Where we lead, where we assist, and where we are the wrong call.
Most consultancies will tell you what they can do. The more useful information is what they should not be asked to do, and who is better placed when that is the situation.
Size is a question you deserve a straight answer to.
We are a specialist team, not a global systems integrator, and that is a deliberate choice rather than an ambition we have not got round to yet.
It has consequences in both directions. There are programmes where a firm of thousands is genuinely the right answer, and we will tell you when yours is one of them. There are others where size is the problem: where the people who assessed your estate hand it to a team who have never seen it, and the understanding evaporates somewhere between the proposal and the delivery.
Our work concentrates on the second kind. Systems that matter, cannot go down, and are difficult in ways that only become visible once someone reads the code. That work rewards continuity of the same small group of people far more than it rewards capacity.
Three shapes an engagement takes.
Which one fits is usually clear within a first conversation, and we will say which we think it is before you commit to anything.
We lead the programme
You have a system that matters, a hard problem inside it, and you want the people doing the thinking to be the people doing the work. We take the architecture, the delivery and the accountability.
- Legacy modernisation on a system that cannot be taken offline
- Integration across systems that were never designed to meet
- A build where the hard part is the existing estate, not the new code
- Programmes where deep engineering matters more than headcount
We work alongside your prime
A larger integrator or Big Four firm holds the programme. We take the part that needs specialists: the integration backbone, the legacy estate, the architecture nobody wants to own.
- Core banking or ERP replacement led by a tier-one vendor
- Multi-year, multi-vendor transformation where we own one workstream
- Design authority, reviewing decisions made by others on your behalf
- A second opinion on a plan you have already been sold
We advise, you deliver
Your team is capable and you need senior judgement at the points where a decision is expensive and hard to reverse. Retained, part-time, and deliberately not a route to us selling you delivery.
- Fractional CTO and architecture leadership
- Build versus buy decisions with real money behind them
- Reviewing a vendor proposal before you sign it
- Standing up engineering practice inside an existing team
Four things worth saying before you ask.
Three are conditions rather than refusals. The last one is the situation where we will genuinely point you elsewhere.
You want a platform recommended
We will give you one. Because no vendor pays us and we do not resell, the recommendation is based on your requirements, total cost and lock-in risk rather than on whose margin it carries. If the right answer is a product we have no relationship with, that is the answer you get.
You are building something new
We build greenfield, and it is the most straightforward work we do. The condition is worth saying out loud: in this region a new system almost never stays isolated for long, so we design it from day one to meet whatever it will eventually have to talk to.
The rewrite is already decided
We will build it. We will also tell you once, early and plainly, whether we think a rewrite is the right call, because we would rather say it than watch it. If the decision stands after that, we get on with it properly rather than relitigating it every sprint.
You need a thousand people
This is the one we genuinely are not built for. Programmes that are primarily a staffing problem, where the answer is a large offshore delivery centre, belong with a global integrator. We will say so early rather than stretch to fit, and we are happy to take a specialist workstream inside it.
How the work runs.
The same four stages whichever shape the engagement takes.
Assessment
We establish the current state, the risks and the goals before proposing anything. This is also where a realistic estimate comes from, rather than a generic one.
Design
A target architecture and a sequenced plan, built to be delivered in steps that each stand on their own.
Delivery
Incremental, verifiable change with rollback paths. The business keeps running throughout, which is usually the binding constraint.
Support
What we build stays supported, so the result does not decay once the project team has gone.
Support runs on as managed services where you want it. Commercially the work is fixed price where scope is genuinely clear, time and materials for modernisation and integration, or retained advisory for ongoing technical leadership. More in the FAQ.
Questions we get asked.
How large a programme can TrueForge take on?
We lead work where depth matters more than headcount, and we work as a specialist inside a larger programme when scale is the deciding factor. We are a team of tens, not thousands, and we will tell you plainly which situation you are in before you commit to anything.
Do you work under a larger systems integrator?
Regularly, and it is one of the shapes we are best at. On core banking and ERP replacements a tier-one prime usually holds the programme, and we take the integration backbone, the legacy estate or the design authority role alongside them.
What engagement models do you offer?
Fixed price where the scope is genuinely clear at the outset, time and materials for modernisation and integration where what you find in week three changes what week eight should be, and retained advisory for ongoing architecture and technical leadership.
How does an engagement start?
With assessment. We establish the current state, the risks and the goals before proposing anything, which is also how you get a realistic estimate rather than a generic one. Assessment, design, delivery and support is the same four-stage shape for every engagement.
Where do you work?
Our office is in Dubai Media City and we are registered in Dubai Internet City. We work across the UAE and the wider MENA region, on site, remotely, or as a blend, and we are open to clients across time zones.
Are you too small for an enterprise programme?
It depends on the programme, and the honest answer is sometimes yes. Where the work is genuinely about scale we say so and point you at a prime. Where the work is about difficult systems, we are frequently a better choice than a larger firm, because the people who assess your estate are the people who then change it.
Not sure which shape you are in?
Describe the situation and we will tell you which of the three it is, or that it is none of them and who to call instead.