Insights
What we learned by building it.
We publish what transfers: a method, a trade-off, a common mistake and what it costs. Nothing that requires buying anything to be useful.
On-site PBX or hosted service: the link decides, not the invoice
The comparison usually turns on cost per extension and on the feature list. Those are often a draw. What actually decides is what happens to the phones when the connection drops.
What is settled on the drawings and cannot be recovered once the frame is up
Circulation, restricted zones, service risers and the power intake are drawn before the first cubic metre of concrete. Revisited afterwards, they cost more and protect less.
Multi-site monitoring is sized on the on-call rota, not on the number of probes
A tool that reports everything produces noise nobody acts on. What decides the value of monitoring is what happens after the alert, and who takes it.
The load test almost nobody runs
A generator started off-load every month proves that it starts. It does not prove that it will carry the site's load, nor that the transfer will happen without anything stopping.
Access control is worth what the review of its rights is worth
Badges are issued in minutes and withdrawn rarely. After three years the list of authorised people no longer describes the organisation it is meant to protect.
Interoperability is not obtained by writing it into the specification
Two systems exchange only if someone holds the mandate to settle the format, the cadence and the responsibility for the data. That mandate is assigned before development starts.
Migrating the data costs more than the software that will receive it
The most underestimated line in an application replacement project is not development. It is the real condition of the existing data, which nobody measured before committing.
What a 99.9% availability commitment does not say
The figure is comparable from one offer to the next. What it covers is not: the measurement window, the excluded scope and the remedy alone determine its real reach.
A backup link sharing the same duct backs up nothing
The redundancy of an access circuit is judged on the physical route of the cable and on the identity of the carrier, not on the number of contracts signed.
Write the exit plan before the first delivery
Reversibility is not negotiated at the point of departure. It is settled during framing, while the balance of power is still even and the clause costs nothing.
The number of cameras measures nothing
A video surveillance installation is judged on the chain that runs from detection to decision. The number of viewpoints is only one parameter, and rarely the binding one.
Five requirements a procurement team should place on an integrator
Most tenders check technical capability and financial standing. They almost always omit the five points that determine what the contract actually costs.
Sizing backup power without being wrong by a factor of two
A measured load balance costs four weeks. Estimated from nameplates, it almost always leads to oversizing — and oversizing is paid for twice.
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These publications come from the questions asked by the organisations we work with. Yours is of interest.