Case studyOptivo, operating leadership for UK accountancy firms
A consultancy that runs on its own rails
A fractional COO service for accountancy firm owners. Every engagement moves through the same six stages in one client hub, and the hub writes the deliverables.
- 1
Start
Scope, access and a baseline
Sets the starting point - 2
Fact find
Operations, people and numbers
WFact find - 3
Analyse
Capacity, margin and pricing
ECapacity modelEPricing analysis - 4
Plan
A 90-day operating plan
WOperating plan - 5
Monitor
A weekly rhythm and measures
Tracks the measures each week - 6
Report
Board pack and decisions
WBoard pack
Stages follow the client hub. Document names are shortened.
Senior help that runs the same way twice
Fractional consultancy is easy to sell and hard to deliver well. Each engagement tends to become a fresh set of spreadsheets, and the quality depends on who is doing the work that month.
A service that cannot run the same way twice is hard to price with confidence, hard to hand to anyone else and hard to sell as a product. So the method was built into software first, and the service was designed around it.
A firm scores itself in three minutes
The scorecard asks the owner to rate their firm from 0 to 10 across ten operating areas, from founder independence to workflow and team capacity. The result shows where the firm is strong and where it is exposed, before anyone speaks to anyone.
optivo.uk/scorecard →
Three ways in, every price on the page
Three-month minimum, then rolling monthly.
Two or three days a week for three to six months.
Six-month minimum, then rolling monthly.
Why it is built this way
The method is the structure of the hub
Six stages, the same for every client, built as the screens of the hub. An engagement moves forward through them in order, so the method is followed on every engagement without anyone checking a manual.
Tools that write the documents
The fact find is filled in once and a formatted Word document comes out. The analysis produces an Excel model and the plan feeds the board pack. The hours that used to go on formatting go on the thinking.
A scorecard at the front door
A firm owner scores their own firm across ten operating areas in about three minutes. They come to the first call knowing where the weak areas are, and firms that are a poor fit see it for themselves.
Every price on the site
The monthly retainer, the interim day rate and the Integrator retainer are all published. Conversations start from whether the service fits, with no quoting and no day-rate haggling.
The method became the product
Delivery runs on software, so the service can be repeated, sold at a published price and run the same way whoever opens the hub.
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