The problem behind the ask

What was asked for was not what was needed.

Three situations where the request we were handed turned out to be a symptom.

PE investor · Netherlands

Data ownership had to come before the ERP decision.

01The ask
  • A fractional Chief Data Officer to help select an ERP.
  • Leadership stretched thin, reporting assembled by hand across disconnected systems.
02What we found
  • Parallel spreadsheets were producing competing numbers.
  • With no clear data ownership, leadership could not answer a portfolio question with one voice.
03What we recommended
  • Settle data ownership and governance first, then pilot on the data that hurts most.
  • An operator who is investment-fluent rather than procurement-led, with ERP following the data architecture.
04What they agreed
  • The reframe held across two meetings and a written briefing.
  • A senior data and AI leader matched, activation agreed for the second half of 2026.

Renewable energy developer · Europe

Choosing a document system would not have fixed development.

01The ask
  • Better document management across seven countries.
  • Terabytes of unstructured data, with a CRM rollout already under way.
02What we found
  • The same information was recreated in different places, with an inconsistent trail behind approvals.
  • Documents were a symptom. Process ownership and the handoffs between development, engineering, legal and grid looked like the constraint.
03What we recommended
  • Map development from site identification to ready-to-build.
  • Establish the constraint before committing to SharePoint, document architecture or standardisation.
04What they agreed
  • The complexity sits in development, not the build.
  • The question moved from which system to buy, to what is slowing development down.

PE-backed buy-and-build · Europe

The reporting problem changed the hiring brief.

01The ask
  • A data hire, to get visibility on cash conversion.
  • Reporting had not kept up with recently acquired businesses.
02What we found
  • The brief combined an urgent reporting problem with a longer-term hiring question.
  • The two needed separate decisions.
03What we recommended
  • A short engagement to rebuild the reporting cadence and hand it back to the team.
  • Assess the permanent requirement afterwards, once reporting is stable.
04What they agreed
  • Reporting work and permanent headcount are different decisions.
  • A defined piece of work replaced the permanent hire brief.

Case studies

Delivered work.

Senior operators embedded in investor-backed businesses. Measured in the business.

27

Case studies

12

Countries

8

Industries

7.7x

Best ROI

4 days

Time to place

Interim CTO placed during a Series B close

Technology · United Kingdom · Leadership continuity

The situation
The CTO left mid-round. The funding round and the product rebuild were both exposed.
What we did
We placed a senior interim CTO within four working days.
What changed
The Series B closed, the product rebuild landed on schedule, and a permanent CTO started 11 weeks later.

7.7x

Return on fees

Predictive modelling on a chemical plant

Chemicals · Continental Europe · EBITDA improvement

The situation
The business needed margin improvement without spending capital to get it.
What we did
We put in a small senior team: a delivery manager, a data strategy architect and two lead data scientists.
What changed
120,000 euro of savings inside two months, 7.7 times the cost of the engagement.

35%

IT overhead cut

Four IT businesses merged onto one M365 tenant

IT services · Benelux · Post-merger integration

The situation
Four acquired businesses were still running separately, slowing everything down ahead of a secondary sale.
What we did
We placed a collaboration architect with security and governance specialists to design one tenant.
What changed
Four tenants became one in 12 weeks, IT overhead down 35%.

40%

Cost of ownership

Cloud cost after acquisition-led growth

Banking · United Kingdom · Cost control

The situation
Fragmented infrastructure inherited through acquisitions, with no common governance model and cost sitting outside anyone's remit.
What we did
Senior multi-cloud architects and FinOps specialists embedded into the enterprise cloud function.
What changed
A substantial reduction in total cost of ownership and one governance model across business units.

0

Days of disruption

Carve-out without interrupting revenue

Industrial manufacturing · Continental Europe · Separation

The situation
A European divestment on a hard deadline, with order-to-cash processes and ERP dependencies shared with the parent.
What we did
A senior supply chain transformation operator designed the transitional operating model and decoupled the dependencies.
What changed
Separation completed with no operational disruption and a fully auditable process split.

