Governance‑first transformation for SMEs.
Helping founders and leadership teams navigate ERP, digitisation, and organisational change with safety, clarity, readiness, and control.
What We Do
Digitisation Readiness
Most SMEs begin ERP or system change before they’re ready. That’s where cost overruns, rework, and organisational chaos come from.
Datum prepares your business for safe, sequenced transformation.
- Readiness and governance assessments
- Decision sequencing and risk surfacing
- Operating model clarity
- Pre‑ERP alignment for leadership teams
The goal is simple: reduce risk, friction, and surprises.
Transformation Advisory
When your organisation is facing complex change, you need senior guidance that is calm, structured, and grounded in real‑world SME experience.
- Change governance and leadership alignment
- Scenario planning and failure harvesting
- Boundary‑setting and decision clarity
- Practical, survivable transformation pathways
This is advisory that reduces noise, increases control, and protects the founder.
Interim & Rescue Services
Sometimes you need stabilisation before you can move forward. Datum provides short, sharp interventions that restore order and create breathing room.
- Excel Rescue Service (recover, stabilise, and future‑proof critical spreadsheets)
- Interim Power Apps, Access, and Power Query solutions
- SharePoint resilience and version recovery
- Lightweight process frameworks and tools
These are pragmatic, low‑friction solutions that keep the business moving while you prepare for long‑term change.
Why SMEs Choose Datum
- Founder‑safe - clear boundaries, no jargon, no pressure.
- Governance‑first - readiness before configuration, clarity before speed.
- Experience without ego - senior advisory without the consultancy theatre.
- Portable, distraction‑free engagement - structured templates, mobile‑ready materials, and clean workflows.
- Real SME understanding - practical, sequenced, survivable change, not enterprise theory.
Signature Concepts
These are the frameworks and mental models that underpin our work.
- Digitisation Readiness Framework - surfaces risks, gaps, and sequencing needs.
- The Four‑Stage ERP Journey - a founder‑safe roadmap for understanding what comes next.
- Leadership Micro‑Improvement Kata - small, repeatable behaviours that build stability.
- Layered Orbits Model - how work, decisions, and change move through an SME.
About Datum
Richard - Founder, Director and Principal Consultant, Datum Advisory
A systems‑level transformation advisor with over 30 years of experience in industry, who is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, specialising in SME governance, readiness, and the safe delivery of digitisation and ERP programmes.
Datum exists to help SMEs make better decisions, avoid avoidable pain, and navigate change with confidence.
We specialise in Yorkshire Based SME manufacturing businesses, with experience in engineered-to-order and project based electrical manufacturing. We predominantly cover North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, and West Yorkshire areas providing a valuable and rare service to this region.
How Engagement Works
- Initial Conversation - a short, founder‑safe discussion to understand your context.
- Readiness & Governance Assessment - a structured diagnostic to surface risks and gaps.
- Advisory or Interim Support - targeted guidance based on your readiness.
Contact
If your organisation is facing ERP decisions, digitisation pressure, or governance uncertainty, let’s have a conversation.
Email: contact@datumadvisory.co.uk
Phone: 07486385217