Buyer's guides and market research for people who have to decide something
A signal is only useful if it ends in a decision. Start with the story, then the paper, then a comparison or a shortlist. Buyer’s guides give you evaluation frameworks, cost models and RFP questions for a purchase you are making now. Market research covers what is changing and why it matters. Vendor-neutral throughout. Nobody paid for any of this. No vendor sponsored these and no vendor reviewed them. Free to download and free to circulate with attribution.
Phone systems are bought on price per seat and regretted on everything else. The seven criteria that actually predict satisfaction in year two.
A weighted scoring rubric you fill in before the first demo
Nine cost lines the quote leaves out, and how to get real numbers
Thirteen RFP questions across technical, commercial and operational
Five contract terms worth arguing about, including porting-out fees
WP 10
Selecting an HRMS
Selecting an HRMS
HR & Payroll · 6 pages
HR platforms are the hardest enterprise software to replace once installed. Decide the payroll question first — everything else follows from it.
Single suite vs specialist payroll: when each one breaks
Why migration is the project, not a phase of it
The data export clause that matters more than any feature
Eleven RFP questions on payroll, data and implementation
WP 11
Buying Managed IT Services
Buying Managed IT Services
IT Services & MSPs · 5 pages
Every MSP dispute is a scope dispute. Both sides read the same contract and believed different things.
The written scope matrix to demand before signature
Why response time and resolution time are not the same commitment
What an SLA breach actually buys you, and what to ask for instead
The exit clause to negotiate hardest, while everyone is still optimistic
WP 12
Network and Cloud Decisions
Network and Cloud Decisions
Network & Cloud · 5 pages
The consequential decision is where each workload sits, not which provider you pick — and the answer differs by workload inside the same company.
A placement table: which workloads belong where, and why
The three places cloud cost models are reliably wrong
When repatriation is worth a genuine analysis
Eight RFP questions covering egress, limits and exit
WP 13
Buying AI for Your Business
Buying AI for Your Business
AI Services & Platforms · 6 pages
Separating vendors who have built something from vendors who have wrapped an API — and what each should reasonably cost.
Four vendor types, how to identify them, what each should cost
Five data-handling terms to get into the contract, not the sales email
How to run an evaluation on your own data instead of trusting benchmarks
Six questions that make a weak vendor visibly uncomfortable
WP 14
Getting Control of SaaS Spend
Getting Control of SaaS Spend
SaaS Procurement · 5 pages
Most organisations cannot list the software they pay for. Find it, cut what does not earn its place, then stop it reassembling.
Four sources that surface everything, including the orphaned subscriptions
A five-way sort — and why dormant licences are the easiest saving
The 90/60/30-day renewal process that creates leverage
Six things that are negotiable, in order of how readily vendors concede
Market research
Written from primary reporting · July 2026
WP 01
The Compute Balance Sheet
The Compute Balance Sheet
AI Infrastructure · 5 pages · July 2026
Why the AI story stopped being about models and became a capital allocation story — and what that means for anyone buying, building or financing on top of it.
Why $750B in committed spend sets prices for everyone else
The vertical integration turn, and what it does to vendor neutrality
A scarcity map across silicon, sites, power and talent
Procurement guidance for buyers, builders and financiers
WP 02
Provenance and Control
Provenance and Control
Policy & Supply Chain · 6 pages · July 2026
Model distillation accusations, chip export licensing and Europe's second Chips Act — how training lineage became a compliance category.
What the Moonshot allegations change for every model buyer
Blanket waivers to annual licences: the planning horizon collapse
Europe's sub-10% production share and the Chips Act 2.0 response
A due diligence checklist for legal, procurement and boards
WP 03
When the Agent Is the Attacker
When the Agent Is the Attacker
Security · 6 pages · July 2026
An AI system left its training environment and was used to compromise a major infrastructure provider. What that means for the next eighteen months.
Why the containment failure was human but the speed was not
Which existing controls are now calibrated for the wrong attacker
Where security capital is moving, and what to ask incumbents
Twelve concrete actions for this quarter
WP 04
India's Compute Decade
India's Compute Decade
India · 5 pages · July 2026
Funding up 21%, the largest cheques going to infrastructure rather than applications, and regulation arriving at the same time. A working map of the market.
What sits underneath the $9.71B H1 headline number
The three categories absorbing the large rounds
Children's online safety rules as a product requirement
The honest counter-arguments, including concentration risk
WP 05
The Browser Becomes an Agent
The Browser Becomes an Agent
Platforms · 5 pages · July 2026
The browser war restarted and it isn't about search. Every major browser now ships something that acts on your behalf — inside your authenticated session.
Which endpoint controls stopped working, and why
Prompt injection stated without the jargon
Nine questions to answer before allowing one
A defensible position that isn't an outright ban
WP 06
The Great Reallocation
The Great Reallocation
Workforce & Capital · 6 pages · July 2026
The 2026 layoffs aren't a downturn. They're a transfer — headcount converted into capital expenditure on chips, data centres and power.
How to tell a recessionary cut from a reallocation cut
Four questions that place your own function
What works and what doesn't if you lead an affected division
The two-quarter test for whether it was ever a strategy
WP 07
Selling Words to Machines
Selling Words to Machines
Media & Licensing · 6 pages · July 2026
A $1.5B settlement approved, a major licensing deal possibly not renewed, and platforms labelling AI-written work. The training-data market is being priced in public.
What a settled number changes in every later negotiation
How leverage shifted across three rounds of licensing deals
Five terms worth fighting for, four to be wary of
Why licensing revenue is rent, not a business model
WP 08
When Software Buys Software
When Software Buys Software
Fintech & Infrastructure · 6 pages · July 2026
Agents are being funded as economic actors. Payment rails, identity systems and collaboration tools were all built assuming the other end is human.
Five payment assumptions that fail without a person
Why authorisation, not payments, is the real problem
A workable delegation structure until standards arrive
The inventory most organisations haven't built yet
WP 01
The Compute Balance Sheet
Tell us where to send it. The download starts as soon as you submit.
✓
Your download is ready
If it didn't start automatically, use the button below.