100

Days to independence

Standalone technology readiness inside the TSA window

Business services · United Kingdom · Separation

The situation
Separation from a corporate parent with transitional service costs running and an aggressive independence deadline.
What we did
A dedicated carve-out programme lead and technical architecture team.
What changed
Technology independence achieved inside 100 days, with transitional service costs cut ahead of deadline.

12 to 4

Days to close

ERP stabilisation across a buy-and-build

Industrial manufacturing · Germany · Finance

The situation
Six sites, fragmented ERP landscapes and manual financial processes slowing the close while acquisitions continued.
What we did
A senior ERP programme architect and a finance transformation lead.
What changed
Monthly close cut from twelve days to four, with intercompany reconciliation automated across most entities.

6 wks

To a full risk register

Data governance ahead of an exit process

Healthcare services · United Kingdom · Exit readiness

The situation
Material data governance risk surfaced early in an exit process and threatened value.
What we did
A data governance architect and compliance specialists.
What changed
A complete risk register in six weeks, turning a red flag in due diligence into a point of strength.

3

Cloud providers unified

FinOps built from scratch

Global manufacturing · Pan-European · Cost control

The situation
Hundreds of applications across three cloud providers, with no line of sight from architecture to commercial reporting.
What we did
Senior cloud architects and financial governance specialists built a greenfield FinOps function.
What changed
Significant recurring cloud savings and real-time cost transparency for global business units.

90%

False positives removed

Security noise removed during a cloud migration

Financial services · Europe · Regulated delivery

The situation
Regulatory exposure during a core banking migration, with remediation teams buried in false positives.
What we did
DevSecOps specialists implemented compliance-as-code inside the delivery pipelines.
What changed
The large majority of false-positive alerts eliminated and an audit-ready, governed environment.

6 to 11

Pilots in delivery

Stalled AI pilots moved into delivery

Public healthcare · United Kingdom · AI delivery

The situation
An AI strategy that was not converting into clinical delivery, with governance and adoption pulling apart.
What we did
An experienced AI programme lead partnered with clinical directors and put programme discipline in place.
What changed
Six stalled pilots moved into active delivery within three months and clinical engagement widened substantially.

2 mths

To an independent team

Customer data platform handed over

Digital marketing · Netherlands · Handover

The situation
Pan-European brands each modelled data differently, making every campaign a bespoke build.
What we did
A platform expert and team lead took technical ownership and led a specialist team.
What changed
Per-client setup time cut sharply and the specialist team operating independently within two months.

$3M

Losses prevented

Coordinated fraud networks dismantled

FinTech · UK and Europe · Fraud

The situation
Legacy rules-based detection was missing organised fraud and revenue was leaking.
What we did
Senior data scientists designed a hybrid graph and machine learning detection framework.
What changed
Multiple fraud rings dismantled and millions in projected losses prevented.

£100K

Monthly losses avoided

Real-time fraud scoring for a scaling bank

Digital banking · United Kingdom · Fraud

The situation
Remittance fraud was undermining unit economics as volumes grew.
What we did
A specialist team deployed a graph-based scoring model inside the live transaction path.
What changed
A material monthly reduction in fraud losses with a measurable improvement in detection recall.

18%

Inventory reduction

Planning redesign that released working capital

Industrial manufacturing · Central Europe · Working capital

The situation
Tactical planning was disconnected from executive strategy, leaving inventory tied up.
What we did
Specialists redesigned the planning framework and implemented scenario modelling.
What changed
Double-digit inventory reduction and a stronger executive planning cadence.

Forecast accuracy

Step change

Automated pricing in a manual market

Freight and logistics · Europe · Pricing

The situation
Quote-level pricing depended on a handful of experts, limiting speed and consistency.
What we did
A forecasting model replaced manual expert pricing, then automated spot quoting was built on top of it.
What changed
A large improvement in forecast accuracy and a step change in net revenue on key accounts, with performance monitored in real time.

