Find out whether the platform is the problem before you replace it.
Usually it isn’t. Your team and I look at your business, marketing, customer experience, and technology strategies, then at how the team works and at the platforms themselves. Your team does the work with me, so they can run the next assessment without me. You get the findings in writing, with the evidence to put in front of your CEO or your board.
One question. Why isn’t the martech you own paying off?
You get the answer with the evidence behind it, written down so somebody else can check it. Replacing a tool that could have been fixed, or keeping one that can’t do the job, costs you six figures and a year. So decide whether to replace a tool only after you’ve tried fixing it.
Three parts, in a fixed order. Each one uses what the part before it found.
First, whether your business goals, marketing strategy, customer experience, and technology agree. Plans usually say everyone agrees. I check whether what people do matches.
Second, how your team works, against how the org chart says it works. Who owns what, where work gets held up, and where people skip the official process because it’s too slow.
Third, what software you own, what’s switched on, what it costs, and what connects to what.
Together they show the one problem to fix first. Only one of the three is about software. When the stack can do the job and the team was never set up to run it, a new platform will have the same problem.
One fee, agreed in writing before I start. No hourly meter, no overage, and nothing owed for whatever you decide to do afterward.
If you don’t end up with findings you can defend to your CEO or your board, I keep going until you do.
The fee depends on how much there is to assess and how many people have to agree. You get the number in writing before you commit a dollar.
Usually 30 to 90 days. Longer on a large or complicated stack, and you’ll hear that from me at the start rather than at the end.
I evaluate technology decisions for a living, and I still hired Gene. He delivers, and he'll tell you the truth even when it means less work or revenue for him. The highest integrity I've worked with. I'd hire him again in a second.
Eric D. Brown, DSc, Fractional CTO/CIO and independent technology advisor
What's not covered?
Implementation. Legacy systems already scheduled for retirement. Shadow IT, which shows me where your official tools and processes are failing, so I count it as evidence instead of assessing it as part of the stack.
A systems integrator can start building on Monday. I can’t, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What you get instead is an honest answer, even when it’s “change nothing.” I earn nothing from what you build, so I can tell you that.
Who is this for?
Marketing organizations spending $1 million or more a year on martech, counting license fees, the people who run it, and what integration and data cost you.
If you already know what’s wrong and you need it built, hire a systems integrator. That’s the right call and this is the wrong practice.
Can I read the method instead of hiring you?
Why are there no case studies or client names?
Have you done this before?
The work, yes. I can’t name the clients or tell you what we found.
The book is newer than the work. Every part of it I’ve done many times over 30 years, from the vendor side, the consultancy side, the brand side, and the agency side. What’s new is that it’s written down, so you can read it and judge it yourself.
Who does the work?
How much of my team's time does this take?
It depends on how big your team is and who can make time. We work that out before the assessment starts, and it goes in the agreement.
If nobody on your team can take part, I won’t take the work. Without your team, you’d end up with a report and nobody who can run the next one.
What if your findings contradict my systems integrator or my platform vendor?
Who is accountable if the assessment is wrong?
You assess, and then what?
Then you fix what can be fixed in the tools you own, and you find out which tools can’t do the job.
The assessment ends with a plan. It lists the fixes to try first, who does each one, how long each should take, and what result after the fixes would tell you a tool has to be replaced. You agree on that before the fixes start, so nobody can change what counts as success after seeing how it went.
A tool that looks broken was usually never fully set up, or the team was never trained to run it. The fixes show whether the tool was the problem. If it still falls short once they’re done, you replace it, with evidence you can show your CEO.
Your team can’t finish the setup or train itself. If it could, the tools would already be working. The plan names who does each fix. Usually that’s a partner or the vendor who knows the platform. They finish the setup and train your team as they go, so your team can run the tool after they leave. Learning to run it well takes months of working alongside them.
I don’t do the fixes, and I don’t want to. If I earned money from the work my assessment recommends, you’d have reason to doubt the assessment. If you ask, I can help you find and vet partners who know your platforms. It’s never a condition of working with me.
I work for you, not the partner. Our agreement puts it in writing: no commission and no fee from any partner I recommend, ever. I put names in front of you and you make the decision. That work is scoped and priced on its own.
How fast can we start?
An honest, confidential conversation about what's happening in your stack. If I don't think I can help, I'll tell you.