Why it matters
Most change stalls between the plan and production.
- AI strategy22%of organisations have scaled AI across multiple business units or adopted an AI-first approach.Gartner, survey of 1,303 respondents, published September 2026
- Data readiness63%lack, or are unsure they have, the right data management practices for AI; Gartner predicts that through 2026 organisations will abandon 60% of AI projects unsupported by AI-ready data.Gartner, survey of 1,203 data management leaders, published February 2025
- Production20%of leaders in low-maturity organisations say their AI initiatives stay in production for three years or more, against 45% in high-maturity ones.Gartner, survey of 432 organisations, June 2025
- Programme delivery15%of the 189 projects in the UK Government Major Projects Portfolio were rated Green for delivery confidence; 18% were Red.NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26, July 2026 (data at March 2026)
Nearly nine in ten respondents report regular use of AI in at least one business function, yet only 37% attribute at least some EBIT impact to it. The gap is strategy, data and running what is built, and it is where Vardonne works. McKinsey, The state of AI in 2026, survey of 1,719 participants, August 2026
Programme delivery
We review, assure and recover the programmes you cannot afford to have fail.
Not an interim programme manager: a senior programme and portfolio practitioner on your side, assuring and intervening across a portfolio or a series of programmes, recovering the ones that have stalled, and reviewing the ones the board is worried about. Accountability for delivery stays with your senior responsible owner. PMO as a service where a firm needs the discipline without the department.
- Delivery review
- An independent health check, with a written verdict and plan.
- Fixed feefrom £13,000About 3 weeks
- Delivery leadership
- A senior programme and portfolio expert on your side, part-time, providing continuous assessment, assurance and intervention across new and existing delivery mandates. Accountability for delivery stays with your senior responsible owner; ours is for the quality of our assessment, our interventions and what we tell you.
- Monthly retainer
- Recovery
- A failing programme stabilised and its plan reset.
- Fixed feefrom £31,500About 6 weeks
- PMO as a service
- Your programme office, run for you.
- Monthly retainer
Vardonne Intelligence
We take AI from an idea to something running in production, and keep it there.
AI that earns its place: readiness assessed across use cases, data and risk; one enterprise AI strategy with a value objective for every use case; the cost to run understood before deployment and after it; and the governance required to make quality output enduring. Vendor-independent.
- AI readiness assessment
- Use cases, data and risks assessed; operating model maturity assessment and gap analysis.
- Fixed feefrom £13,500About 4 weeks
- Enterprise strategy
- Engagement on the analysis and definition of an AI enterprise strategy, including value definition and portfolio, programme and project execution definition.
- Scoped after assessment
- Operating financials
- AI proposal operating cost analysis, or post-deployment AI opex cost analysis; business case gap analysis and ratification proposal.
- Fixed feefrom £9,500About 3 weeks
- AI governance for tenders
- The AI policy and evidence public buyers ask for.
- Fixed feefrom £7,500About 2 weeks
The AI operating model
AI works as a system, not as a set of tools. Six layers, each with the place it usually breaks.
| Layer | What it must cover | Where it usually breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Value | Where AI adds value, and how it is measured after go-live | Deployed with no value objective |
| Strategy | One enterprise AI strategy and roadmap | Applications bought piecemeal |
| Data | Data architecture, quality and readiness | Deployed before the data is ready |
| Deployment | Use cases taken from pilot into production | Pilots that never reach production |
| Governance | Drift, output quality, human checks and the AI register | Output quality left unmanaged |
| Economics | Tokenomics: the cost to run, per use and per outcome | Running costs discovered too late |
A chain, not a menu: each element feeds the next, and a gap in one weakens every other. Everything points at value, set before deployment and measured after it, and the operating model (roles, cadence, stage gates and the AI register) keeps the whole system in step. We assess every element and every link, then sequence the work so the gaps close in the right order.
Gap analysis
Your AI estate assessed against each layer: what is missing, and what needs to be ratified.