4 hrs

Board reporting time

Commercial visibility for the board

Professional services · United Kingdom · Reporting

The situation
CRM architecture did not reflect the investment thesis, so pipeline reporting was unreliable.
What we did
A senior CRM and commercial operations specialist designed a structured implementation.
What changed
Pipeline visibility aligned to actuals within a month and board reporting cut from days to hours.

100%

Sites on one model

Governance across multiple production sites

HR and finance · Netherlands and Belgium · Governance

The situation
HR and finance governance differed site by site, blocking a digital operating model.
What we did
An HR transformation operator redesigned governance and built the digitalisation roadmap.
What changed
Headcount budgeting aligned across the group for the first time, with clean governance at every site.

Forecast accuracy

Planning maturity beyond spreadsheets

Bulk chemicals · Netherlands and Belgium · Planning

The situation
Critical planning ran on spreadsheet workarounds, creating systemic operational risk.
What we did
A supply chain and planning specialist with deep sector expertise.
What changed
Measurably better reporting accuracy and spreadsheet dependency reduced across planning groups.

3 to 8

Workstreams synchronised

Multi-workstream programme governance

Chemical distribution · Pan-European · Programme governance

The situation
Milestones slipped because ERP, consolidation and treasury workstreams ran to different clocks.
What we did
A finance programme manager embedded into the European transformation office.
What changed
Workstreams synchronised under a shared cadence and slippage brought under control.

30%

Manual work removed

Fund services operational excellence

Fund operations · Europe and global · Automation

The situation
Portfolio complexity and international scaling were outrunning manual operational processes.
What we did
A senior fund services specialist led operational excellence and systems modernisation.
What changed
A third of manual processing time removed through systematic automation of compliance and accounting workflows.

Deploy frequency

Step change

One engineering platform through hyper-growth

Technology · United Kingdom · Platform

The situation
Rapid engineering expansion with inconsistent delivery practice across hundreds of services.
What we did
Projekt4 led the creation of a unified internal developer platform.
What changed
Faster idea-to-production cycles and higher deployment frequency with fewer incidents.

7

Senior hires in 8 weeks

A cloud and security team built in eight weeks

Growth-stage technology · United Kingdom · Team build

The situation
Heavy dependency on consultancies and no in-house foundation for security, reliability or cost control.
What we did
A blueprint for the team, then seven senior hires across application security, SRE, cloud platform, developer experience and FinOps, mixing contract and permanent.
What changed
A full team operating in eight weeks, selected for people who change both the technology and the culture around it.

Eng velocity

Held through growth

Platform leadership at Series A

Financial technology · Germany · Platform

The situation
Series A operating disciplines and security alignment were missing under high-value infrastructure.
What we did
An engineering manager placed to lead the platform team and own the infrastructure roadmap.
What changed
Velocity maintained through headcount growth and pipeline reliability materially improved.

6 wks

To both roles filled

Continuity through leadership change

PropTech · Netherlands · Leadership continuity

The situation
Structural leadership change mid-expansion put the product roadmap at risk.
What we did
A tech team lead and a lead backend engineer sourced and placed within six weeks.
What changed
No disruption to the roadmap and technical continuity maintained across the stack.

Board approved

Roadmap and shortlist

From legacy frustration to an investable case

Impact investing · Northern Europe · Technology assessment

The situation
Long-standing frustration with legacy platforms, but no business case a board could act on.
What we did
A Projekt4 expert led the technology assessment and mapped the full landscape.
What changed
A board-approved roadmap and a clear platform shortlist, delivered on schedule.

If one of these looks like your situation, start there.

Bring us a clear brief or bring us the problem. We will tell you which route fits, and what the first ten days would look like.

Start a conversation