Aguila IT Consulting Practical IT strategy and delivery for UK organisations

Aguila IT Consulting

Practical IT strategy and delivery for UK organisations

Latest Articles

Blinking Lights and Blind Spots: A Two-Hour Walk-Round for Directors
Digital Strategy

Blinking Lights and Blind Spots: A Two-Hour Walk-Round for Directors

Most boards govern technology through dashboards, yet rarely open the door to the room where the network, the telephony and the backup links physically meet. A short, structured walk-round of that space is the cheapest diagnostic available to a non-specialist director, and it produces dated evidence that holds up in an insurance conversation or a supplier dispute.
Before the dialling tone changes: assuring emergency access in a UK telephony migration
Digital Strategy

Before the dialling tone changes: assuring emergency access in a UK telephony migration

Telephony migrations are usually planned around handsets, contact centres and call charges. The dependencies that matter most are often quieter: lift lines, alarm signalling, payment terminals and lone-worker arrangements. This guide sets out a cutover assurance routine so IT, facilities and operations can prove emergency access still works before, during and after migration.
The departure drill: proving you can leave a critical IT supplier
Procurement & Supplier Management

The departure drill: proving you can leave a critical IT supplier

Most UK organisations negotiate IT contracts far more rigorously than they rehearse an exit. A ninety-minute tabletop exercise can expose whether data, services, knowledge and costs would survive a supplier departure — and give the board evidence rather than assurances.
The work behind the workflow: auditing the manual controls UK IT services cannot survive
Digital Strategy

The work behind the workflow: auditing the manual controls UK IT services cannot survive

Critical IT and finance processes often depend on spreadsheets, manual handovers and one-person routines that no supplier contract covers. This practical audit method helps UK organisations identify those hidden controls, assign accountable owners and give the board a register of where operational resilience really rests.
Digital Strategy

Signing With Evidence: A Director’s Routine for Cyber Insurance Attestations

Cyber insurance attestations increasingly require directors to confirm specific controls, not merely disclose known incidents. A disciplined evidence routine turns that annual questionnaire into a useful control audit and reduces the risk of a claim being challenged long after the policy is bound.
The refresh cliff is a budgeting problem: planning device lifecycles beyond warranty expiry
Procurement & Supplier Management

The refresh cliff is a budgeting problem: planning device lifecycles beyond warranty expiry

Device estates rarely fail all at once; they fail in clusters when deferred replacements meet expired warranties and rising support load. A five-year lifecycle plan turns an unbudgeted replacement wave into a predictable, board-ready procurement decision.
The outage file: turning a service failure into board-level evidence
Digital Strategy

The outage file: turning a service failure into board-level evidence

A post-incident review should do more than record that a server failed and promise improvement. For UK boards, the useful version is a short evidence pack: a plain-English timeline, the decisions taken, the real cost of downtime and the few changes that would have shortened it. This article sets out a practical format that can be drafted in an hour and reused in risk, renewal and business-case conversations.
When the only IT manager is off sick: building a succession plan the board will actually minute
Digital Strategy

When the only IT manager is off sick: building a succession plan the board will actually minute

Most UK mid-market firms carry their entire technology estate on one pair of shoulders and no minuted plan for the day those shoulders are unavailable. This is a practical route from informal dependency to a named owner, a tested handover pack and a board decision with a date against it.
Pricing the deferral: a technical debt statement your finance director can interrogate
Procurement & Supplier Management

Pricing the deferral: a technical debt statement your finance director can interrogate

Technical debt survives because it is described in a language finance cannot audit. A single page of exposure, carrying cost and clearing cost — expressed in bands rather than false precision — gives a finance director something to challenge and a board something to decide.
Sixty minutes, four signals: giving the board a quarterly view of the technology horizon
Digital Strategy

Sixty minutes, four signals: giving the board a quarterly view of the technology horizon

Annual technology strategies are frequently out of date before the ink is dry. A disciplined sixty-minute quarterly scan gives directors four signals worth watching and three decisions worth taking, without turning governance into forecasting theatre.
The tools nobody bought: auditing unsanctioned software in UK professional firms
Digital Strategy

The tools nobody bought: auditing unsanctioned software in UK professional firms

Every professional services firm runs on a handful of tools that central IT never approved. The instinct is to ban them; the better move is to understand the data flows behind them, triage by risk and value, and bring the useful ones in from the cold.
The missing hour: turning IT project closure into evidence for the next business case
Procurement & Supplier Management

The missing hour: turning IT project closure into evidence for the next business case

Post-implementation reviews are promised at kick-off and quietly dropped at closure, which is precisely why the same delivery failures reappear in the next business case. A disciplined sixty-minute session, held while memory is fresh and repeated at 30 and 90 days, changes that pattern.
The one-page IT risk view: a director’s briefing that earns its place in the board pack
Digital Strategy

The one-page IT risk view: a director’s briefing that earns its place in the board pack

Boards rarely lack IT risk information; they lack the right information at the right altitude. This practical template shows how UK directors can focus on cyber, resilience and supplier risk through a one-page view built around decisions, financial exposure and regulatory consequence.
The plumbing beneath the AI policy: making responsible AI routine in UK mid-market firms
Procurement & Supplier Management

The plumbing beneath the AI policy: making responsible AI routine in UK mid-market firms

Most UK organisations can now point to an AI policy; fewer can show the data access, approval routes, logging and vendor controls that make it real. This 2026 operating model sets out the unglamorous controls that change behaviour and the procurement checks that support them.
Before the ink dries: an IT integration diagnostic for UK acquirers
Procurement & Supplier Management

Before the ink dries: an IT integration diagnostic for UK acquirers

Deal models rarely price the cost of merging two technology estates. This 30-day diagnostic gives UK leadership teams a disciplined way to size the integration tax, test synergy assumptions and arrive at the board with a prioritised plan before completion.
The curator's problem: five legacy IT exhibits that no longer earn their keep
Digital Strategy

The curator's problem: five legacy IT exhibits that no longer earn their keep

Keep-the-lights-on spending can preserve systems and rituals that no one would design today. This editorial sets out five familiar exhibits of legacy IT spend, a simple test for each and a practical way to rebalance run, grow and transform budgets for 2026.
Procurement & Supplier Management

Seven questions to ask before signing another IT renewal

Renewal season is when commercial inertia quietly becomes a cost. This checklist gives UK IT leaders seven questions to test before signing, with red flags and negotiation prompts on lock-in, service credits, exit and benchmark pricing.
Escaping pilot purgatory: a 90-day operating plan for UK digital change
Digital Strategy

Escaping pilot purgatory: a 90-day operating plan for UK digital change

Many UK organisations can demonstrate a promising AI, automation or cloud pilot; far fewer can show it running in production. This practical 90-day plan focuses on the management choices, metrics and funding shifts that turn a proof of concept into a durable service.