Enterprise architecture · Fixed fee assessment
EA QuickScan: an enterprise architecture assessment in as little as ten working days
What you run, what it costs, what talks to what and whether it can carry your strategy, turned into decisions and a sequenced roadmap your board can fund. Senior architects, a fixed fee scoped to your estate, and a board walkthrough to finish.
The QuickScan at a glance
Definition
What is an enterprise architecture assessment?
An enterprise architecture assessment is an independent, evidence based review of everything an organisation runs: which systems exist, what they cost, how they connect, where the risk and technical debt sit, and whether the estate can carry the strategy built on top of it. A good assessment ends in decisions the board can fund: a scored register, a costed roadmap and a board that knows what to fund first.
The Intelance EA QuickScan delivers exactly that in as little as ten working days for a fixed fee from £18,000 + VAT: every system inventoried and scored for cost, fit and risk, integrations and single points of failure mapped, AI readiness assessed honestly, and the findings sequenced into a roadmap walked through with your board at the end.
New to the discipline? Our guide What is enterprise architecture in 2026? covers the background. This page covers the assessment itself.
Systems register
Every system scored for cost, fit and risk, with owners named.
Cost and duplication map
Where the money goes and which systems do the same job twice.
Integration and risk map
What talks to what, and the single points of failure in between.
Roadmap and decision set
Quick wins separated from structural moves, priced and sequenced.
The scope
Six questions your systems have to answer
Every QuickScan works the same six questions. Boards fund with confidence when all six have evidence behind them. The expensive surprises live in the ones nobody has asked recently.
What do we have?
Every system inventoried from evidence: licences, owners, versions and the tools nobody admits to running.
OutputSystems register, complete and owned.What does it cost us?
Run cost, licence waste and duplication per system, so the money conversation starts from numbers.
OutputCost and duplication map.What talks to what?
Integrations, dependencies and the single points of failure that turn one outage into five.
OutputIntegration and single point of failure map.What is running out of road?
End of life dates, unsupported versions and the technical debt with a clock on it.
OutputTechnical debt register, dated.Can it carry the strategy?
The plans the board has funded, tested against the systems that would have to deliver them, AI included.
OutputFit for strategy view, assessed honestly.What do we do first?
Everything priced and sequenced: quick wins separated from structural moves, with owners.
OutputSequenced roadmap and decision set.How it runs
The ten day plan in detail
A typical engagement runs like this. Fee and timeline are scoped to how many systems you run. The work is done by senior architects reading the estate directly, and your team’s effort is measured in hours.
Evidence and access
Access agreed, evidence gathered from the systems themselves. Your effort: a contact list, sign off and an hour.
Discovery and mapping
The estate read directly: systems, costs, integrations and dependencies mapped from what runs.
Scoring and costing
Every system scored for cost, fit and risk. Debt dated, duplication priced, AI readiness assessed.
Validation
Findings tested with your team, so nothing in the readout survives on a misunderstanding.
Board walkthrough
The roadmap walked through with the audience that signs the budget: quick wins first, structural moves costed.
A ten day engagement typically spans two to three calendar weeks around your team’s availability. Larger estates take longer, and the fee and timeline are agreed in writing before day one.
The alternatives
Your options side by side
Three ways organisations try to answer the same six questions. The difference is what gets decided at the end.
A large team and months of workshops
A deck so late the question has changed by the time it answers
Months, phase by phase
Six figures and rising
Organisations with time to spend
A side of desk effort between day jobs
Eighty rows without costs, owners or a verdict
Open ended, usually unfinished
Free on paper, expensive in decisions not taken
Very small, simple estates
Senior architects reading the estate directly
Systems register, cost and duplication map, integration map, decision set, roadmap
From 10 working days, agreed in writing
From £18,000 + VAT, fixed in writing
Boards that need to decide this quarter
Scope
What this includes and what it does not
You get
A scored systems register: every system, cost, fit and risk, with owners.
The integration and single point of failure map, read from the estate.
A dated technical debt register, including AI readiness assessed honestly.
