IT Consulting & Advisory Services

Key facts

What the pillar covers

Our stated differentiator is combining advisory expertise with practical delivery experience, so that strategy is connected to achievable outcomes.

The problems it is positioned against are misalignment between technology strategy and business priorities, specialist expertise being unavailable when needed, complex programmes lacking governance or direction, legacy decisions creating risk, cost and technical debt, transformation initiatives needing additional capability, and internal teams needing support to accelerate delivery.

We work with you to develop an IT strategy that reflects your business objectives and digital readiness. Our approach starts with listening, understanding your environment and agreeing the decisions your engagement needs to support.

Services in this pillar

The two services closest to the practice are:

Field Services and Staff Augmentation

Flexible access to experienced technical resources for on-site field work, project delivery and additional capability when internal teams need support. This is the delivery-capacity counterpart to the practice's "flexible access to specialist technical expertise" capability: advisory defines what should be done, staff augmentation provides the hands to do it. Our field services network spans Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Confirm whether the proposed field services or staff augmentation work is ordered as Professional Services under Schedule 1 and which other terms apply.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Security governance, risk and compliance support that helps organisations understand obligations, strengthen controls and manage cyber risk through a practical framework. This overlaps with the practice's security advisory and governance capability. Our reference frameworks include ISO/IEC 27001, ASD Essential Eight, the Australian Privacy Principles, NIST CSF and APRA CPS 234. Agree which frameworks are relevant to your obligations, risks and assessment scope; they do not all apply to every customer.

How it is delivered

Engagement form. Confirm the advisory scope, contract classification and applicable schedules in your Service Order. Under General Terms v3.6, Professional Services are excluded from the default 36-month Minimum Service Period and billed per Schedule 1 unless otherwise specified in the Service Order. Clause 13.10 grants the customer and its Affiliates a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, copy and adapt Deliverables internally during the Service Period upon full payment of the relevant fees, expenses and Taxes. We must perform with due skill and care, within any agreed timescales or otherwise within a reasonable time, using personnel who are properly qualified and experienced; a customer dissatisfied with an individual can escalate to our project manager and ultimately require replacement at our cost.

How advisory shows up in client engagements. The case studies document four patterns:

• Platform selection. For Lovisa, we assessed the failing global telephony environment and future requirements, recommended RingCentral RingEX, facilitated workshops with the vendor and validated the platform against Lovisa's criteria; Lovisa's own team then deployed it with vendor professional services and our support.
• Architecture and roadmap. For Berry Street, blueAPACHE and the client jointly designed the new solution architecture, defined the target future state and produced a transformation roadmap with costs, which the client used to present a business case to its board and secure project resources.
• Network design. For Sealy of Australia, we designed the international voice and data network against Sealy's requirements before proposing technology, using its reference network architecture to reduce risk.
• Advice before contract. For Honan Insurance, we were engaged for guidance and remediated the Palo Alto Networks estate while a tender was still running, then advised on whole-of-WAN transformation before a master service agreement was signed.

Under the General Terms and Conditions, each party appoints an Account Representative with authority over day-to-day matters, and where advisory sits alongside managed services the 6-monthly service review is the governance forum.

Ancillary professional services in the terms. Several customer-requested activities are expressly chargeable as Professional Services at Time and Materials Rates: creating and maintaining a business continuity Action Plan that integrates our services with the customer's BCP; APRA-related BCP testing (every 6 months, results within 7 days) and joint technical reviews for regulated customers; and assistance with statutory record-keeping obligations.

Support and service levels

Our ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate includes Professional Services within the scope of our information security management system. It certifies that management system, rather than an individual engagement or deliverable.

The general terms require due skill and care and performance within agreed timescales or otherwise a reasonable time, subject to applicable exclusions. Check the Service Description for any express Service Levels and agree deliverable acceptance criteria and milestones; the practice overview alone does not determine the contractual service levels.

