How we work
Datum Forge works in four stages: a free 45-minute sizing call, a paid design stage that produces a specification you own, a build quoted against that specification, and optional care. The build costs more than the design, each stage is priced in writing before you commit to it, and each has a point where you can stop. A smaller, defined job skips the design stage and is quoted in writing before we start.
Find the fixed point. Forge the system. Every business has a fixed point of truth: the problem that, if you fixed it, would change everything else downstream. We find yours and build there first. The system extends outward from that point as the next problem becomes worth solving.
One. Size: the free call
The first call is free and takes about forty-five minutes. We work out what the problems are, which one is costing you most, roughly how big a job that one is, and whether we are the right firm to take it on. You leave that call with a ballpark for what building the thing would cost, given in the room, so you know the order of magnitude before you spend anything. A ballpark is not a quote, and we will tell you which one you are holding. Sometimes the honest answer is that you do not need a system at all, or that you need a different kind of supplier. We say so on the call, not after an invoice. A polite “we’re the wrong firm” is a routine outcome, not an awkward one.
Bring the list of tools the business pays for, if you have one, and a rough idea of how many hours a week go on typing the same thing into more than one of them. Those are the numbers we size a first job from.
Two. Design: the first paid stage
What you buy is a document. It sets out what the system is, what it does, how it fits the tools you already run, what it will cost to build, and what it will cost to keep running. It is written to be built from, by us or by anyone else.
The design stage is paid work. Its fee is set against the size of the build we estimated on the call, agreed in writing before we start, and paid before we start rather than invoiced on delivery. It buys the document, not our time. It is not refunded if you decide not to build, and it is not credited against a build, because it bought something you keep. The one exception is our failing to deliver, in which case what you paid for and did not receive comes back.
On payment in full the document is yours: take it to another firm, put it out to tender, or put it in a drawer. This is how you would engage an architect. You pay for the drawings, the drawings are yours, and what you do with them next is your business. Most firms in our market call this stage discovery and keep the output. We call it the design and hand it over. A recommendation not to build is a legitimate outcome of the design stage, and we will give it with our reasons if that is our honest view.
Three. Build: quoted from the design
The design already carries the cost of building it, so the quote comes from a written specification rather than a conversation. The build costs more than the design, and how much more is what the design tells you. Then we build the system in real code, against real data, with you in the loop throughout. When it ships, it ships. If it needs changes later, or you want it to take on the next problem, we scope and price that as new work; you decide whether to spend.
The Build stage, in two moves. Every system we build ships in two moves inside the Build stage. The first puts a working prototype in front of your business early, so it learns from real work before the full system is built. The second builds the finished system you run, from what the prototype has shown about how your business actually runs.
Move one, the prototype
Mark builds a working prototype, set up for your business, using AI-assisted development where it earns its place, and your business starts using it on real work early. Every process it touches teaches us something the design stage could not have told us. While you use it, the prototype runs in Datum Forge’s accounts, with your working data in it for that period. The prototype is priced on its own and its fee covers its hosting and AI. It is how we learn, and it is not what you receive.
Move two, the finished system
When the prototype has shown enough about how the system actually needs to behave, Alex builds the finished system from it, on standard parts we have already hardened, tested against the ways real users have already pushed it, and engineered for how your business turned out to work rather than how we thought it would. It is installed in accounts in your name, your data moves across, and that is what you receive and what the licence covers.
Michael calls the transition. He owns the diagnosis that scoped the engagement in the first place; he owns the judgement of when Move one has revealed enough to justify moving to Move two.
Four. Care: optional, priced separately
Once built, the system is yours and runs on your accounts, and the software it runs on is licensed to you, permanently for the version you have. Care keeps that software updated and supported: updates, fixes, security updates, changes at your providers kept in step, and support when you need it, on terms agreed in advance. Without care, your system keeps running exactly as it is. The build fee is the build fee; care is separately priced and separately optional.
