Consulting
Strategy & Roadmap
A multi-year network strategy tied to your business plans: the target architecture, the sequence to get there, and a budget leadership can defend.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute scoping call.
When a strategy engagement helps
- The business is planning growth, a new facility, or an acquisition, and the network has to be ready for it.
- Cloud, security, or workplace initiatives are moving faster than the network strategy behind them.
- The next refresh cycle is approaching and you want to invest once, in the right order.
- Leadership wants a plan it can fund over several years rather than a series of urgent requests.
- A platform selection is coming and you want the requirements written by someone who is not selling one.
What we work through
Strategy work connects the direction of the business to the decisions that shape the network. We cover six areas and keep the reasoning visible throughout.
Business drivers
Where the organization is going over the planning horizon and what that demands from the network.
Current state
An honest baseline of the architecture, its constraints, and the technical debt the plan must work around.
Target architecture
Guiding principles and a reference design for campus, wireless, data center, WAN and SASE, cloud connectivity, and security.
Technology direction
Which platforms and standards fit, which do not, and the requirements to put to vendors when a selection is due.
Sequencing
The order of work, its dependencies, and the points where a decision can safely be deferred.
Investment
A budget envelope by phase, with the operating cost implications made visible alongside capital.
What you receive
A strategy that is concise enough to be read by executives and specific enough to guide the engineers who will deliver it.
- Network strategyA concise document that connects business goals to architecture decisions and explains the reasoning.
- Target architectureReference designs and principles that guide every subsequent project.
- Phased roadmapInitiatives, sequencing, dependencies, and decision points across the planning horizon.
- Investment planA budget envelope by phase, suitable for capital planning and board discussion.
- Vendor selection supportRequirements, an RFP if you need one, proposal scoring, and an independent read of every quote, with no product to sell.
- Leadership briefingA presentation and working session with the executives who will sponsor the plan.
How the engagement runs
The same four-phase discipline as every Metis engagement. The strategy is the architecture phase; delivery follows through projects or the retainer.
How we workUnderstand
Strategy work starts with the people who set the direction of the business, not with the equipment. We interview executives and technology leaders, review the plans already in motion, and build a baseline of the network as it is today.
Architect
We develop the target architecture and test it against the scenarios the business expects: growth, consolidation, new locations, and new ways of working. Options are presented with their trade-offs so the important choices are made deliberately.
Enable
The roadmap is sequenced around real dependencies and budget cycles, briefed to the executives who will sponsor it, and written to remain useful long after the engagement ends.
Questions we are asked
The questions that come up on most scoping calls for strategy work.
Do we need an assessment before a strategy engagement?
It helps, but it is not required. If a recent assessment exists, we work from it. If not, building the current-state baseline becomes the first part of the strategy work.
Will you recommend specific vendors and platforms?
When a selection is due, yes. We write the requirements, draft the RFP if you want one, score the proposals, and give you an independent read of every quote. We sell nothing and hold no partner tiers, so the recommendation is only a recommendation.
Who needs to be involved from our side?
The executives who set direction, the technology leaders who own cloud and security strategy, the team that runs the network, and whoever owns the capital budget. Most of their time is spent in a handful of interviews and one working session.
How is strategy work priced?
As a fixed fee against an agreed scope and planning horizon, quoted after the scoping call.
What happens when the business changes?
The roadmap is built with decision points, so a change in direction means revisiting a decision rather than the whole plan. Many organizations keep a senior architect involved through the advisory retainer as the roadmap is delivered.
Related services
Start with a 30-minute scoping call.
Tell us where you’re headed and what’s in the way. A senior engineer will call to understand your situation, not to pitch.
- We read your message and reply to arrange the call at a time that suits you.
- A senior engineer joins the call to understand your environment and what you are trying to achieve.
- If there is a fit, you receive a written proposal with scope, deliverables, and price. If there is not, we say so and point you in a better direction.