The Systems-Continuity Diagnostic
One business-critical system. One pending mandate. In three to four weeks you know what the system does, who can run it, what the customer’s or regulator’s specification actually requires of it, what breaks if your keeper leaves, and the phased plan to meet the date — whether or not any further work follows.
Three to four weeks from kickoff. Scoped to one system and one dated mandate. Sold to the owner or CFO as risk reduction — not as a sales estimate.
- System map and runbook — who can run it today
- Specification gap analysis against the mandated date
- Keeper-risk assessment and knowledge-capture plan
- Security review of the system
- Fraud-controls module for brokers and 3PLs
- Phased plan, priced in milestones to your go-live
Built for the operator with a date on the calendar that someone else set.
- A shipper’s vendor-compliance manual: EDI 204/214/210 or API status events by the first of the quarter.
- A port community system cutover or a new terminal appointment feed.
- A customs filing change — the July 1, 2027 statutory repeal of de minimis, a new tariff regime, ten-digit HTS on every entry.
- An FMCSA effective date: CSA scoring, electronic DVIRs, Clearinghouse reporting, MOTUS registration.
- A ship’s refit schedule that needs real-time cargo tracking in a yard you have never worked.
- The keeper’s retirement, resignation, or notice period.
- A TMS or WMS bought years ago and customized since, with maps and workarounds one person understands.
- A dispatch board, project-tracking, or cargo-management application built in-house — Access, VB6, classic ASP, AS/400, early .NET.
- An entry-processing or agency system built around customs rules that no longer exist.
- EDI maps, carrier and shipper API connections, and the spreadsheets that reconcile them.
- Anything where, if it stopped Monday morning, loads could not be dispatched, tendered, tracked, invoiced, or cleared.
The map an owner needs whether or not any further work follows.
The diagnostic’s deliverable is also the first chapter of the documentation a custody engagement needs anyway. A diagnostic that goes quiet is not a failure — you hold a paid-for risk map, and the next trading partner will set the next date.
- System map. What the system actually does today — data flows, integrations, trading-partner maps, reports, the spreadsheets bridging the gaps — written so a second person could run it.
- Specification gap analysis. What the customer’s, port’s, or regulator’s spec requires of the system, line by line, and where the current system cannot get there as built.
- Keeper-risk assessment. Who holds what, what is undocumented, what breaks if they leave, and the knowledge-capture plan that makes their maps outlast them — with them treated as the expert, never the problem.
- Security review. Access, backups, integration credentials, and exposure of the system. Logistics cyber incidents rose 61% in 2025; custody of a system now includes its security posture.
- Fraud-controls module (brokers and 3PLs). Carrier vetting, identity verification, and payment controls against a fraud wave TIA estimates at up to $35 billion a year.
- AI impact documentation (where applicable). Where AI touches a decision in the system — pricing, carrier selection, driver management — the impact-assessment and human-review documentation that state AI statutes now expect.
- The phased plan. How to meet the date without betting the account: milestones, what moves in parallel, what the legacy system keeps doing until cutover, and a milestone-priced proposal you can accept or shelve.
Three rungs. Three price forms. None of them hourly.
Each rung de-risks the next for both sides. Fixed fee for the diagnostic, milestone pricing tied to your go-live for the project, and a flat monthly retainer for custody — so our AI-assisted speed shows up in your calendar, not in a shrinking or swelling invoice.
Three facts that change the conversation.
Section 174A restores permanent full expensing of domestic software development spend for tax years after December 31, 2024, with catch-up deductions for amounts capitalized in 2022–24. A $150K integration expensed immediately is a different conversation than the same engagement amortized over five years.
Retention, not IT cost. 93% of shippers weigh a provider’s technology capabilities when selecting or retaining it, and 74% are consolidating providers. The integration layer is a revenue-retention asset.
Margin from accuracy. FTR’s 2026 contract-rate forecast of 2.6% is, in its analysts’ words, roughly the inflation rate. Margin will come from automation and billing accuracy — 57% of operators reported shipment delays from document errors in the past year.
This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm Section 174A treatment with your CPA.
- Hire against a deadline measured in weeks
- Vendor quote at enterprise price and timeline
- Freelancer: one single point of failure for another
- Decline the spec — and the customer
- Scope the project from a sales estimate
- A map of the system in three to four weeks
- The spec translated into exactly what must change
- Your keeper’s knowledge captured, not replaced
- A plan the owner can defend to the customer
- A milestone-priced project you can accept or shelve
Before the first call.
Will you replace our TMS or WMS administrator?
No. The person who wrote the maps and holds the workarounds is the expert whose knowledge must outlast them. We document what they know, take the next spec off their desk, and in most accounts they become our strongest internal advocate. We are not here to replace their work — we are here to make sure the next spec doesn’t land only on them.
What if the date is inside eight weeks?
Call anyway. A date inside eight weeks is a priority conversation. The diagnostic compresses when it must, and the phased plan is designed to meet the date without betting the account — often with the legacy system doing part of the job until cutover.
We are choosing a new TMS. Can you help us pick?
That is one of the things we decline. When your question is “which TMS should we buy,” our role is the integration and custody layer around whatever you choose — offered after the selection, not during it. See who we serve and who we don’t.
Do you bill hourly?
Not on any rung. Fixed fee for the diagnostic, milestones tied to your go-live date for the project, a flat monthly retainer for custody. Our speed is our margin, not your risk.
Who should be on the first call?
The owner, president, CFO, or the division general manager who holds the budget — the person who personally carries the risk of freight not moving or not getting billed. Your operations lead and your systems keeper are welcome; the proposal is never carried upward by someone else.
We are a 15-person brokerage. Is this for us?
Probably not yet, and we will say so. Brokerages under 20 people and fleets under 50 trucks are well served by packaged software, and we will point you to it. The diagnostic is built for operators of roughly 50 to 1,000 people whose systems have outgrown the package.
Forty-five minutes. The decision-maker, us, and the date.
Bring the spec, the date, and the name of the person who knows how the system works. We will tell you candidly whether the diagnostic is the right first step — and if it isn’t, who to call instead.