Kevin's spreadsheet
A business-critical workbook — macros, lookups, a tab called “DO NOT TOUCH” — built years ago by someone who has since moved on. Everyone depends on it. Nobody wants to open it.
Discover · document · stabilise · retireIntegration · Data · Architecture
Your hardest system problems are our favourite ones.
Benson & Gray is a boutique practice for the work that falls between systems, teams and standard products — complex integrations, workforce and enterprise data, legacy modernisation and the architecture that holds it all together.
People|Solutions|Empowerment
People|Solutions|Empowerment
Trust is something we are gifted. Craftsmanship is how we honour it.
Think of the care a third-generation tradesperson brings to a stained-glass window. The visible outcome matters — and so do the joins nobody sees: the architecture, the testing, the failure handling, the documentation and the handover.
- Care requires capacity.We keep concurrent engagements deliberately few, so every client gets senior attention.
- Documentation is part of the solution.Written to be useful after we leave — not to tick a contractual box.
- Warmth and technical excellence.Both are required. Neither is negotiable.
- Leave clients stronger.Return business is earned through trust, never manufactured through dependency.
Problems we recognise
Show us where the humans are holding the systems together.
Every organisation has a few of these. They're rarely anyone's fault — and they're almost never a people problem. They're systems problems wearing a person's name.
The human integration layer
Data leaves one system as an export, passes through someone's inbox, gets re-keyed into another, and is reconciled at month-end by hand. It works, until that person takes leave.
Event → owner → state → notify → resolveThe weekly chase
Exception reports land every Monday. Someone works out who owns each one, emails them, chases, escalates and tallies the results for management. Every single week.
Exception management, engineered properlyTrapped workforce data
HRIS, payroll and time data that the business needs for analytics and planning — locked inside operational systems rather than flowing into the enterprise data platform.
Extract · transform · warehouse · trustThe mystery application
A desktop app nobody remembers commissioning, running on a server nobody wants to reboot. It quietly performs something important. Probably.
Legacy modernisation without the leap of faithThe race-condition workflow
A multi-step process spanning several platforms and approvals, with decision windows, cancellations and reconciliations — where one missed step leaves every system telling a different story.
State, failure and recovery, designed inIf it doesn't fit the playbook, it probably fits us.
Bring us your too-hard basketWhat we do
Organised around your problem, not around a vendor.
Integration, bespoke applications, enterprise data and AI architecture — applied wherever systems, data, processes and people don't connect neatly, across the platforms your business already runs on. The work is shaped by what you actually need.
-
01
Complex Integrations
Systems that don't connect neatly out of the box. API, event-driven, workflow and hybrid integration — from standard connectors to fully bespoke builds — designed for failure, recovery and the edge cases that matter.
-
02
Enterprise Data Solutions
Architecting how enterprise data moves and where it lives — extraction, transformation, warehousing and master-data flows across HR, payroll, finance and operations — so the data your business runs on is data it can trust.
-
03
Legacy Modernisation
Discover, document, stabilise, integrate, rebuild or retire the critical spreadsheets, macros and legacy applications your operations quietly depend on.
-
04
Bespoke Applications & Customisation
Purpose-built applications, automation and platform customisations for operational problems no standard product solves. Built properly, documented thoroughly, handed over completely.
-
05
AI Advisory, Agents & Governance
AI architecture that starts with the problem, not the technology. We design, build and orchestrate AI agents as governed digital roles — clear permissions, human approval where judgement matters, every action traceable — backed by AI data governance: what each model may see, where your data goes and how decisions are evidenced. Our own practice is being built on the same principles.
-
06
Architecture & Advisory
Current-state capture, feasibility, solution architecture, dependencies, risks and implementation roadmaps — independent advice you can act on with or without us.
Specialist depth
UKG & Boomi, inside and out.
Configuring UKG is well-served territory. The custom layer is specialist work — and it's where we spend our time: the bespoke integrations, business processes, attestation, reporting and APIs that make UKG fit how your organisation actually operates.
