Eight practices. One commitment: the agency, not the software company.
We help agencies set technology and AI strategy, then carry out what the strategy calls for: replacing an ERP, modernizing the one you already own, standing up responsible AI, or recovering an implementation that has gone sideways. All eight practices are delivered independently and vendor-neutral. No resale. No referral fees. No conflicts.
Eight practices sounds like packaging. It isn't.
Each one came out of a live engagement where a public agency needed something the market wasn't offering on a vendor-neutral basis. We built it, delivered it, and when the next agency needed the same thing, we already had a name for the work.
Every practice below works standalone. Every one bundles into the next. A decade of pattern recognition have taught us which practices pair, which sequence, and which are genuinely urgent versus comfortable to defer.
The pricing and timelines on each card are real ranges from real engagements. The work is senior-led, delivered by advisors who have run it before, against a playbook the firm has been refining for ten years.
Delivered standalone or bundled. Always vendor-neutral.
Direction first, delivery second. The top row sets strategy: AI, data, transformation, and the change work that makes them stick. The bottom row runs the program: selection, oversight, contracts, recovery. Every practice built to sit on the buyer's side of the table.
Data & AI Strategy
Data sovereignty over vendor lock-in. Legacy migration and archival, departmental use-case analysis, governance, and a practical path to responsible AI.
AI Maturity & Readiness
Six-dimension maturity assessment. A staged roadmap. Low-risk pilots first, governance guardrails throughout, model-agnostic architecture from day one.
Digital Transformation
Process first. Then architecture. Then technology. A roadmap matched to the agency's capacity and budget, not vendor aspiration. Phases that compound.
Executive Alignment & Change
Real OCM, not a checkbox. Leadership alignment, decision-rights mapping, and stakeholder engagement. The work that keeps implementations from stalling six months in.
ERP Advisory & Selection
Start at Zero. Readiness assessment, requirements definition, RFP development, and vendor evaluation, including full-suite HRIS and HCM replacement for local government and public utilities. Vendor-neutral by design.
Buyer-Side PMO & IV&V
Full project management on the agency's side of the table. The SI works for themselves. The vendor works for themselves. We work for you. Independent verification throughout.
Contract Advisory
Independent contract review against a decade of pattern recognition. Milestone-based payments, AI provisions, and no-cost concessions an agency would otherwise miss.
Project Recovery
When the implementation has gone sideways. Two-to-four-week diagnostic, honest read, governance reset, and a path forward the board can defend. Findings arrive with the evidence attached.
The eight practices above are unchanged. HRIS and HCM advisory is how ERP Advisory runs when the scope is the workforce system: needs assessment, requirements, RFP, scripted demonstrations, selection, contract negotiation, implementation oversight, parallel payroll, and post-go-live stabilization. It has its own page because the buyer, the modules, and the proof are specific. HRIS & HCM advisory. Public power, water, gas, and fiber, including CIS and the HR system those utilities share, are on the utilities page.
Colleges and universities already on Ellucian Banner should finish needs, data, process, and people before Navigate-to-SaaS starts the clock. The buyer-side account is Banner Phase Zero: don't relocate the mess before Navigate-to-SaaS.
Primary buyers across the eight: Executive · CFO · CIO · CHRO · Procurement · Board
How the eight connect.
Most engagements start with one practice and grow into two or three. Two shapes come up again and again. An agency that knows it needs a new system runs the ERP lifecycle. An agency that wants to modernize but is not ready to replace anything starts with AI.
ERP Advisory
Readiness, requirements, defensible RFP.
Contract Advisory
Every clause read against pattern.
Executive Alignment
Decision rights before the SI starts.
Buyer-Side PMO
IV&V baked in, not bolted on.
Data & AI
Sovereignty over lock-in, from day one.
Operate
Benefits realization. Knowledge transfer.
AI Maturity
Six dimensions. An honest starting point.
Data & AI Strategy
Use cases matched to what the data supports.
Low-Risk Pilots
Small wins with guardrails. Capacity built in-house.
Digital Transformation
Process first. Then architecture. Then technology.
ERP Modernization
The systems transition, when the agency is ready.
Agency has already chosen vendor and SI. Contracts are being negotiated. We enter with small wedge services that demonstrate value, then expand into full PMO. Roughly 70 to 80 percent of the core sales motion.
Implementation is failing. Rapid assessment, recovery plan, governance reset, then ongoing oversight. Politically charged. Requires senior credibility from day one.
Agency has legacy data challenges, is going through an ERP transition, or faces pressure to adopt AI. Often runs parallel to an active ERP implementation.
Modernization does not start with software.
Most agencies feel pressure to adopt AI before they trust their own data. These practices exist for exactly that gap: an honest read on readiness, a strategy the data can actually support, and the change work that makes it stick. Delivered with the same evidence discipline as everything else we do.
AI Maturity & Readiness
A six-dimension maturity assessment and a staged roadmap. Low-risk pilots first, governance guardrails throughout, model-agnostic architecture from day one. No tool gets adopted because a vendor demoed it well.