What you own
You own your system. We own the software it runs on. The finished system runs on accounts in your name, paid on your card: the hosting, the database, email sending and the AI provider, so Datum Forge is never on those bills. Your data, your content and anything we build only for you are yours, and you can leave with them any day. Our software is licensed to you, permanently for the version you have, and optional care keeps it updated and supported. It is your own system, not a share of a platform, and there is no subscription.
Your accounts
Hosting, the database, email sending and the AI provider: each is an account opened in your name and paid on your card. The bills come to you from the providers, at their prices, with nothing added by us. Your system talks to the AI provider directly, not through a Datum Forge account.
Your data
Everything the system holds stays in your accounts, and you can export every record as plain files whenever you like. Where we need access to your data for the work, it is limited to the work, and reduced to what care needs, or removed, when the work ends.
Your content, and what we build only for you
The words, pictures, pages and records your business puts into the system are yours, and so is anything made for your business alone, including the code written only for you, which sits in a code host in your name.
Your licence
The software your system runs on is licensed to you, and the licence for the version you have is permanent. It does not expire and it does not switch off, whether or not you take care.
What is ours
The software your system runs on is Datum Forge’s: the standard parts every system is built from, and the know-how behind them. We keep it, maintain it and improve it, and care is how your system gets those improvements. The build agreement, which is being drafted, sets the terms, and our ownership and IP page gives the position.
Your running costs, plainly
You pay your providers directly, on your card, at their prices. We add nothing to that bill, take no margin on it, and never handle it, because it does not pass through us. Your running costs are yours, which also means they move with whatever your provider charges, up or down. In an arrangement where you buy access to a tool somebody else operates, the price includes a spread on the usage underneath, invisible on the invoice. Ours cannot move for that reason, because once your finished system is live nothing of yours runs through our accounts.
Security, plainly
Datum Forge holds no security certification today: no ISO 27001, no Cyber Essentials. What we do instead is structural: your accounts, not ours; access limited to what the work needs, and reduced to what care needs, or removed, when the work ends; no pooled data. If a certification matters to whoever approves the spend, say so on the first call. The full position is on our data processing page.
If Datum Forge disappeared
Your system runs on accounts in your name, on infrastructure you pay for, with your data in it, and your licence to the version you have is permanent. If Datum Forge ceased trading tomorrow, the system would keep running exactly as it is. The build agreement sets the terms for the software itself.
What it costs, in order
The call costs nothing. The design costs money. The build is quoted from the design in two parts, the prototype and the finished system, and costs more than the design; how much more depends on the design. Then a licence for the software, permanent for the version you have, and care if you want it. There is no subscription. The prototype’s fee covers its own hosting and AI while it runs in our accounts; from go-live, those bills come to you from the providers, on your card.
We do not publish a rate card. The size of your build is a conversation, and we would rather have it with your numbers than with a price list. So bring them to the call: what you pay now for the tools this would replace, or what you are being quoted elsewhere. We will work the three-year total through with you both ways round. Most of what you spend with us, you spend near the start, and at the end of it you have your own system, on your own accounts, on a licence that does not run out; a monthly subscription costs less on day one and carries on costing for as long as you use it, and when you stop paying you stop having it. Which of those is actually cheaper depends entirely on your numbers over the period you care about. We would rather lose a deal on an honest total than win one on a low first invoice.
Smaller jobs
Not every job is a system. A fix, a script, a job that runs on a schedule, a link between two tools you already use, or a change to an app your team built: a defined job like that has nothing to design, so it skips the design stage. Describe it on the contact page, we quote it in writing before we start, and then we do it.
If someone else signs it off
Each stage is a phase that can be approved on its own. The call costs nothing. The design is priced in writing before it starts and produces a document you can put in front of whoever holds the budget. The build is quoted from that document, so the figure that goes for approval is a written one, not a number from a conversation. Each phase can be proved before the next is paid for, which keeps the risk at every step to the size of that step, and stopping after any of them is a normal outcome.
Three things that are true of every engagement
Designed for you, built from standard parts
Every system is designed around how your business works, not one size made to fit everyone. None is built from scratch: each is assembled from standard parts we have already hardened, with your own process on top, so the work goes into the part that is yours alone.
