Services
Consulting and delivery across AI, digital and growth
Six service lines, each with a defined scope, deliverables and success measures. Engagements start with a fixed-scope first phase so you can judge the work before committing further.
Fixed-scope first phaseDocumented handoverOutcome-based reporting
01
AI Strategy & Consulting
Decide where AI actually pays back — before you build anything.
Business problems addressed
- Leadership is under pressure to "do something with AI" but has no way to rank the options.
- Pilots get built, demo well, and never reach production or show a return.
- Data is spread across POS, CRM, spreadsheets and SaaS tools, so nobody trusts the numbers.
- Teams cannot tell which processes are genuinely automatable and which need human judgement.
What HS Acumen provides
- Discovery workshops with the people who own the process, not just the budget.
- AI opportunity mapping across operations, sales, service and reporting.
- Feasibility and data-readiness review: what exists, what is usable, what is missing.
- Cost, effort and value scoring so investment goes to the highest-return use cases first.
- Governance guidance covering data handling, model oversight and human review.
Typical deliverables
- Prioritised AI opportunity register with value and effort scores
- Data readiness assessment and remediation list
- Phased AI roadmap with budget ranges and sequencing
- Business case and ROI model for the first two use cases
- Recommended architecture and tooling options
Expected business outcomes
- A clear, defensible answer to "where should we start with AI?"
- Budget concentrated on use cases with a measurable payback
- Fewer abandoned pilots and less wasted build effort
- Shared understanding between leadership, operations and technical teams
02
AI Automation & Implementation
Put agreed use cases into production, with humans still in control.
Business problems addressed
- Skilled staff spend hours a day on copy-paste work between systems.
- Customer enquiries, quotes and reports queue up because everything is manual.
- Document-heavy processes — invoices, forms, contracts — throttle throughput.
- Off-the-shelf AI tools do not fit the way the business actually operates.
What HS Acumen provides
- Process mapping and automation design for the workflows you selected.
- Implementation of AI-assisted workflows: extraction, classification, summarisation, drafting.
- Conversational assistants and internal copilots grounded in your own content.
- Integration with existing systems — CRM, POS, ERP, ticketing, email and spreadsheets.
- Evaluation harnesses, human-review steps and fallback paths before anything goes live.
- Monitoring, cost controls and handover training for the teams who run it.
Typical deliverables
- Production automation or AI workflow, deployed and documented
- System integrations and data pipelines
- Accuracy and quality evaluation results with agreed thresholds
- Runbook, monitoring dashboard and cost guardrails
- Team enablement session and support window
Expected business outcomes
- Hours per week returned to the people doing higher-value work
- Faster turnaround on customer-facing processes
- Lower error and rework rates on repetitive tasks
- Capacity to grow volume without a matching headcount increase
03
Digital Transformation
Modernise the systems and journeys the business runs on.
Business problems addressed
- Core operations still depend on spreadsheets, paper and email threads.
- Systems do not talk to each other, so the same data is entered three times.
- Customer journeys break at handovers between sales, delivery and support.
- Legacy platforms make every small change slow and expensive.
What HS Acumen provides
- Current-state assessment of processes, systems, data flows and pain points.
- Target operating model and digital journey design.
- System selection support and integration architecture.
- Phased migration planning that keeps the business running throughout.
- Change management, documentation and team training.
Typical deliverables
- Process and systems current-state map
- Target-state journey and operating model design
- Integration and migration plan with phasing
- Vendor or platform recommendation with selection criteria
- Adoption plan, documentation and training material
Expected business outcomes
- Manual handoffs and duplicate data entry removed
- One reliable view of customers, orders and performance
- Shorter cycle times across core operational processes
- A platform that can absorb growth instead of resisting it
04
MVP & Product Development
Get a credible product in front of real users in weeks, not quarters.
Business problems addressed
- A promising idea has no clear scope, so estimates keep expanding.
- Build cycles run long and the first release lands after the opportunity has moved.
- Founders need something investors and early customers can actually use.
- Early technical shortcuts turn into a rewrite twelve months later.
What HS Acumen provides
- Product discovery: users, jobs to be done, and the one problem worth solving first.
- Ruthless MVP scoping that separates launch-critical from later.
- UX flows, wireframes and a build plan with realistic milestones.
- Full-stack build of web applications, APIs and admin tooling.
- Analytics and feedback instrumentation from day one.
- Post-launch iteration based on usage evidence rather than opinion.
Typical deliverables
- Product definition, scope and prioritised backlog
- UX flows, wireframes and clickable prototype
- Working MVP deployed to production
- Analytics, event tracking and feedback loop
- Technical documentation and roadmap for the next release
Expected business outcomes
- A validated product in market in a fraction of the usual time
- Evidence from real usage to guide the next investment decision
- A demonstrable asset for investor and customer conversations
- A codebase built to be extended, not thrown away
05
Cloud & Solution Architecture
Architecture that stays affordable and secure as volume grows.
Business problems addressed
- Cloud spend climbs every month with no clear link to business volume.
- The platform buckles under traffic peaks or new integrations.
- Security, access control and data residency were never designed in.
- Deployments are manual, risky and depend on one person.
What HS Acumen provides
- Solution and cloud architecture design for new and existing platforms.
- Architecture reviews covering scalability, reliability, security and cost.
- Integration and API design between internal systems and third parties.
- CI/CD, environment strategy, observability and incident readiness.
- Cost optimisation with right-sizing and usage-based recommendations.
Typical deliverables
- Architecture diagrams and decision records
- Scalability, reliability and security review with prioritised findings
- API and integration specifications
- CI/CD pipeline, environment and monitoring setup
- Cloud cost optimisation plan
Expected business outcomes
- Predictable performance during peak demand
- Cloud cost aligned to actual business activity
- Faster, safer releases with far less manual effort
- Security and compliance considerations handled by design
06
Digital Growth & Analytics
Spend on acquisition you can actually measure.
Business problems addressed
- Marketing spend cannot be tied to revenue with any confidence.
- Traffic arrives but conversion stalls, and nobody knows where it leaks.
- Retention and repeat purchase are never measured, so churn is invisible.
- Reporting is assembled by hand every month and out of date on arrival.
What HS Acumen provides
- Analytics and tracking implementation with a clean, documented event model.
- Funnel and conversion analysis from first touch to repeat purchase.
- Customer segmentation and cohort/retention analysis.
- Campaign strategy, channel mix and testing roadmap.
- Automated dashboards for the metrics leadership actually decides on.
Typical deliverables
- Tracking plan and analytics implementation
- Funnel, cohort and retention analysis
- Segmentation model and campaign playbook
- Live KPI dashboard with agreed definitions
- Test backlog with expected impact
Expected business outcomes
- Acquisition cost and channel performance you can act on
- Higher conversion from the traffic you already pay for
- Improved repeat purchase and customer lifetime value
- Monthly reporting that takes minutes instead of days
Engagement Shapes
Three ways to start
Most clients begin with an assessment or a scoped first phase rather than a large programme. It keeps the initial commitment small and gives both sides evidence before going further.
Assessment
Two weeks. Review, findings and a prioritised roadmap. Free for AI assessments.
Fixed-scope project
Defined deliverables, timeline and price — typically an MVP, an automation or an architecture review.
Ongoing partnership
Retained capacity for continuous delivery, optimisation and growth work.