Understand Your Business Needs Before You Build or Automate
Discovery identifies the problem, how work happens today, and what your team needs. Consulting compares existing tools, custom automation, and process improvements to recommend an approach. Tool integration planning sets out how the selected systems should connect and share information.This service is for Calgary businesses, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing teams, that need a plan before changing tools or automating work. Diligentic reviews goals, information needs, budget, and risks. AI can help summarize research and meetings, organize requirements, check coverage, and compare options. People make the final decisions.
What You Receive from Discovery and Consulting Services
Depending on the agreed scope, your project can include the following documents. Diligentic reviews the findings with your team before handover.
Findings & Requirements
A summary of the problem, process maps showing how work happens, and a list of what users need the tools to do.
Options & Recommendations
Comparisons of tools, providers, and custom options, with notes on what is practical and the reasons behind the recommendation.
Priorities & Automation Roadmap
A plan showing what to tackle first, what can wait, and what must happen before each stage starts. Agreed decisions and assumptions are recorded.
Risk Notes & Completion Checks
Notes on possible problems, access needs, and checks for accepting completed work. Your team can use the documents internally or share them with a delivery partner.
Discovery Workshops & Business Analysis
Diligentic talks with the people involved, reviews how work happens and how people use the tools, records problems, and turns early ideas into structured requirements. The output gives your team a shared view of the problem, the users, the goals, and the decisions that still need attention.
Feasibility, Risk & Readiness Review
Diligentic reviews your existing tools and checks what is needed for tool integration. It checks whether the proposed approach can work with your available information and access permissions. It reviews security expectations, rules you need to meet, budget risks, limits in your daily work, and what must happen first. This helps your business decide what is realistic before committing to a larger build.
Planning What to Build First
Diligentic defines the first useful release, prioritizes features by business value and effort, documents assumptions, and creates a phased roadmap. The plan keeps early delivery focused while leaving room for future improvements, integrations, automation, and managed support.
Process Mapping & Workflow Improvement
Diligentic maps how work happens today, where handoffs break, where information is duplicated, and where approvals slow progress. Recommendations focus on simpler workflows, clearer roles, better documentation, and practical process automation where it reduces real effort.
Tool, Vendor & Build-vs-Buy Consulting
Diligentic compares existing tools and providers. It reviews setup effort, ownership, support, and long-term costs. The recommendation considers your daily work, information needs, and staff availability. Wherever possible, code storage, accounts, and tools belong to your business.
Delivery Documentation & Handover Planning
Diligentic records decisions, planned features, how work happens, and what users need to do. The documents include next steps, risks, and checks for completed work. Your team, investors, developers, or future providers receive a clear starting point.
Discovery Problems Diligentic Helps Solve
Discovery and consulting helps when your team is unsure what to change, which approach fits, or how to move ahead within the budget.
1
Unclear Requirements
Projects slow down when goals, users, workflows, and success measures are assumed instead of written down. Diligentic turns scattered ideas into clear requirements your team can review, price, and build from.
2
Scope & Budget Risk
A project feels risky when features, effort, dependencies, and tradeoffs are not visible. Diligentic helps define the first useful phase, separate must-haves from later work, and reduce avoidable rework.
3
Teams Working from Different Assumptions
Different teams often describe the same problem in different ways. Diligentic runs structured discovery sessions so leadership, operations, technical teams, and users work from the same decisions.
4
Tool & Vendor Confusion
Choosing tools or building automation without a clear fit can create long-term cost and support problems. Diligentic compares options against real workflows, ownership needs, data access, security, and maintainability.
5
Poor Handover Readiness
Discovery should leave useful evidence, not just meeting notes. Diligentic prepares roadmaps, process maps, feature lists, decision logs, risk notes, and handover documents your team or vendor can use.
Discover
Diligentic learns your goals, who is involved, how work happens, and the tools, budget, and limits to work within.
Assess
Diligentic checks available information, permissions, risks, rules you need to meet, and anything that could hold up the work.
Map
Diligentic maps the steps, approvals, decisions, and information passed between people and tools.
Prioritize
Diligentic helps your team agree on priorities based on benefit, effort, risk, timing, and readiness for change.
Validate
Diligentic checks assumptions with your team and reviews unusual situations to confirm the recommendations are practical.
Plan
Diligentic sets out the stages of work, what each stage includes, ownership, and next-step options.
Handover
Diligentic walks your team through findings, risks, priorities, and open decisions before building, choosing tools, or internal planning begins.
FAQs
Answers to common questions about discovery, consulting, requirements, roadmaps, feasibility, ownership, documentation, vendor decisions, security readiness, and project planning.
Discovery and consulting can include planning which tools should connect, what information they need to share, and the access or setup requirements. Building those connections is a separate step unless it is included in the agreed project scope.
- Does discovery and consulting include building the tool integrations?
- Discovery and consulting can include planning which tools should connect, what information they need to share, and the access or setup requirements. Building those connections is a separate step unless it is included in the agreed project scope.
- What is included in a discovery and consulting project?
- A discovery and consulting project can include conversations with your team, workflow mapping, business analysis, feasibility review, risk assessment, feature prioritization, tool or vendor comparison, roadmap planning, and handover-ready documentation. The exact scope depends on whether you are planning a new system, improving an existing process, replacing tools, or preparing for delivery. If your main goal is to identify where AI could reduce manual work, an AI Workflow Assessment can help establish the starting point.