Enterprise AI strategy
Where AI adds value to your organisation, with a value objective for every use case. For an existing AI ecosystem: analysis, gap and maturity assessment to confirm or ratify that it is fit for purpose, identify sub-optimal, value-detracting deployments, and define a ratification proposal.
Readiness programme
A sequenced programme of sub-projects: data, governance, the cost model and the pilots.
Value realisation
Benefits measured after deployment, against the objective set at the start.
Tender support
We prepare and write the technical and digital bids you intend to win.
Technical and digital bids across all industries and organisational verticals, under the Procurement Act 2023: registrations, certificates and evidence in place before a tender opens; bid analysis, strategy and writing through to submission; and delivery set up once a contract is won. We support bids we would be prepared to deliver.
- Tender readiness
- Registrations, certificates and evidence in place before a tender opens.
- Fixed feefrom £6,500About 3 weeks
- Bid support
- Bid analysis, bid strategy, bid proposal construction, and bid discussion and submission facilitation.
- Fixed fee per bidfrom £9,500Starts at least 3 weeks before submission
- Win and mobilise
- New tenders tracked; delivery set up once a contract is won.
- Monthly retainer
Systems build
When the answer is software, the group builds it rather than pointing at a vendor.
Built and hosted by ArcSystemsTechnology, the group’s build arm, under its own engagement letter, with Vardonne leading the delivery. Cadence keeps the reviews, decisions and risks running after we leave.
- Build and hosting
- Built and hosted by ArcSystemsTechnology, the group’s build arm.
- Scoped after assessment
- Cadence
- Reviews, decisions and risks kept running after we leave.
- Included
Every engagement: the fee in writing before work begins · a named senior lead · a written close · vendor-independent. “From” prices are for a typical scope and exclude VAT and expenses. Durations include contingency and run from the day we have the documents and access to the people the work needs. Expenses such as travel and hotels are charged at cost, with no mark-up, within limits agreed in writing before work begins, and invoiced monthly with receipts. Retained and scoped work is quoted in writing after the first conversation.
Across industries
The practices are not tied to one sector. Programmes stall, AI fails to reach production and bids are lost for the same reasons in any organisation; what changes is the regulator, the vocabulary and the evidence a buyer needs. Each engagement is run in the client’s terms.
- Professional services Firm-wide AI adoption with governance the partners can sign, and practice-platform change delivered without losing billable time.
- Financial services and insurance Remediation under supervisory scrutiny, models taken through model risk review, fraud systems recovered and change portfolios the board can see. In detail
- Health and care Programmes run to the clinical and data protection standards the sector sets, and AI decision support taken from pilot to routine use.
- Public sector Bids under the Procurement Act 2023, the AI governance public buyers ask for, and major programmes run to stage gates.
- Construction, property and infrastructure Capital programmes and portfolios run to stage gates, public tenders prepared and won, and asset data made ready for AI.
- Manufacturing, logistics and utilities Operational AI taken to production and kept there, and transformation portfolios run across sites and suppliers.
Each industry links to AI already in production there, from the use-case library.
Also offered
Roundtables and market insight, on their own or within an engagement.
Roundtables
Bring the right people into one room and leave knowing what they know, what they don’t know, and what they need.
- As a contributor
- Vardonne attends as a thought leader and shares its experience on the subject.
- As a facilitator
- Vardonne facilitates or co-facilitates the session, asks the questions, and draws out each attendee’s views and needs.
- What you receive
- A written summary of the discussion and the gaps in knowledge it revealed.
- Fixed fee per eventfrom £2,500
Market insight
Know what your market thinks, and how that is changing, before you commit.
- A one-off study
- Market analytics or a survey, designed, run and reported for a single decision.
- A quarterly series
- Four surveys a year on the same questions, so change is tracked, not guessed.
- What you receive
- A report with the findings and what they mean for your organisation.
- Fixed fee, or retained for a seriesfrom £12,500 (one-off study)
Fees are set out in writing before any engagement begins. Start a conversation and we will send the shape and the fee that fit.