Written by engineers, not connectors
We build with code we own and maintain, not automation chains stitched from no-code tools. That is what we mean by engineered.
We will tell you if AI is not the answer
Some problems do not need AI. We will say so. Our order of preference is plain: a script, a scheduled job or a link between the tools you already run comes first, and AI only where a job needs judgement on language, voice or documents. Some jobs need AI; many need a script that runs at six every morning. The first call is honest whether or not it leads to a paid stage, and telling you to spend nothing is a routine outcome of it.
Your protection at the paid stage
It is not a promise to refund you. It is that the stage produces something you keep. If you pay for a design and then decide not to build it, or decide to build it with someone else, you still have the document you paid for and you are free to use it. That protection is a term in the design agreement, which you see before you pay anything. Before that, the free call is where we tell you if we think you should not spend at all. That conversation costs you three quarters of an hour and nothing else.
Questions
- How long is the first call, and what does it cost?
- About forty-five minutes, and nothing. You leave with a ballpark for the build, given in the room, and an honest answer about whether a system is the right next step.
- What do I get from the design stage?
- A written specification: what the system is, what it does, how it fits your existing tools, what it costs to build and what it costs to run. On payment in full it is yours, whoever builds it.
- How is the design stage priced?
- Against the size of the build we estimated on the call, in writing, before any work starts. We do not publish a rate card; the figure for your engagement is given on the call and set out in the design agreement.
- Do I have to build with you after the design?
- No. The document is yours to take elsewhere, to put out to tender, or to shelve. Neither of us is committed to a build by the design stage.
- Is the design fee refundable?
- No, and it is not credited against a build either: it buys a document you keep. The one exception is if we fail to deliver the document.
- How long does a build take?
- In two moves. Mark builds a working prototype your business can use early; Alex then builds the finished system you run, once the prototype has shown how it really needs to behave. How long each move takes is set out in the design.
- What do we pay for?
- The design, the prototype and the build, each priced in writing; a licence for the software, permanent for the version you have; and care, if you want it. No subscription. The prototype’s fee covers its hosting and AI while it runs in our accounts; from go-live, hosting and AI are billed to you by the providers, on your card, not by us.
- Who owns the system when Datum Forge builds it?
- You own your system: the accounts it runs on, your data, your content and anything built only for you. Datum Forge owns the software it runs on, which is licensed to you, permanently for the version you have.
- Whose name is on the hosting and AI accounts?
- Yours, for the finished system. Hosting, the database, email sending and the AI provider are accounts in your name, paid on your card. Your system talks to the AI provider directly, not through a Datum Forge account, so we add nothing to the provider’s bill. Only the prototype runs on our accounts, and its fee covers that.
- What happens to our running costs if the AI provider raises its prices?
- They rise for you, because the account and the bill are yours. We add nothing and take nothing from that bill, and we do not sit between you and the provider. We do not claim to shield you from provider prices; nobody honestly can.
- Can we leave?
- Yes, any day. Your accounts, your data, your content and anything built only for you are already yours, so there is nothing to extract and nobody to ask. Your licence to the version you have does not end when you leave; the build agreement sets the terms for the software itself.
- Is Datum Forge a subscription platform?
- No. Each client has its own system, on its own accounts, not a share of a platform we run. You pay for the design, the prototype and the build, a licence for the software and, if you want it, care. Nothing is rented back.
- What about a job that is too small for a design stage?
- A defined small job, such as a fix, a script or a link between two tools, skips the design stage. Describe it on the contact page and we quote it in writing before we start.
- What if the answer is that we do not need a system?
- We say so on the free call, or in the design document if that is where it becomes clear, with our reasons. Spending nothing is a routine outcome, not an awkward one.
- Who actually does the work?
- Three named people. Mark Barrett builds the prototype, Alex Fielder builds the finished system, and Michael Colling-Tuck owns the diagnosis and calls the transition between the two.