Deliverables at exit. Under clause 13.10, the customer and its Affiliates receive an internal-use Deliverables licence during the Service Period upon full payment of the relevant fees, expenses and Taxes. Clause 25.2 terminates the licence at the end of the agreement and requires return or destruction of the specified blueAPACHE intellectual property and Deliverables, subject to the clause's legal-retention exceptions. A customer that needs to keep architecture documents, roadmaps or runbooks after an engagement should negotiate a surviving licence on the Service Order. Clause 20.1 sets out our IP indemnity. If the infringement remedies are not commercially reasonable, clause 20.3 provides for damages limited to fees paid for the infringing Deliverable or service fees paid in the preceding 12 months. That fallback is not a description of the whole indemnity; clause 19.4(e) separately addresses the applicable liability cap.

Non-solicitation. General Terms v3.6 clause 22 restricts specified direct and indirect engagement of the other party's people for 12 months after the last day of service performance unless prior written consent is obtained. It covers employees who provided services or dealt with the other party in connection with the agreement within the clause's 12-month look-back period. The contractor limb also covers their personnel, with a same-or-similar-work condition. Check that scope and any agreed variation before recruiting an assigned resource.

How it integrates with the other pillars

• Managed Services. Advisory frequently precedes or sits inside a managed services engagement: Berry Street's roadmap and Archers' quarterly business reviews focused on continual service improvement are both governance outputs delivered within managed services. See the Managed Services hub.
• Security. Security advisory, GRC and vCISO-style guidance overlap with the Security pillar; the Archers engagement included a security assessment for AI adoption and the start of an ISO 27001 alignment journey. See the Security hub.
• Cloud and Connectivity. Cloud and infrastructure advisory, migration planning and network design draw on the platforms we run ourselves, which is the practical basis of our "advisory plus delivery" claim. See the Cloud hub and Connectivity hub.
• Microsoft Practice. The Microsoft Practice describes Microsoft 365, Azure, Zero Trust-aligned security, AI readiness and certified expertise. Agree the assessment scope and assigned specialists for your engagement. See the Microsoft Practice hub.
• Collaboration. Platform selection for voice and unified communications, as in the Lovisa engagement, is advisory work. See the Collaboration hub.

Our client outcomes

These selected cases show advisory alongside broader technology programmes. They do not establish that every advisory engagement must lead to implementation or managed services.

Defining a consulting deliverable

Describe the decisions the engagement must enable, the deliverables and the acceptance process. Strategy, architecture, project delivery and specialist resourcing are different outputs. The terms distinguish customer-owned data from blueAPACHE intellectual property and licensed Deliverables. Clause 13.10's internal-use licence requires full payment of the relevant fees, expenses and Taxes; confirm continuing rights to use designs and operating documents after the engagement. Specify customer inputs, approval authority and vendor dependencies. Access to an adviser does not establish an unlimited implementation or ongoing support commitment.

Which document defines the commitment

The published General Terms v3.6 give the Service Order precedence over the General Terms, followed by the Schedules and then the Acceptable Use Policy (clause 2.3). Record the agreed scope, exclusions and negotiated departures in that document set. Keep the versions supplied at signing with the executed order and signed variations. Two offers with the same service name can cover different systems, operating hours or responsibilities.

Confidential information and access

Clause 16 provides mutual confidentiality protection. It covers information marked confidential, information identified orally and confirmed in writing within 30 days, and information that should reasonably be understood to be confidential. Customer Data, Customer Records and Customer Software are included; our agreement and fees are also confidential. Permitted disclosures include appropriately bound personnel on a need-to-know basis and specified professional advisers, with other exceptions in the clause. Identify who may receive operational reports, configuration details and commercial information. Access to information to deliver the service is not a general permission to circulate it.

How liability differs from service performance

Clause 19 separates performance obligations from financial liability. Under General Terms v3.6 clause 19.3, subject to clauses 19.1, 19.2 and 19.4 and applicable law, the per-single-claim limit is the greater of amounts paid under the agreement in the three months before the claim first arose or $25,000. Clause 19.4(e) specifies $1 million per event or series of connected events and $2 million in aggregate for breaches of clauses 16, 17, 18 or 20. Confirm the version and variations applying to your agreement. Data-loss liability depends on whether we had, and breached, a contracted backup or disaster recovery obligation; the relevant measure is restoration cost to the applicable recovery point, not the value of every business consequence. Read these provisions alongside the negotiated Service Order and Schedule; an availability statement does not describe the liability regime.