Data & AI Strategy
Data sovereignty over vendor lock-in. Legacy migration and archival, departmental use-case analysis, a governance framework, and an AI policy the council can adopt. Run as one sequence: strategy, migration, governance, then policy.
Digital Transformation & Change
Process first. Then architecture. Then technology. A roadmap matched to the agency's capacity and budget, with the executive alignment and OCM that keep it from stalling six months in.
How an AI engagement runs.
An Avèro AI engagement runs in this order. Name a use case the data can support, set the rules before anything is built, prove it on a narrow prototype, put it into the workflow, get staff using it, and keep measuring after it is live. Enter at the step the agency is actually on. The sequence follows Start at Zero: begin with the work the agency already does. Vendor-neutral throughout, and the agency owns what gets built.
-
Use-case identification
We sit with the departments that own the work and separate problems a model can carry from problems that need a process or a policy fix. The agency gets a short list ranked by public value, data readiness, and risk.
-
Governance
We set who may use a model, what data may leave the agency, how outputs are reviewed, and who is accountable when an output is wrong. The agency gets a written policy and decision rights a council or board can adopt before any build starts.
-
Rapid prototype
We build a narrow prototype against one real workflow, on the agency's data, with the people who will use it in the room. The agency sees whether the use case holds before a procurement or a budget request is written.
-
Workflow / agent implementation
We turn the prototype that earned its place into a workflow or an agent inside work the agency already does. The agency owns the result. The fee is for the work. There is no software license and no reseller relationship.
-
Adoption
We train the staff who do the work, write the operating procedure, and stay through the first real cycles of use. The agency gets people who can run it without us, and a record of who approved what.
-
Managed optimization
Once it is in use, we measure whether the use case still earns its cost, tighten what is working, and stop what is not. The agency gets a standing review of cost, quality, and actual use.
When it ends up in court.
Some ERP failures don't get recovered. They get litigated. Avèro provides ERP expert witness and litigation support for public agencies and their counsel, built on the same discipline as our advisory work: every opinion traceable to the record.
Implementation forensics
Reconstruction of what went wrong and when. Contract obligations against delivered work, decision logs against governance records, and a defensible timeline of where the project left the rails.
Expert reports & testimony
Written expert opinions, deposition, and trial testimony on ERP selection, implementation, and vendor performance. Written for the courtroom. Defended under cross.
Pre-litigation assessment
An independent read on the dispute before anything is filed. What the record supports, what it doesn't, and what settlement is actually worth against the cost of finding out in court.
What agencies ask before engaging.
Practical answers on timelines, oversight, litigation support, and what we will not do.
How long does a government ERP selection take?
A disciplined selection runs three to eighteen months depending on the size of the agency and the number of departments in scope. Discovery and requirements typically take two to four months, RFP development and release another one to two, and evaluation through contract award three to six. Rushing the requirements phase is the most common cause of a failed implementation two years later.
What is buyer-side PMO and IV&V?
Buyer-side project management means Avèro runs the program from the agency's side of the table rather than the vendor's. Independent verification and validation, or IV&V, means a party with no stake in the implementation checks whether deliverables actually meet the contract. The system integrator works for themselves and the software vendor works for themselves. Buyer-side PMO and IV&V exist so someone in the room works only for the agency.
What is an ERP expert witness, and when do you need one?
An ERP expert witness provides independent, testifying expertise when a government technology project ends up in litigation or formal dispute. Avèro is retained through counsel for implementation forensics, written expert reports, deposition and trial testimony, and pre-litigation assessments that tell an agency what the record actually supports before anything is filed. The work rests on a decade of government ERP engagements and the same evidence discipline as our advisory practice.
Can Avèro help if our implementation is already failing?
Yes. Project recovery is a distinct practice. It starts with a two-to-four-week diagnostic that produces an honest read on schedule, budget, scope, and governance, then a recovery plan the board or council can defend. Most failing implementations are governance failures rather than technology failures, which is why the fix usually starts with decision rights and accountability rather than with software.
Where should a public agency start with AI?
Not with tools. Start with an honest read on readiness: what your data can support, what governance exists, and which departments have use cases worth piloting. A maturity assessment takes four to twelve weeks and produces a staged roadmap, with low-risk pilots first and guardrails throughout. Our annual Start at Zero AI Navigator maps the government AI tool landscape so agencies can see the market before any vendor frames it for them.
Does Avèro do organizational change management?
Yes, and it is real OCM rather than a communications plan. Executive alignment, decision-rights mapping, and stakeholder engagement, delivered as its own practice or inside a larger program. Most stalled implementations trace back to people and governance rather than software, which is why change management is built into every path we run.
Does Avèro resell or implement software?
No. Avèro holds no reseller agreements and takes no referral fees or commissions from any software company. When an engagement calls for building something, such as a purpose-built tool or an AI agent that works alongside an existing system, it is delivered as work product the agency owns. We charge for the work, not for licenses.
Not sure which path fits?
Thirty minutes. Tell us where you are. We'll tell you honestly which of these eight practices actually solves your problem, and if none of them do, we'll point you to someone who can.