- How does discovery reduce project scope, budget, and timeline risk?
- Discovery makes hidden assumptions visible before delivery begins. Diligentic documents goals, users, features, dependencies, access needs, data gaps, integrations, security expectations, and open decisions. That gives your team a clearer first phase, fewer late surprises, and a better basis for estimating effort, cost, and delivery timing.
- Can discovery help us decide whether to build custom automation or buy an existing tool?
- Yes. Diligentic compares custom-build, off-the-shelf, and vendor options against your real workflows, data needs, team capacity, ownership expectations, support needs, implementation effort, and long-term cost. The recommendation is written in plain language so leadership, operations, and technical teams can understand the tradeoffs.
- Do you review security, access, and compliance readiness during discovery?
- Yes, where it is relevant to the project. Diligentic reviews access expectations, passwords and keys, approval flows, environment separation, audit trails, data handling, vendor access, documentation gaps, and operational readiness. If Cyber Essentials alignment matters, Diligentic can help identify evidence and process gaps, but this is readiness support, not certification.
- Can discovery support teams with limited time and resources?
- Yes. Diligentic scopes the project around the decisions your team needs to make first. Sessions are focused, findings are documented in plain language, and recommendations are prioritized so you are not left with a large report that is difficult to act on. Small teams often benefit from a shorter discovery phase because it protects time and budget before delivery starts.
- How do you help us decide which features to build first?
- Diligentic scores features by business value, user impact, risk, implementation effort, dependencies, and operational readiness. Then Diligentic works through the priorities with your team so the first release solves a real problem without carrying every future idea into the initial scope.
- How long does a discovery and consulting phase usually take?
- A focused discovery phase can take 2 to 4 weeks when the problem is narrow and the people involved are available. Larger projects with multiple teams, systems, integrations, vendors, or compliance concerns can take 4 to 8 weeks. Diligentic divides the work into stages so you receive usable findings early instead of waiting until the end.
- Why should a business use consulting services before starting a major project?
- Starting a major project without discovery often leads to unclear requirements, budget pressure, delayed launches, and mid-project scope changes. Discovery surfaces requirements that the people involved assumed were obvious, identifies technical or operational constraints, and exposes dependencies between systems, teams, vendors, or approvals before delivery starts.
- Do you sign an NDA before we share our project idea?
- Yes. If your project idea, vendor review, internal workflow, or business plan is sensitive, Diligentic can complete a mutual NDA before the first discovery session. Diligentic treats discovery material as confidential and only involves people needed for the project.
- What deliverables do we receive at the end of discovery?
- Depending on the agreed scope, you receive a summary of findings, diagrams of how work happens, planned features, and a roadmap showing what comes first. Supporting notes cover what users need to do, checks for accepting completed work, possible risks, tool comparisons, agreed decisions, and what is practical. Diligentic prepares these documents for your team to use in planning, provider discussions, design, development, or funding conversations.
- Who owns the documents, research findings, and deliverables from the project?
- The discovery outputs are yours to use after the project: strategy notes, process maps, research findings, feature lists, roadmap recommendations, and delivery documents. You can share them with internal teams, investors, developers, or vendors, and Diligentic can remove its working copies on request after final handover.
- Can we pause or stop the project if our priorities change?
- Yes - projects can be paused or closed at any stage without financial penalty beyond work already completed. Diligentic works in defined phases so there is always a natural stopping point with usable output. If an internal situation changes - a budget shift, a leadership change, or a competing priority - Diligentic stops cleanly, documents where Diligentic is, and hands off everything completed. You are not locked into a timeline that no longer fits your situation.
- Will we be dependent on your team after the consulting project ends?
- No. The goal is to leave your team with clear documents, decisions, priorities, and next steps that can be used without Diligentic. Diligentic runs a handover session at close and works inside client-owned repositories, accounts, folders, and tools where possible. Ongoing advisory or delivery support is available, but it is a choice, not a lock-in requirement.
- Is documentation included in the delivery?
- Yes - documentation is a core deliverable, not an optional add-on. Every project closes with a written summary of findings, a prioritized recommendation list, and supporting documents such as process maps, feature lists, risk notes, or roadmaps depending on scope. Documents are written in plain language so they are useful for your whole team, not just technical readers. You receive the final set before sign-off so you have time to ask questions and request clarifications.
Check More Services
AI Workflow Assessment
Diligentic maps your workflows, identifies where AI can reduce manual effort, and delivers a prioritized automation roadmap.
Workflow discovery and mapping
Manual work identification
AI fit and tooling review
Prioritized roadmap and report
System Integrations & Reporting
Diligentic connects core systems and everyday tools, synchronizes operational data, and turns it into trusted dashboards and reports.
ERP, CRM & accounting integration
Make.com, Zapier, APIs & webhooks
Data synchronization & validation
Dashboards & automated reporting
Process Automation
Diligentic digitizes manual approvals, forms, and document workflows with automation for efficiency.
Form builders and digital workflows
Document tracking and e-signatures
Approval routing and reports
Integration with email and CRMs