OCI DOMAIN TWO
Every platform you renew should still be a decision you would make today.
A platform chosen three years ago for a problem that has since changed, renewals approved on autopilot, and a roadmap that has become your vendor's roadmap. We test the reasoning behind your estate with your team, so the next renewal is a decision and not a default.
What technology leaders say about working with us.
Scott is one of those rare professionals you encounter only a few times in your career.
Working with Scott and Jonathan is a refreshing experience and one I hold out as metric when dealing with vendor partners.
Chris ZitoInformation Technology Security Manager
Working with Jonathan and Rullan Scott Technologies has been an exceptional experience.
Bladimir GonzalezWestgate ResortsThe risk of decisions nobody revisits
Nothing breaks when a technology decision stops being right. The cost arrives as renewal fees, lost options, and a migration you cannot price when you finally need one.
Auto-approved renewals are the quiet drain. The renewal arrives, gets approved on the strength of last year's commitment, and nobody asks whether you still need what you are renewing. Take a core platform at £250,000 a year where the real need has halved. Across three renewal cycles that is £375,000 paid for capacity nobody uses, and not one alert fired along the way.
Roadmaps drift too. The people best placed to say whether your architecture still makes sense are usually the people who sold it to you. Their advice is accurate about their own catalogue and silent about everything outside it, so when your roadmap and theirs are hard to tell apart, your plan is really a renewal schedule.
Exit costs are the part nobody models. They turn a multi-year agreement into leverage for the other side, particularly where licensing models have changed underneath it. If a migration would take twelve months and the notice window is ninety days, you either renew on their terms or pay to leave in a rush. Either way, the price was set at signature, years before anyone checked it.
Where you are now, and where you can be
Where most organisations are today
- Renewals are approved against prior commitment, not current need.
- Decisions from three years ago have no named owner.
- Technical debt is discussed in conversation and reported nowhere.
Where you can be
- Every renewal is tested against current need before it is signed.
- A named person owns revisiting architectural choices on a schedule.
- Technical debt and exit cost are recorded, quantified and reported.
What we usually hear
“We completed a strategy refresh recently.”
Then this should score well, and the index will show that in 5 minutes. It's also worth asking who wrote the refresh and what they were selling, if anything.
“Our vendor advises us on this.”
Vendor advice is accurate about the vendor's own products. What it cannot do is tell you when the right answer sits outside their catalogue, because nobody is compensated for that conversation.
“We are mid-project. We cannot revisit decisions now.”
Assessing does not mean reversing. Knowing where an in-flight project has created long-term exposure is more useful before it completes than afterwards.
“This is really a procurement question.”
Procurement can tell you what you are paying. It cannot usually tell you whether the architecture underneath it still fits the direction of the business, because that requires technical judgement rather than commercial comparison.
How we help you make every renewal a real decision
Decision ownership
Architectural choices persist by default when nobody owns them. We help you name an accountable owner and set a review rhythm, and decisions start getting revisited on purpose.
Licensing and renewal strategy
Each major renewal gets tested against current need, real usage and the alternatives. The negotiation then starts from your numbers.
Business alignment
Spend tends to follow habit. Mapping infrastructure decisions to where the organisation is heading puts it back behind the strategy.
Technical debt visibility
Your engineers carry the compromises in their heads. We write them down as a costed register that leadership can report against.
Exit options and lock-in
What would it actually cost to change direction? We model the cost, time and dependencies, which gives you real leverage at renewal.
Enterprise agreement exposure
Multi-year agreements usually get read closely at signature. We review them for what happens at renewal, while there is still time to act.
Sample OCI result
Technology Strategy
Moderate Drag
11/ 18
Every domain is scored 0 to 18. A higher score means lower operational confidence.
Get your Technology Strategy score
The Operational Confidence Index turns a vague worry into a number you can act on.
- See your Technology Strategy score out of 18, alongside the other three domains.
- Find out whether your platform decisions still hold against how the business works today.
- Get a report you can take to leadership to justify a renewal review.
Questions about this domain
How is technology strategy scored in the OCI?
The Operational Confidence Index uses six questions, each scored 0 to 3, giving a domain range of 0 to 18. A higher score means lower operational confidence, so a high score here indicates this is where to start.
Do I need to prepare anything before answering?
No. The questions are answerable from what you already know. Where you do not know, that is a valid answer and it is reflected in the score.
Will this tell me which products to buy?
No. The index identifies where risk and cost concentrate. It does not recommend manufacturers, and Rullan Scott holds no reseller relationships.
We are a mid-market organisation. Is this aimed at us?
Yes. The index is built for organisations from around fifty staff upwards, where infrastructure has grown faster than the governance around it.
What happens after I complete it?
You receive a score, a breakdown by domain, and a report. If you want to talk it through, you can book thirty minutes with a cofounder. There is no follow-up unless you ask for one.
The other three domains
OCI Domain One
Recoverability
Whether your backups restore, how long recovery really takes, and who can run it.
Explore this domainOCI Domain Three
Network Operations
How the network is really kept running: alerts, change control and cover when people are away.
Explore this domainOCI Domain Four
SaaS & AI Governance
The applications and AI tools in use, who still has access, and what company data they can reach.
Explore this domainFind out how your technology strategy scores.
Twenty-four questions across four domains, 5 minutes, and an evidence-based read on where your assumptions have drifted.
Run the OCI Diagnostic