Continuo Advisory

When the decision is expensive and the clock is running.

We work with managing partners, COOs and IT leaders in professional services firms of 100 to 1,000 people, and with commercial enterprises facing the same decisions.

Clients usually call in one of six moments.

Your Microsoft agreement or CSP renewal is inside six months.Copilot is being bundled into the conversation, and the commitment terms will outlast the strategy.
A partner head agreement is up for renegotiation.The template was written to protect the partner, and the risk sits in the detail.
You’re choosing between platforms that overlap.Document management, practice management, CRM and Microsoft 365 often do the same job twice, at twice the cost.
AI has been approved before the groundwork.Licences are bought, but data permissions, governance and contract terms aren’t settled.
A merger has left you with two of everything.Tenants, identities, licences and partner agreements need consolidating without disrupting fee earners.
The roadmap hasn’t been costed against the contracts that fund it.The plan looks sound until the vendor commercials arrive.

If one of these is on your desk, a 30-minute call is usually enough to show where the exposure sits.

What gets missed, and what it costs.

Most technology deals don’t go wrong at the price. They go wrong in the terms, the access and the assumptions nobody tested.

What gets missed	What it costs
Short cancellation windows under Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience	Once the window closes, you’re committed for the full term, whether or not the plan changes.
Admin roles your partner holds in your Microsoft tenant	Standing privileged access to your environment, governed by an IT setting rather than a contract.
Liability and indemnity drafting in partner head agreements	Risk allocated to you by default, and discovered only when something goes wrong.
Copilot licences bought before permissions are fixed	AI surfaces whatever staff can already access, so oversharing becomes visible at scale.
Platforms that overlap with what you already own	You pay twice, and you give up leverage you could have used at the table.
Published pricing used as a negotiating benchmark	It anchors you in the wrong place and tells the vendor what you don’t know.
Auto-renewal and price-review clauses	The next term is decided by default, months before anyone reviews it.

Each of these is fixable before signature. Very few are fixable after.

Six questions before any signature.

Before we look at the price, we ask six questions. The answers usually change the negotiation more than the discount does.

What does this lock in?Architecture, term, data location and the platforms you’ll be tied to for the next three to five years.
Who gets access to what?Admin roles, data, sub-processors, and what the vendor or partner can do in your environment without asking.
Where are you already paying for this?Overlap with what you own is the most underused leverage in any negotiation.
What does the vendor need from this deal?Quarter-end timing, product attach targets and reference value all shape what’s genuinely negotiable.
How do you get out?Exit rights, transition assistance and data return, priced and agreed before you need them.
What has to be true before you sign?Clear conditions of execution, so the deal can’t close with the important issues still open.

A point of view, and what it rules out.

We believe	So we don’t
Architecture comes before price.	Run discount-first procurement that locks in the wrong platform cheaply.
AI governance belongs in the delivery plan and the contract.	Write standalone policy frameworks that nobody uses.
A vendor’s access to your environment is a commercial term.	Leave partner admin access for IT to sort out after signature.
Benchmarks should come from live deal experience.	Table published price lists as evidence.
The person who scopes the work should do the work.	Hand engagements to a delivery bench.
Advice is only as good as its independence.	Resell licences, take referral fees or hold vendor incentives.

What we saw that others missed.

Client names and identifying detail are withheld.

Partner head agreement and tenant access

Professional services network

Situation: A professional services network was renegotiating its head agreement with its Microsoft cloud partner while weighing major platform decisions.
What we saw: The partner held generic, standing admin roles in the firm’s Microsoft tenant, outside the commercial conversation. Liability terms didn’t line up across the head agreement, service schedules and third-party terms. Overlap between the document management platform and SharePoint was unused leverage.
What we did: Built a 20-item issues register with a position for each item and set four conditions of execution. Replaced standing partner roles with granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP), with defined accountability and control. Aligned the liability position across the head agreement, service schedules and third-party terms, and benchmarked pricing from deal experience rather than published figures.
Outcome: Generic standing partner access removed, one consistent liability position across the contract stack, and recurring annual savings for the client.

Defined work, fixed fees, named outcomes.

Engagement	What you’ll have	Typical timeframe	Fee basis
Deal read	A 30-minute call to locate the exposure and scope the work.	One call	No charge
Deal diagnostic	An issues register with a position for every item, a risk summary and conditions of execution.	2–3 weeks	Fixed fee
Negotiation support	Redlines, negotiation strategy and execution at the table, through to signature.	To signature	Fixed or staged fee
Transformation and AI programme	A roadmap costed against the contracts that fund it, with governance built into delivery.	6–12 weeks per phase	Fixed fee per phase

What we stand behind

Every issue we raise comes with a position you can table.
We’ll tell you when not to buy, renew or expand.
The principal who scopes the work does the work.
You’ll be decision-ready by an agreed date.
Success measures are agreed at the start and reported against at the close.
Continuo Advisory carries professional indemnity cover.

Why not just use AI?

A fair question. Here’s our answer.

We use AI every day. It drafts, compares and summarises faster than any of us, and it makes our work sharper and our fees go further.

Here’s what it can’t do for you:

Sit at the table. Negotiations are won in the room, in the pauses and in knowing when to walk away.
Know what a vendor conceded last quarter. The real benchmarks live in recent deals, not in published price lists.
See that your contract and your tenant are the same risk. AI answers the question you ask. The costly issues are the ones nobody thought to ask about.
Be accountable for the outcome. A named principal, a defined result, and professional indemnity behind the advice.

Use AI to get informed. Call Continuo when the decision is expensive and someone has to own it.

Three pillars, one table.

The roadmap, the AI programme and the contract that funds them are usually run by different people on different clocks. We run all three together.

Pillar	Called in when	What you’ll have
ICT Strategy and Digital Transformation	The roadmap needs sequencing, costing or board approval, or a merger has left two of everything.	A roadmap costed against real vendor commercials, sequenced for delivery, ready for the board.
AI Enablement and Governance	AI is approved or under pressure, but licensing, data permissions and accountability aren’t settled.	Governance built into licensing, permissions and contracts, so AI is adopted safely and used.
Vendor and Commercial Advisory	A renewal, head agreement or platform decision is approaching.	Terms that protect the architecture and the budget, negotiated at the table through to signature.

Capabilities across the pillars: Microsoft ecosystem architecture (Entra ID, Azure, Microsoft 365), NCE/CSP and enterprise licensing, software, cloud, SaaS, AI, data, cybersecurity and managed services procurement, contract redlines, and board and executive advisory.

Led by the person who does the work.

Continuo Advisory is led by founder David Hanrahan. Every engagement is worked directly, at the negotiation table and the architecture whiteboard, and never handed to a delivery bench.

David’s experience was built across Victorian Government, health, community services, emergency services and financial services. He now brings that depth to professional services firms and commercial enterprises across Victoria, Australia and New Zealand.

Why ‘Continuo’

In Baroque music, the continuo holds the ensemble together while others carry the melody. That’s the role we play: keeping the roadmap, the AI programme and the deal in time with each other.

Bring us the deal before it’s signed.

A renewal, a head agreement, an AI programme or a roadmap that needs pressure-testing: a 30-minute deal read is usually enough to show where the exposure sits and whether we can help.

Book a 30-minute deal read

Email: david.hanrahan@continuoadvisory.com.au
Location: Melbourne, VIC, serving clients across Victoria, Australia and New Zealand

Your vendor has one negotiator.You have three.