01
Solution architecture
Application structure, service boundaries, and the decisions behind both.
Software services / Architect
Decide before you commit
Design the system before it is built.
The decisions that cost most to reverse are made before any code exists. We do the architecture, integration design and technical specification — whether or not we build what follows.
Discuss an architecture
Independent of the build A specification you own, usable by any supplier you choose.
Who it is for
CIOs, IT managers and procurement leads about to commit budget to a platform, a replacement system, or an integration programme — and wanting the shape right before anyone quotes on it.
How it is sold
Fixed fee for a defined architecture or specification piece, with a day rate for advisory sessions and supplier reviews afterwards.
Start here
A fixed-price architecture review: we assess the current estate or the proposed design and give you a written opinion on structure, risk and cost drivers.
Book an architecture reviewWhat we design
The shape of the system, settled on paper first.
Architecture work produces documents that other people can act on — your team, your incumbent supplier, or whoever wins the tender.
02
Integration design
How systems exchange data, who owns which record, and what happens when one is down.
03
Data architecture
Models, flow, retention and the reporting the business will need later.
04
Technical specifications
A document precise enough to quote against and to hold a supplier to.
05
Cloud and platform design
Azure topology, environments, cost shape and operational responsibilities.
06
Supplier and proposal review
An independent read on someone else's architecture, estimate or scope.
What is included
Documents a third party can build from.
Current state assessment
What exists, what it costs and what constrains the next move.
Target architecture
The proposed structure, with the trade-offs made explicit.
Integration map
Systems, interfaces, data ownership and failure behaviour.
Non-functional requirements
Performance, availability, security and compliance, written down.
Delivery roadmap
Sequencing, dependencies and the decision points along the way.
Cost and risk commentary
What drives the number, and what would change it.
Why architecture first
The expensive mistakes are made early and quietly.
By the time a structural problem is visible in a running system, the cost of changing it has multiplied. Architecture work moves those decisions to the point where they are still cheap.
- Comparable quotes
Suppliers price the same scope, so the numbers mean something. - Integration understood up front
The interfaces that derail projects are designed, not discovered. - Compliance designed in
Regulated reporting shapes the data model instead of being bolted on. - No vendor lock-in
The specification is yours, and it does not assume we build it.
Systems and interfaces
Data and reporting
ArchitectureDecisions recorded
Security and compliance
Delivery sequence
One set of decisions that every later choice refers back to
A different standard of certainty
A proposal is not a design.
Most projects begin with a supplier's estimate rather than an architecture, which is why scope moves and nobody can say whose fault it was.
| Decision area | Estimate-led project | PsalmTech architecture |
|---|---|---|
| Basis | A supplier's proposal document | An independent technical design |
| Integration | Discovered during the build | Mapped before the build is quoted |
| Comparability | Quotes describe different things | Suppliers price the same specification |
| Compliance | Addressed once a gap appears | Designed into the data model |
| Ownership | The design lives with the supplier | The design belongs to you |
The architecture engagement
From intent to a specification you can act on.
Short, document-led and deliberately independent of whoever builds the result.
01
Frame
Objectives, constraints and scope.
02
Assess
Current systems and data.
03
Design
Target architecture and interfaces.
04
Specify
Documents suppliers can quote against.
05
Advise
Review, selection and decision support.
What you receive
- Architecture document
- Integration map
- Data model
- NFR schedule
- Delivery roadmap
- Cost commentary
Proof
A compliance model designed before the first screen
10Bucksonly had to produce output SARS would accept across many organisations at once. Multi-tenancy, record ownership and the certificate model were architecture decisions, not build-time ones.
Committing budget soon?
Get the shape right before anyone quotes.
Bring us the problem, the estate and the constraints. You will leave with a design you own and enough detail to put real numbers against it.