CANTERA WORKS

Four ways to buy. Each one ends.

Fixed fee per phase, quoted before it starts. Stop after any of them and keep everything produced up to that point.

Colleagues talking through a problem at a laptop
Where most engagements start

Survey

Fixed fee · 3 weeks

An honest look at how the work actually runs. Process maps, a systems audit, maturity scoring, and a costed roadmap.

  • An effort-against-impact ranking, including what to leave alone
  • A list of things your team can build without us
  • The blueprint is yours: take it elsewhere if you want to
Exit: a decision you can act on

Pilot

Fixed fee · 4 to 6 weeks · one workflow

One process, built and measured against criteria you set before we start. Where you find out whether it works in your real conditions.

  • A working system on live data, in a bounded scope
  • An evaluation including what failed, and the failure-mode analysis
  • A go or no-go with the reasoning shown. We've recommended no-go
Exit: go / no-go, evidence attached

Build

Fixed fee per phase · 6 to 14 weeks · handover included

Full deployment with your people in the build. Error handling, monitoring, audit logging and rollback are in the original scope.

  • The system in your repositories, under your accounts
  • Architecture docs and operator runbooks, written as we go
  • Two of your people trained to run, break and repair it
Exit: trained operators, access revoked

Optimization retainer

Monthly, capped · optional · six months, expires

A defined support window after handover, with an end date. Tuning, exception review and coaching your operators as they take more on.

  • Monthly exception and performance review with your operators
  • An agreed allocation of build hours for extensions
  • It doesn't auto-renew
Exit: written into the contract

The concierge system, worth its own line.

What makes automation fragile usually isn't technical: it's that the knowledge lives in four people's heads. A searchable, maintained standard-operating layer your team actually uses, and the thing agents read when they need to know how you do it here. It makes everything built afterwards cheaper and safer.

How we do it here, one maintained source Your people Automations Agents Cheaper, safer builds after

Built to be handed over, which changes what we build.

Most firms hold the knowledge and bill the retainer. Here's what we commit to in writing instead.

  • Fixed fee per phase, quoted before it startsNo open-ended engagement. No master agreement that assumes the next phase.
  • Stop after any phase and keep everythingThe blueprint, the pilot, the code: yours whether or not you continue.
  • Everything lives in your accounts, throughoutYour repositories, your credentials. We host nothing of yours.
  • Two of your operators trainedAble to run, break and repair the system without us. We treat that as a hard gate.
  • Our access ends on a date in the contractAfter that we can't reach your systems. Support is optional, capped and expires.
  • No margin on anything we recommendWe have no platform to sell you, so the advice is never self-interested.
  • We'll say when it isn't worth doingThe Pilot ends in a go or no-go with the reasoning shown. We've recommended no-go.
  • Failure is designed before the happy pathThresholds, named owners, fail-closed, tested rollback: in the original scope.
How to work with us Read the method
Illustrative example: composite of typical engagements

What it looks like: month-end close, nine days to two.

9 → 2
days to close, held across six consecutive months
0
roles removed; all three moved onto analysis
4
of their staff trained to operate and extend it

How this compares to the two things you'd usually buy.

What you care aboutAutomation software vendorLarge consultancyCantera Works
Who owns the system afterwardsThe vendor, via the licenseWhoever renews the retainerYou. Code in your accounts from day one
How the engagement endsIt doesn't; it renewsThe next phase is already assumedOn a date in the contract, with your people trained to run it
Stack recommendationTheir platformOften a migrationWhat you own first; no margin on anything else
What happens when it failsA support ticketA change requestIt halts, alerts a named owner, and can be rolled back
Commitment before you spendAnnual licenseStatement of workFree assessment, a thirty-minute call, then a fixed-fee Survey

Questions people ask before they buy.

How much of my team's time does this take?

Small, named up front, and scheduled around your calendar. We observe live runs rather than pulling people into workshops, and build weeks avoid close and peak periods.

Is this safe for our IT and security teams?

Everything is built in your repositories under your accounts. Agents never write to systems of record directly: they propose, a posting service executes, and every write path has a tested rollback. Our access is revoked on a date you set.

Can we stop after the Survey?

Yes. The blueprint is yours, and you can build from it with your own people. That's a fine outcome for us.

What does the retainer actually cover?

A monthly exception and performance review with your operators, an agreed allocation of build hours for extensions, and coaching as they take more on. It's capped, it expires, and it doesn't auto-renew.

Before any of this, two things that cost nothing.

The maturity assessment

Twelve questions, ten minutes. Scores your process against your industry, sizes the cost of staying put, and tells you what to fix first.

Take the assessment

A readiness call

Thirty minutes, no commitment. We keep a handful of slots open each week for people who've scored a process: bring one and we'll fit you in. We'll tell you whether a Survey is worth your money, and say so if it isn't.

Book a readiness call

Thirty minutes. Worst case, you lose half an hour.

Bring one process. You leave knowing which level it's on, what to fix first, and whether it's worth doing anything at all.

Book a readiness call Score a process first