Engagements
Commission one decision, at a fixed fee.
Most technology decisions that go badly were not reckless. They were made on the word of the party with the most to gain from a yes, because nobody in the room was being paid to disagree. This is how you buy that second opinion, with the scope and the fee agreed in writing before any work starts.
What you can commission
Two ways to put a decision in front of someone independent.
Both begin the same way. You describe the decision, we agree the scope and the fee in writing, and nothing is billed until you have accepted both.
Commission I
Private Advisory Session
One decision, prepared for properly. You send the material in advance, we spend a working session on it together, and the recommendation follows in writing.
- Your quotes, diagrams, contracts or proposals read before the session rather than during it
- A working session with the principal, not an intake call with someone who passes it on
- A written recommendation within three business days, in language you can forward to a board or a lender
- A named list of what would change the answer, so you can tell when the ground has moved
Best when the decision is real, dated, and yours to make. Fixed fee, agreed in writing before a time is booked.
Commission II
Independent Technology Review
A scoped review of something consequential: an investment, an architecture, a vendor’s recommendation, a proposed AI deployment. Written to be read by people who were not in the room.
- A written scope naming the question, the evidence we will examine, and what falls outside it
- Interviews and read-only access rather than a questionnaire, so every finding carries evidence
- A report that takes a position, with the reasoning attached to each conclusion
- A debrief with whoever has to act on it, and answers to the questions it raises
Priced as a fixed fee in the proposal. Work begins when you accept it and the first payment clears.
What it is for
Questions worth putting to someone with nothing to sell you.
If one of these is on your desk with a date attached, it is the kind of thing this exists for.
Is this investment sound?
A platform, a migration, a managed service contract or a rebuild, carrying a number large enough that being wrong is expensive. We look at what it actually buys you, what it commits you to, and what it would cost to reverse.
Does this proposal hold up?
The document in front of you was written by the party who gets paid if you say yes. We read it the way they would rather nobody did: line items, assumptions, exclusions, renewal terms, and the price of leaving.
Will this architecture last?
Whether what is proposed holds at the size you expect to be, or whether it is sized for the company you are today and quietly assumes you stay there.
Build it, or buy it?
Both answers are defensible and only one is right for you. The deciding variable is rarely the software. It is who will still be maintaining it in three years, and what happens when they leave.
Is this AI proposal deployable here?
Not whether the technology works in a demonstration. Whether it works on your data, under your obligations, with your staff, and what it does to your exposure the day it is switched on.
Is our own plan realistic?
An internal plan read by someone with no stake in whose idea it was, no history in the room, and no reason to soften the answer.
How it runs
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them.
Nothing is billed before you have seen the scope and the fee in writing. If the honest answer is that you do not need us, you will hear it at step two and it will not have cost you anything.
You describe the decision
The form below asks what the decision is, the context around it, the date it has to be made by, and the range you are working within. Ten minutes, and no documents yet.
We agree scope and fee in writing
Usually within one business day: what we will look at, what you will receive, what is out of scope, and what it costs. If a shorter session would do the job, that is what you will be offered instead.
You accept, and the work starts
For a session, payment and a time in the calendar. For a review, acceptance of the proposal and the first payment. Your material comes to us then, under a signed agreement, and not before.
You get a position in writing
Not a menu of options with the hard call handed back to you. A recommendation, the reasoning behind it, and the conditions under which it would change.
Scope
What you are buying, and what you are not.
What this is not
- A free consultation that turns into a sales call
- A managed service contract with an assessment bolted to the front
- A reseller opinion from a firm that also sells the product
- A deck of options with the decision handed back to you
- Implementation. That is a separate engagement, quoted separately, and only if you ask for it
If what you need is delivery rather than judgment, say so and we will quote that instead.
What this is
- Paid, independent judgment on one named decision
- A fixed fee, agreed in writing before any work begins
- Evidence attached to every conclusion, so you can check the reasoning rather than trust it
- A written position you can forward to a board, an insurer or a lender
- Work your own team or another provider could act on without us
We hold no reseller agreements with the vendors whose proposals we review.
Who you are working with
Read by someone who has signed for the number and lived with the result.
VanDien.io is led by Christopher Moskowitz, who most recently ran engineering for Jefferies, a full service capital markets, investment bank, leading a 55-person organization that supported more than 16,000 endpoints on a budget of $15M to $20M, and was Chief Technology Officer at two premier New York alternative investment organizations before that. Every proposal reviewed here is read by someone who has sat on the buying side of the same table, approved the spend, and been there three years later when the renewal arrived.
Engagement request
Tell us the decision.
No documents yet. We come back within one business day with a scope and a fixed fee, or with the reason this is not something you need to pay for.
Request received.
Thanks. A confirmation is on its way to your inbox, and you will have a scope and a fee, or an honest reason not to proceed, within one business day.
Common questions
What does an engagement cost?
It depends on what is in scope, and you will have a fixed number in writing before you commit to anything. The scope and the fee arrive together, usually within one business day of your request, and there is no charge for getting to that point.
What if you decide we do not need this?
You will be told, and it costs you nothing. A recommendation to go back to your incumbent with three specific questions, or to do nothing at all for another quarter, is a legitimate outcome and it happens.
Do you sign a non-disclosure agreement?
Yes, before any material changes hands. Send yours, or ask for ours.
Will you speak to our vendor directly?
Only if you want us to, and only with you copied. Some clients prefer the review to stay invisible, so the incumbent never learns the proposal was read by anyone else. Both approaches work.
Can this turn into implementation work?
It can, as a separate engagement quoted separately, and the review is deliberately written so that it does not have to. A recommendation you can only act on by hiring its author is not independent advice.
Who actually does the work?
Christopher Moskowitz. There is no bench behind this, no account manager in the middle, and no handover to someone you have not met.
Send the decision, not a meeting request.
info@vandien.io · (551) 236-3191 · Ridgewood, NJ, serving the New York metro