- Boomi integrationUKG out-of-the-box templates through to custom and bespoke integrations
- UKG APIsInbound, outbound and event-driven interfaces
- Activiti business processesCustom workflow and process automation
- Custom attestationTailored attestation design and configuration
- Custom BIRT reportingReports built for how your business actually operates
- Datahub analyticsWorkforce analytics and data movement downstream
The Discovery Compass
We don't begin with solutions. We begin with the landscape.
Three focused, collaborative sessions over roughly three weeks — with deliberate space to reflect in between — culminating in the Atlas: a usable map of your enterprise terrain that belongs to you, whether or not we build anything next.
-
Session 1
Discover
Current state and pain: manual work, technical debt, operational symptoms and how the problem looks from where you stand.
Within ~24 hours: a written capture of themes and questions, plus prompts for Session 2.
-
Session 2
Connect
Follow the threads across systems, data, people and process. Separate symptoms from causes; trace what depends on what.
Time to observe, consult internally and add what the first conversation shook loose.
-
Session 3
Align
Validate understanding, close gaps, weigh risk, cost and urgency, and agree priorities and sequencing.
We consolidate the evidence and move into analysis and documentation.
-
Week 4
The Atlas
A polished, evidence-backed map of your landscape and an actionable roadmap — ready for executives, IT, Procurement or any implementation partner.
Why spread it over three weeks? Because the best thinking happens between sessions.
The best insights often arrive the day after a conversation. We build that in — and make sure nothing you remember gets lost.
The Benson & Gray approach
Standardise the pipeline. Never the thinking.
A consistent, repeatable way of working — so you always know what level of expertise, communication, documentation and care to expect, on every engagement.
Discover deeply
Understand the real problem — including the exceptions and hidden manual steps nobody wrote down.
Design thoughtfully
Architecture, interfaces, system-of-record decisions and failure paths, validated before anything is built.
Build properly
Tested, reviewed and released through controlled environments. The joins nobody sees get the same care.
Document meaningfully
Runbooks, rationale and design records your people will actually use.
Teach generously
Knowledge transfer is part of quality. Your team should understand what's been built — and why.
Hand over confidently
You operate, maintain and extend your solution. We'd simply like to be who you call for the next hard problem.
We retain our reusable engineering IP. You retain control of your solution.Our IP principle
We don't create dependency. We create capability.Our empowerment principle
People | Solutions | Empowerment
Three words under the logo. Three promises in the work.
Interested before interesting.
We listen more than we speak, and let relationships grow from curiosity and trust.
Understand it properly. Solve it cleanly.
Understand it properly, design it deliberately, and build it to an uncompromising technical standard.
Leave things stronger.
Systems, processes and people should all be better at the end of an engagement than at the start. Your team leaves more capable — that's the point.
An atelier, not a body shop
Boutique by design.
Benson & Gray deliberately takes on a limited number of engagements. From the first conversation to the final handover — thinking, quality and accountability stay exactly where they belong.
We take the time to understand the whole picture, consider the consequences of every decision, and design solutions that endure. Not quick fixes that become tomorrow's technical debt.
Everyone who works on a Benson & Gray engagement, and every partner we recommend, is held to the same standard of craft, integrity and care that the name stands for.
Tanja Gray
Managing Director & Principal Architect
About Benson & Gray
How we engage
Clear outcomes. Clear prices. No invisible scope.
We sell defined outcomes, not hours. Discovery comes first, so that when we commit to a price, we both know exactly what it buys.
Discovery before build
We never build on assumptions. Whether it's a full Discovery Compass, a focused scoping conversation when you already know what you need, or rapid triage when something's broken today, the problem is properly understood before anything is built.
Fixed price, defined scope
Implementation proposals set out scope, milestones, assumptions, dependencies and a target completion date. New needs become roadmap items, priced separately — never silent scope creep.
Capacity, honestly managed
We take on only as much as we can do properly. If our next delivery window is a little way off, we'll tell you upfront, and where it helps, groundwork can begin in the meantime. No pressure, no false urgency.
The right hands for the work
If your work is better suited to someone else, we'll say so — and introduce a partner we trust. Any referral arrangement is disclosed upfront. How we choose partners
Start a conversation
Everyone has a Kevin's spreadsheet. We know what to do with it.
Book a no-obligation conversation. Tell us what's going on — we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right people to help.