping spending under your control.
You set the budget. We stay within it.
Define the work and budget together. Prioritize within that limit. If needs change, review the scope and budget together before authorizing additional spending.
Your Client Solutions Manager is included.
Your Client Solutions Manager connects the work, priorities and spending at no additional management charge. Request weekly budget meetings when you want a closer review.
Review what can cost less to run.
Use automation meetings to identify suitable process improvements and opportunities to reduce manual effort and cost. Decide what to pursue based on the business value, implementation effort and operating controls.
Management and review meetings are included. SOP creation and automation design, development, testing and implementation are delivery work billed under the agreed terms. Dedicated resources and projects retain their own commitments.
On-demand shared support
Pay for what you use. Stay because it works.
Bring in the skills your workload needs. Scale up, scale back, or stop shared services when you no longer need them.
No monthly minimum.
No retainer or prepaid hours to use up. Pay for shared-service work performed.
No long-term lock-in.
Stay for the value. Your shared-service spend follows the work you need.
Visible work. Visible cost.
OpenBook reporting connects activity to effort and spending.
Stronger operations. Less dependency.
The knowledge becomes part of the solution.
Repeatable work is captured in an SOP library on your network. Existing task documentation is verified for accuracy. Confirm customer access, storage, ownership and handover for the library; documentation work is billed as part of delivery.
- Make delivery repeatable
Document steps, ownership and controls so work can be understood and handed over.
- Improve with the people doing the work
Validate changes with users and technical owners. Preserve the context your business depends on.
- Make operating knowledge usable
Capture inputs, decisions, exceptions and approvals with the procedure. Review it with the people who use it and keep it current.
The operating principle
A stronger customer. A more useful partner.
Work alongside your people. Transfer knowledge. Make runbooks usable by the people who will operate the environment.
Define customer access, ownership and handover of documentation and automation in the engagement, so continuity is designed in from the start.
See a relationship adapt over time →Improvement in practice
Less routine checking. Attention when it matters.
Hand-tool manufacturer · 2021–2022 delivery reviews
1.5 → 0.5 hours
Reported handling time for daily-check tickets after automation was activated in December 2021.
January reviews describe charging for human intervention when a check found a problem, with no charge for healthy automated checks. A March review reports no monitoring charge and five daily-check issues resolved.
The operating benefit: less time spent on routine checking, with human attention directed to exceptions. The reported result applies to this workflow and period.
See how the work changed →From operating knowledge to AI
Build AI on a process your people can explain.
A useful end product of support is a better-understood business: how work moves, what data it needs, where decisions happen and what to do when something goes wrong.
That knowledge helps your team identify where AI can retrieve an answer, draft a response, classify an exception or assist a task—and where a person must decide. Rule-based automation may be the better answer for predictable work.
Understand
Map the workflow, its business purpose, inputs, systems and exceptions with the people doing it.
Document & control
Maintain documented procedures your team can use, named owners, access permissions, approval rules and current data definitions.
Test a useful task
Choose a bounded use case. Test normal and exception cases against an agreed baseline. Review AI output before consequential action.
Operate & improve
Monitor accuracy, effort and business results. Keep a human escalation path, a fallback and an owner for updates.
For example, an AI assistant could draft the explanation for a failed invoice using approved procedures. A person checks the facts and authorizes any correction; established controls govern the ERP transaction. This is an illustrative use case, not a reported customer deployment.
Documentation is one part of readiness. Data quality, integration access, security, testing and accountable business ownership also determine whether a use case is ready. We scope AI work against your environment and approved tools.
Clear commercial boundaries
Choose the commitment the work needs.
Shared services
Pay for work performed. No minimum spend, retainer, prepaid hours or long-term commitment. Scale back or stop by email without notice or termination fees.
Dedicated resources
Reserve people in advance for sustained demand. Confirm the commitment and ramp-down arrangements for that capacity.
Projects
Define the outcome, scope, estimate, dependencies and delivery commitments. Shared-service exit terms and response SLAs do not replace the project agreement.
Your relationship manager is included at no additional charge. Meet as often as needed to review bills, priorities, automation and advice, using Microsoft 365/Teams or the collaboration tools your team uses.
SOP creation, verification and automation design, development and implementation are billed as work performed. Decide together where the SOP library is stored, who can access and maintain it, and the ownership, reuse and handover rights for documentation and automation in the engagement.
Find the work worth taking off your team.
Start with a real workload. Define what to hand over, what to improve and how to measure whether the model is working.
Practical questions
Understand the arrangement before you start.
How does the deflationary model reduce operating effort?
The team studies the work it performs, documents repeatable processes and identifies permanent fixes, process improvements and suitable automation. When less human effort is required for shared work, consumption can fall or capacity can be redirected. New demand can still increase total spending.
Are management and automation implementation included in the same way?
Your Client Solutions Manager and review meetings are included at no additional management charge. Documentation and automation design, development, testing and implementation are delivery work billed under the agreed terms and budget.
Does documented support make an operation ready for AI?
Documentation creates useful process context, but readiness also depends on data quality, approved access, controls, representative testing and accountable human oversight. AI work is scoped to the customer environment and an agreed use case.
