Streamline Your Tech Journey
Just as the milling stone played a crucial role in the production of bread, technology is now the core component of organisations across all industries.
We are here to help you craft the perfect milling stone for your business, ensuring that your technology infrastructure and processes are optimised to deliver maximum value.
We focus on organisations large enough to need strategic tech leadership
- but not quite ready to commit to a permanent role
Clarity
Crafting and executing a successful technology strategy requires a level of focus, experience, and time that may not be readily available in your organisation. Our team of seasoned professionals has developed their expertise through years of hands-on experience, learning from both successes and past failures. We help you navigate the stormy waters of a well-executed tech strategy and delivery across your organisation, ensuring that your technology investments and initiatives align with your business objectives and deliver the desired outcomes.
Technology should be an enabler, not a burden. We have witnessed the detrimental effects of burnout and business failures that stem from self-inflicted complexity, often resulting from a lack of clarity and strategic planning.
We are here to guide you through the process of tuning the way your organisation brings ideas and aspirations towards tangible, impactful solutions - either as a tool to enhance your internal processes or as a means to an outcome for your customers.
It is our mission to help your organisation step back and take the time to create clarity on how best to transition to the next phase of your journey, while never losing sight of the human element that, after all, is the true driver of success.
Why the name?
The milling stone, a seemingly simple yet ingenious tool, has been at the heart of human civilisation for millennia. From ancient times to the present day, it has played a pivotal role in the production of flour and bread. Crafting a milling stone was a rare and highly prized skill, passed down through generations of skilled artisans. These master craftsmen understood the intricacies of selecting the perfect materials, shaping the stone’s texture, and balancing its weight with the available drive power to ensure optimal performance.
Just as the quality of the milling stone determined the efficiency of the milling process and the economic success of the miller, the quality of your technology strategy and successful execution can make or break your business. Harnessing the power of technology is not a choice but the first step away from failure.
Contact us so we can start an informal conversation about your challenges and how we might help your business reach the next level.
What we offer
CTO as a Service
For organisations seeking ongoing technical leadership without the overhead of a permanent full-time position, we take on the responsibilities typically associated with a CTO. We help you strengthen your technology framework and optimises organisational structures for priority discussions, resource planning, roadmapping, budget alignment, and development process. We always start by assessing the maturity of your development lifecycle and your current service stability.
Assess Maturity Level
We assess the maturity level of your software development lifecycle (SDLC) and operational processes, comparing them to industry standards. We provide actionable steps to strengthen your organisation in the short term and long term to ensure that you get the most out of your technology investments.
Roadmapping
Our consultants collaborate with your product team and visionaries to create comprehensive roadmaps that align with your organisation's short-term and long-term goals. We help you navigate the path to where you want to be, ensuring that your technology strategy supports your business objectives every step of the way.
Program delivery
Our team ensures strategic alignment across projects, proactively managing stakeholders and dependencies to deliver programs successfully. We identify and address potential challenges and surprises early, minimizing impact and ensuring programs stay on track. Our expertise includes strategic program planning, stakeholder engagement, and risk mitigation.
Team Growth &
Resource Management
We help you clarify how the team of your future organisation should look like and what roles it should consist of. We are happy to lead the way in talent acquisition, team scaling, managing onshore and offshore growth, out-staffing, or establishing a follow-the-sun strategy for continuous project momentum. We have done it before and can help you get things sorted faster without you having to learn the same expensive lessons we did ourselves.
Custom AI Integration
We specialise in developing tailored AI solutions that automate processes, enhance document generation, and free up your team's time and energy to focus on high-value tasks, ensuring your data never leaves your network. By leveraging the power of AI, we help you streamline your operations and unlock new levels of efficiency.
Hands-on
Strategy and long-term thinking are key to long-term success, but can't stand on their own. We are happy to provide practical, actionable assistance by taking responsibility for hands-on activities in your delivery lifecycle such as:
Delivery Management - Our team drives day-to-day delivery activities, getting close to the team, facilitating dialogue across design, developers, testers, and DevOps to minimise risk, and create clarity around timelines and budgets.
Architectural Solution Design - Our team helps you specify the architecture across the moving parts and the data flows. We work closely with your team as a seamless unit to outline and plan the delivery.
Workshop Facilitation - Our team facilitates workshops focused on productive collaboration and tangible outputs. We collect evidence, summarise key points, and present findings in a concise report, slide deck, or follow-up meeting.
We help you clarify, communicate and coordinate tech across your organisation
Pricing
Every business brings its own blend of scope, timeline, and budget. A one-size-fits-all pricing strategy can't serve them all, so we offer the following three pricing models.
1. Pay-as-you-go
With no predetermined commitment to the amount of hours, we charge directly for time and materials (T/M). The standard hourly rate is €160 (AU$260), excluding VAT/GST. This model offers the flexibility to address smaller-scale challenges or tackle immediate concerns on an as-needed basis. Hours are billed monthly for the previous month with a 14-day due date, ensuring a transparent and predictable billing cycle.
2. Pre-Agreed Minimum Hours
We recognise the value of long-term partnerships and want to reward clients who are willing to commit to a minimum number of billable hours each month. This model provides a steady and reliable cash flow for both parties.
Pre-agreed minimum hours are billed monthly for the upcoming month, with any additional hours from the previous month added to the invoice, all with a 7-day due date.
3. Customised Pricing for Large-scale Projects
For large-scale, complex situations that require a significant investment of time and resources, we offer customised pricing models tailored to your specific needs. Our team will work closely with you to gain a deep understanding of your objectives, timelines, and deliverables. We will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the scope, considering factors such as the number of consultants required, estimated duration, and potential risks or contingencies. Based on this, we will propose a pricing structure that strikes a balance between what you are looking for and our desire for a predictable cashflow. This approach enables us to allocate the necessary resources and maintain a healthy level of service delivery throughout the project lifecycle. Often this model comes with a 25% payment upfront, two milestone payments during the process, and 25% after completion.
We believe in fostering strong, long-lasting relationships with our clients. If you win, we win. We are committed to working collaboratively with you to find the most suitable pricing model that aligns with your budget and expectations. We encourage open communication and transparency throughout the process. Our team will provide ongoing progress updates, ensuring that you have full visibility into the work being performed and the value being delivered. We are also open to discussing any adjustments or refinements to the payment structure as the project evolves, ensuring that we remain aligned with your changing needs and priorities.
We are confident that our expertise, combined with our adaptable payment approach, will give you the support you need to navigate the complex landscape of technology and drive your business forward.
Contact us so we can find a time to meet online for an informal conversation about your challenges and how we might help you reach the next level.
Milling Stone Business Consulting
ABN: 63 643 261 586
Suite 4, Level 5, 377-383 Sussex Street,
Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9261 3144