Escalating a contractual dispute

A support escalation and a formal contractual dispute are different processes. Clause 26 begins with a Dispute Notice giving adequate particulars. Representatives meet within three Business Days; unresolved matters then move through the clause’s senior-representative referral and meeting stages before court proceedings. Urgent equitable relief and disputes over whether the agreement was validly terminated are exceptions. Keep incident records, service measurements, approvals and correspondence together so the disputed obligation and requested outcome can be identified. Raising a ticket does not necessarily satisfy a formal notice requirement; use the agreement’s notice process for contractual disputes.

Related

• Field Services and Staff Augmentation
• Governance, Risk and Compliance
• Managed Services hub
• Security hub
• Cloud hub
• Connectivity hub
• Microsoft Practice hub
• Collaboration hub
• Lovisa case study
• Sealy of Australia case study
• Honan Insurance case study
• Archers case study
• Leadership team
• Professional Services industry page
• Service agreement
• Support
• Contact

What kind of advisory work do you do?

Technology assessments, strategy and roadmaps; enterprise and solution architecture; project management and business analysis; security, cloud and infrastructure advisory; transformation planning and governance; and flexible access to specialist technical expertise.

Do we have to buy managed services to use your consultants?

Discuss a standalone advisory scope with our team and have the agreed services recorded in the Service Order. The practice overview does not make managed services a prerequisite. Professional Services are excluded from the default 36-month Minimum Service Period under the published general terms; confirm the classification and term for your engagement.

How is consulting priced?

Professional Services are billed in accordance with Schedule 1 unless the Service Order states otherwise, and the General Terms and Conditions refer to Time and Materials Rates set out in the Service Order, or our then-current rates, for ancillary professional work such as business continuity Action Plans and APRA reviews.

Who owns the deliverables at the end of an engagement?

The terms distinguish ownership from a licence to use Deliverables, and separately address customer materials and pre-existing intellectual property. Under General Terms v3.6 clause 13.10, full payment of the relevant fees, expenses and Taxes triggers a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive internal-use licence for the customer and its Affiliates during the Service Period. Clause 25.2 governs licence termination and return or destruction, subject to its retention exceptions. Specify any required continuing rights in the Service Order.

Can our consultants work inside our team?

Yes. Flexible access to specialist expertise is a named capability, and the Field Services and Staff Augmentation service provides on-site and project resources. General Terms v3.6 clause 22 restricts engaging specified employees and contractors for 12 months after the last day of service performance, with a 12-month look-back, a same-or-similar-work condition for contractors and a prior-written-consent exception. Review the applicable clause before directly hiring an assigned resource.

What does "governance built into every engagement" mean in practice?

In client engagements this looks like Berry Street's costed roadmap used for a board business case, and Archers' monthly operational and quarterly business reviews focused on continual service improvement.

Is advisory work covered by your ISO 27001 certification?

Professional Services is one of the ten service offerings listed in scope on our ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate 202507-118, issued by Sensiba Australia Pty Ltd and valid from 1 August 2025 to 1 August 2028. The certificate covers our information security management system rather than any individual deliverable.

Do you offer vCISO or security advisory?

Security advisory is a named capability of the practice and Governance, Risk and Compliance has its own service page. Our stated reference frameworks are ISO/IEC 27001, ASD Essential Eight, the Australian Privacy Principles, NIST CSF and APRA CPS 234.

Can we help with AI readiness?

The client experience is the Archers engagement, where we completed a security assessment for future AI capabilities including Microsoft Copilot.

What if we are not satisfied with a consultant?

Under clause 3.2 of the General Terms and Conditions we must ensure our personnel are properly qualified and experienced for their tasks. A customer who believes an individual is not performing properly raises it with our project manager, and if not satisfied with the resolution may require that individual to be removed, with us replacing them promptly at its own cost.