A priced, sequenced roadmap with quick wins separated from structural moves.
The day ten board walkthrough with the audience that signs the budget.
This is not
A six month study. Momentum is part of the deliverable, and studies kill it.
An EA tool implementation. We sell no platforms. The register lands in the tools you have.
The operating model. Who owns architecture decisions long term is the EA Operating Model, and it comes after.
Delivery. Putting the roadmap into a live programme is ProjectEA.
After the QuickScan
What the findings usually lead to
The QuickScan stands alone, and most clients act on it with their own teams. Where the findings point at a deeper gap, these are the usual next steps.
EA Operating Model & Governance
The QuickScan finds the decisions nobody owns. The operating model gives them owners, forums and standards. FeeFrom £18,000 + VAT diagnostic 02ProjectEA
Where the roadmap lands inside a live programme, senior architecture keeps delivery aligned to it. FeeFrom £45,000 + VAT 03Virtual EA Department
Where the register needs owning month by month, a named senior function runs it without a permanent hire. FeeFrom £6,500 a month 04Technology Board Assurance Pack
Where the board wants the findings maintained as evidence, the pack keeps risk, cost and delivery health current. FeeFrom £18,000 + VATWhy Intelance
The commitments we put in writing
Evidence read directly
Findings come from the systems themselves rather than workshop opinions. If a number is in the readout, there is evidence chained to it.
A fixed fee agreed before day one
The fee is scoped to how many systems you run, confirmed in writing before day one. The risk of overrun sits with us.
Senior architects only
The people reading your estate are TOGAF certified senior architects. Nothing is offshored and nothing is handed to a junior bench.
Vendor and SI neutral
We sell no software and take no commission, so the roadmap serves your interest and nobody else’s.
Written for the board
The outputs are written for the people who fund them: a register your team uses and a readout your board acts on.
Who you will work with
Every QuickScan is led by a senior partner. Nothing is offshored and nothing is handed to a junior bench.
Ready to talk?
Speak to a senior architect
Thirty minutes on your systems and what is driving the timing. If you are new in post or a board meeting is close, say so: the QuickScan reports inside a first hundred days with room to act on it.
FAQs
Questions about the EA QuickScan
How much does an enterprise architecture assessment cost in the UK?
The EA QuickScan runs from £18,000 + VAT with Intelance as a fixed fee, scoped to how many systems you run. The fee is agreed in writing before day one. UK enterprise architecture day rates typically run £1,200 to £2,500 per day, which is why open ended reviews cost more and decide less.
How long does the EA QuickScan take?
A typical QuickScan is ten working days of work, spread over two to three calendar weeks around your team’s availability, ending with the board walkthrough. Larger estates take longer: the timeline is scoped with the fee and agreed in writing before day one.
What exactly do we receive?
A systems register with every system scored for cost, fit and risk. A cost and duplication map. An integration and single point of failure map. A dated technical debt register including AI readiness. A priced, sequenced roadmap walked through with your board at the end. Everything lands in tools you already have.
How much of our team’s time does it need?
A few hours of your team's time: a contact list and access sign off at the start, people available for short questions during discovery, and a validation session on day nine. The reading of the estate is done by our architects rather than by your staff filling in templates.
How is this different from a big consultancy review?
Scope and speed are fixed and the people are senior. A traditional study takes months, costs six figures and often reports after the decision window has closed. The QuickScan reports in ten working days at a fixed fee, and every finding carries evidence and a price.
Do you need access to our systems?
Read access and exports agreed at the start, always under your control and your security policies. Evidence comes from the estate itself, which is what makes the findings defensible in front of a board.
What happens after the QuickScan?
Most clients act on the roadmap with their own teams. Where the findings point at a deeper gap, the usual next steps are the EA Operating Model for decision ownership, ProjectEA inside a live programme, or a Virtual EA Department to run the function month by month. There is no obligation to any of them.
Who you will work with?
Senior TOGAF certified architects led by a senior partner, with established associates across cyber, data and AI governance where depth is needed. The people who read your estate write and present the readout. Nothing is offshored.