Strategic Delivery Liaison · Melbourne · Available Australia-wide

You landed the enterprise client.
Now you're realising why most small shops lose money on them.

David Nicolle sits between your dev shop and the institution. Keeping their politics off your team, their scope creep out of your contract, and their meetings off your calendar.

Enterprise engagements don't fail because the dev work is bad. They fail because a small dev team was never built to absorb the governance, the politics, and the contract complexity that comes with an enterprise client. That's not a weakness. It's just a gap that needs filling.

Start the conversation

enterprise-flow.schematic

Without a Liaison

Scope creep becomes your problem
Devs pulled into their meetings
Uncontracted work done as favours
Contract complexity absorbs your margin
Owner bypassed, team burning out

With David

Scope locked and defended
Devs stay heads down and building
Every change request priced and approved
Contract risks surfaced before you sign
You stay in control of your engagement

Everything that would derail your team gets handled here instead.

Start the conversation

Why this exists

One firm. Two projects. Running at the same time.

A Melbourne dev shop landed a large public sector institution. Two concurrent builds, same client, same period. One had a liaison. One didn't.

The project without one watched their developer get pulled into meeting after meeting that had nothing to do with building. Uncontracted knowledge transfer requests came through as favours. The dev burnt out trying to absorb enterprise demands alone while still delivering. The owner was bypassed entirely. By the time it was over, the damage was done.

The project with one delivered clean. When a major architectural crisis hit one month from go-live, it was resolved without adding a single dollar of unscoped work to the developer. Scope creep was stopped before the developer even realised it was coming. Every stakeholder decision went through one person so the dev could stay heads down and build.

Same institution. Same period. Completely different outcomes.

“If I had hired you from the start, I would have saved myself a ton of money.”
— Owner, Melbourne dev shop

Where are you right now?

Both start with understanding your specific situation.

There's no generic fix for an enterprise engagement gone wrong, and no generic checklist that makes a bad contract safe to sign. Every engagement starts with David understanding yours.

For the shop that's already in it

Stop absorbing it. Start recovering.

The enterprise is making you feel like you owe them. Your SOW is vague enough that everything seems like your problem. Their team is contacting your devs directly, pulling them into meetings that were never in scope. Someone on your team is burning out. You've blown past your quoted hours and you're losing money on a job you needed to put on the map.

You don't need advice. You need someone to step in.

David steps in as your liaison. Between your team and theirs. Between your developer and their meetings. Between your contract and their scope creep.

The first step is understanding exactly where the engagement is, what's been absorbed without being paid for, and what's recoverable. From there it's about stabilising the relationship, drawing the line on unscoped work, and making sure your developer can get back to building.

Project-based. Scoped at first conversation.

Real Outcomes

Here's what it looks like when someone steps in.

The architectural crisis nobody saw coming.

Two separate business units needed to consolidate onto a single Shopify Plus architecture. One month from delivery a fundamental architectural issue emerged that voided significant completed work and required a complete directional change.

David identified a solution that eliminated the problem, stopped a silent scope expansion the developer was about to absorb without question, and got executive sign-off on the new direction without a single dollar of unscoped work landing on the developer.

Every stakeholder engagement was handled. UAT was managed without requiring developer involvement. The enterprise QA team was guided through testing independently despite having no platform knowledge.

Delivered on time. On the original SOW.

$200k project delivered cleanScope creep stopped before it landedArchitectural crisis resolved one month from delivery

Start here

Every engagement starts the same way. Understanding yours.

There's no discovery call where David listens politely and then sends you a proposal. The first conversation is the work starting. Understanding your contract, your team, your client, and where the risk actually sits.

For the shop that hasn't signed, that's a Contract Readiness Review. A fixed fee engagement that tells you exactly what you're signing before you're locked in.

For the shop that's already in trouble, that's an Engagement Recovery assessment. A focused conversation about where things are, what's recoverable, and what happens next.

Both are paid. Both are specific to your situation. Neither will waste your time.

Get in touch

David Nicolle