Will you tell us to fire our vendor?

Only if that's genuinely the answer, and it often isn't. Most failing projects have a structural cause rather than an incompetent supplier.

Can we buy just the assessment?

Yes, and plenty do. Fixed price, one to three weeks. You can act on it with us, with your existing vendor, or with someone else.

Will our vendor cooperate?

Usually, once it's clear the assessment isn't a prelude to blame. Vendors are often as stuck as you are and frequently relieved.

What if the answer is to stop?

Then we say so, in writing, with the reasoning. That's what independence is for.

AliveCommerce / What we do / Applications

Project recovery

Past deadline, past budget, and every status update sounds like the last one. The hardest part isn't the technical problem. It's that everyone involved now has a position to defend, which makes an honest picture almost impossible to get from the inside.

Assessment1 to 3 weeks, fixed price

Common outcomeKeep the vendor

PositionIndependent, no stake in the answer

Talk to us about this What drives the cost

Fixed budgetAgreed before work starts. Scope flexes, the number doesn’t.

No vendor pays usNo commissions, referral fees or markup. Ever.

You own everythingCode, documentation, credentials — throughout, not at the end.

Nearly 20 years2,000+ projects for 500+ organizations, from SOHO to Fortune 1000.

What's included.

Scoped and priced up front. Exclusions written as explicitly as inclusions.

Independent assessment

What's built, what works, what's salvageable and what the remaining options genuinely cost. Written, and yours to take anywhere.

Stop-or-continue recommendation

Sometimes the answer is to stop, or to keep the current vendor under a different structure. We're not trying to inherit the project.

Commercial structure review

If the model caused the failure, replacing the vendor inside the same model reproduces it. Usually the fix is how the work is bought.

Stabilisation

Nothing new gets built until what exists is understood and working. Adding to an unstable base is how recoveries become second failures.

Takeover and completion

Where that's the right answer, with a scope and a fixed budget agreed before anyone starts.

Vendor transition management

Running a handover where the incumbent would rather you didn't, including data and credential recovery.

How we approach it.

In this order, because doing them out of order is how these go wrong.

Establish where things actually stand

Independently, in writing, with no interest in the answer. Access and conversation rather than blame.

Say plainly whether to continue

Including when the answer is to stop. Sunk cost is the most expensive argument in this category and someone independent has to name it.

Fix the structure, not just the team

If the commercial model punished honesty, a new supplier in the same model will behave the same way.

Only then, rebuild forward

With a written scope, explicit exclusions and a fixed number.

Assessment

1 to 3 weeks

Independent, written, fixed price, standalone

Common outcome

Keep the vendor

With a different structure and clearer ownership

Most common trigger

A third missed date

Or a board asking a direct question

Not sure this is what you need?

Tell us what's actually happening and we'll say which part of this applies — or that a different approach fits better, or that you don't need us yet. That last answer is more common than you'd expect.

Get a straight answer Or call 416-639-5876, weekdays 8:30–5:30 ET

What we work with.

Chosen on fit. We take no commission or referral fee from any of them.

Code and architecture reviewRequirements reconstructionData integrity auditContract and scope reviewVendor mediationDelivery replanning

If this shouldn't be a project.

Some of this work never really ends. When that's true, we'll say so rather than selling you a project that restarts in three years.

Continuous ownership

Champion1

When the recovery is really a support problem — a vendor gone dark, a developer who left. We take it over and keep it.

See Champion1

Onsite process work

LiquidIQ

When the failure traces back to a process nobody documented, which is more common than it sounds.

See LiquidIQ

Straight answers.

Start the Conversation.

No qualification questionnaire. No nurture sequence. A person reads it and replies within a business day — and tells you plainly if we're not the right fit.

01A person reads itNot a scoring model. It goes to whoever would actually do the work.

02A reply within a business dayUsually a question or two rather than a calendar link.

03A conversation, not a pitchTwenty to ninety minutes. No deck, no slides.

04Then, only if it's warrantedA scope or assessment with a price attached before any work starts.

Prefer to talk first? 416-639-5876 · [email protected]

About project recovery

Three fields. We'll ask the rest on the call.

Related.

Articles are matched by tag; services, capabilities and programs are curated.

Tell us what's breaking.

We'll tell you roughly what this costs, how long it takes, and whether it's worth doing at all — including when the honest answer is that you don't need us.

Start the Conversation

Knowledge and process

Applications and data

Customer and web

Browse by symptom instead

The structure

Continuous ownership

Before you commit

Start with one problem

Priority sectors

Also

Or by situation

Not sure you fit?

Reading

Most read

Proof

Nobody owns the application layer