About DS Consulting
We run technology projects for mid-market companies, from the decision through to the build. Small firm, deep on both the systems and the business they have to serve.
Most technology projects fail in the gap between what the board decided and what the system was built to do. We work in that gap.
Why the firm exists
A technology project has two halves and they are usually bought from different people. A strategy firm writes the requirements. An implementation partner builds against them. Each does its own half competently.
What nobody owns is the join. The requirements were written by people who would not use the system. The build followed them faithfully, including the parts that made no commercial sense. Neither party is at fault and the result is still a system the business works around rather than through.
We started DS Consulting to hold both ends of that. Someone who can read an interface specification and a month end close calendar, and who is still there when the thing goes live.
We have built these systems
Data models, interface design, migration and the difference between a configuration you can upgrade and a customisation you will pay for twice. This is hands-on experience, not a summary of someone else's build.
We can read the business case
Month end close, order to cash, pipeline reporting, statutory disclosure. We can tell you which requirement is load bearing and which one is a preference somebody wrote down in a workshop.
You meet the people who do the work
On technology projects the people who scope the work are the people who deliver it. Where delivery involves specialists or a partner firm, you are introduced to them during scoping rather than after you have signed.
What we work on
Three kinds of work, and they are less separate than they look. A sustainability disclosure is a data problem before it is a reporting problem. An outsourced finance team is only as good as the systems it works in. And a technology project is judged on numbers that come out of finance.
Technology
The systems a company runs on, from the platform that takes the order to the reporting the board reads. Selection, build, integration and the governance around AI.
Sustainability and ESG reporting
Reporting treated as a systems problem. Data ownership, controls and evidence trails, so disclosure becomes a report you run rather than a project you survive.
Finance and accounting outsourcing
Offshore finance and accounting teams for companies that need capacity rather than another tool. Delivered with a partner firm, with us accountable for the systems the function runs in.
How we are paid
We are an independent consulting firm. Software vendors do not pay us, so our recommendations come with the scoring behind them.
We take no commissions, referral fees, reseller margin or partner incentives from any software vendor.
Our technology work is paid for by the client and nobody else. We hold an interest in the finance and accounting partner firm, and would rather you heard that from us.
We still recommend software. You get the scoring behind the recommendation, not only the conclusion.
What we do not do
Every item here is a revenue line that would give us a reason to recommend one thing over another.
How the firm is set up
Worth being straight about, because it changes what you should expect from us.
We are small
Two principals, with specialist freelancers brought in for delivery. If you need a hundred consultants on site next month, we are the wrong firm and we will say so.
You meet everyone
Anyone who will work on your project is introduced to you during scoping. No handover to a delivery team you have never met.
We turn work down
Where the work sits outside what we do, or where the honest answer is that you do not need it. That is easier to do without a licence quota to hit.
Who runs it
- Built in-house CRM and 360-degree customer view systems integrating purchase history, survey data and third-party market share data at scale
- Led location strategy across more than 75 cities in India, covering store viability, size and category assortment
- Restructured merchandise to shift from festival-driven to occasion-driven sales, sustaining revenue across the year
- Designs sustainability reporting to be repeatable and ready for assurance
- Translates ESG requirements into operating systems with named owners
- Builds measurement frameworks leadership can actually review