Architecture and advisory for the systems that run your business — and the teams that run them
29 years connecting systems that were never designed to work together. Almost all of it is one pattern — many parties, one authoritative record. Early on that record was a patient; today it is an order in make-to-order manufacturing.
23 of them in architecture and consulting, four of those at Microsoft. Eleven building quoting and design software for the kitchen and bath cabinetry industry. I tell you who pays me before you ask.
What I do
Integration & systems architecture
Most businesses run on systems that were bought at different times for different reasons and were never meant to talk to each other. The hard part is rarely the connection; it is getting them to agree on what the data means and who owns it. I design the layer that makes them behave as one — across CRM, engineering, ERP, and production — and the migration path that gets you there without stopping the business.
How I work →Legacy modernization & ERP succession
The people who maintain the custom code around your ERP are retiring, and your vendor’s support contract doesn’t cover the parts your business depends on most. I map what you actually have, who understands it, what breaks when they leave, and what a realistic path forward costs — including whether your team can run what comes next.
Read the assessment approach →Architecture & vendor selection
Requirements defined from your actual code, not a wish-list workshop, then vendors scored against them — including the questions buyers in this market usually don’t know to ask. The recommendation comes with a dissent section: what would have to be true for the second choice to win. Where any vendor I have a relationship with is a candidate, I disclose it in writing at the outset and recuse from scoring that category.
How I run a selection →Configuration & business logic
Every make-to-order manufacturer ends up with a custom layer between the configurator and the ERP, because no vendor ships one for your product line. Designing and extracting that layer is the work I do best — in cabinetry, and in windows, doors, furniture, and fabrication where the problem is identical.
How I approach it →Technology leadership advisory
An owner or executive without a CTO still has to decide about the technology function itself — what it can actually do, who is staffed where, what the succession risk is, and where the real exposure sits. I’m a standing second opinion on those, available before the commitment rather than after the post-mortem.
How the retainer works →I don’t resell software, take vendor commissions, or staff implementation teams. In an advisory engagement the only thing I’m selling is judgment about your systems and your team — which means I can tell you when the answer is to do nothing.
I am not only an advisor. I am, on contract and ongoing, the chief architect for a kitchen and bath SaaS provider, and I build and sell software of my own: GaugeFactor, GraphOrbis, and applications for other markets. GraphOrbis can be used for kitchen design. If you work in this market, assume I have interests in it rather than taking neutrality on trust. What I disclose, and what I recuse from →
Recent writing
Nobody maintains your code
Your ERP vendor maintains their product. The custom layer around it sits outside every support contract you pay for, and its authors are retiring.