Practice
Three ways I am usually engaged.
Always in this order, whether or not all three follow. Skipping the first is the most reliable way to waste money on the third.
Process baseline
Two to four weeks. I interview the people who do the work, watch individual steps at the desk, and write down what actually happens rather than what the manual says. Effort per step is measured, not estimated. You receive a written report that stands on its own and a ranked list of interventions with expected effort against expected benefit. This is the natural stopping point if you decide to go no further.
2–4 weeksFixed or capped 02
AI literacy for buying teams
Half a day for a general grounding, a full day when people work on their own cases. Covers what these systems do and do not do, which supplier information may go into them and which may not, how to recognise a plausible answer that is wrong, and the ground rules worth agreeing with legal and the works council. You receive documentation of the qualification for your Article 4 records.
½–1 dayFixed price 03
Implementation support
One process at a time, chosen because it is small enough to finish and painful enough to matter. I specify it, run the vendor evaluation with you or build the integration where that is more sensible, and stay until it runs in production with your people operating it. Four to eight weeks to production is normal.
4–8 weeksTime and materials, capped
How I charge, and what I will not do
Commercials
Plainly
Training at a fixed price per session, including preparation on your material and the written record. Analysis and implementation on time and materials with an agreed cap, or fixed once the scope is genuinely clear. The first conversation is free and carries no obligation.
Independence
No commissions
I do not resell licences and I take no referral fees from vendors. When I recommend a product it is because it fits your case, and when I recommend against the whole project you will hear that too — including when it costs me the engagement.
Handover
No dependency
Documentation, credentials and explanations are handed over in a state where another consultant could take over tomorrow. Confidentiality runs both ways: what I see in your organisation stays there, and I name references only with written permission.
Languages and reach
German and English, mostly on site.
I work in German and English. My office is near Hamburg, and a good deal of the work happens in the room with the people doing it — the baseline in particular is much weaker when conducted over video. Travel across Germany and to German-speaking neighbours is routine; anything further is a conversation about whether it is worth it.
A German-language sister publication, aimed at mid-market companies rather than procurement specifically, is at ki-experte.hamburg.
Talk it through
Thirty minutes on your actual process.
Describe where the time goes and I will tell you what I would tackle first — including the cases where the honest answer is that software is not your problem. No charge, no obligation.