Trust and security
What comes with every job
More on ownership, the rules that come with every solution, security and data protection, how results are measured, and my independence. The details are in the handbook clients receive and in the contract.
Ownership
Software you own
The code, the keys and every environment are yours from the first day. You are tied neither to me nor to any technology vendor. Nor do I want you to trade one vendor lock-in for another. You should be able to change model, service and adviser whenever something better comes along.
Everything in your name
The code repository, cloud account, database, keys, apps and audit log are opened in your name.
Open technology
For example the open database PostgreSQL, and MCP, an open standard for connecting systems to AI. I use what suits you. Switching model or cloud is a matter of configuration.
You keep up with the technology
When a better model or a cheaper service comes along, you switch. Every solution that uses a model can have a fallback model from another maker that is tested regularly.
You carry on without me
An exit test shows your people, or your IT provider, can run, change and restore everything without me. If the exit test shows any step needs me, I fix it free of charge, as the contract says.
Rules
Rules that come with every solution
AI that can do anything is a risk. When a solution gets access to your data, whether an agent or a connection, these rules apply from the first day and are written into the contract. You also get the rules as internal controls, in a format the board and the auditor know.
Read-only by default
The solution sees only the data you have approved.
Authority is earned
At first a person approves every write. Payments and contracts always need a named person's approval.
Your own accounts
Keys, data and model run on accounts you own.
Outside text is data
What arrives by email or from the web can never give the solution orders.
Every action is logged
An audit log you keep and can show your board, your auditor or a regulator.
You can stop it at once
Any solution can be stopped at once, without calling me.
Security
Cyber security, information security and data protection
I was responsible for IT and information security at regulated financial firms. Security for you matches what is at stake.
Access and encryption
Every solution and every user gets only the access the job needs, with multi-factor authentication. Keys live in a secrets vault and data is encrypted.
Personal data
You are the controller. Where a solution handles personal data, we sign a data processing agreement and carry out a data protection impact assessment before it starts.
Incidents
If something goes wrong you hear at once what happened and what was done.
Where the data lives
Everything we build and store lives in your own systems. The model runs, for example, on Amazon Web Services inside its European geography, on your own AWS account. AWS is then the data processor and Anthropic has no access to prompts or outputs. The account is set to retain nothing, and your data is never used for training.
Measurement
Results you can show
In money where possible, with the figures checked against the books. Where that is not possible, we use measures you trust.
- Baseline
Built from your own history and set against national demand, so seasonal swings do not distort the measure.
- Comparison
Where possible the solution goes live in stages. What was not touched shows what would have happened anyway.
- Time
Saved time counts as money only when it saves real payroll cost.
- Report
One page a month, checked against the monthly close and the books.
Independence
Five questions to ask any advisor
- Who pays you?
- Only you, under a contract and against an invoice. No commission, no referral fees and no margin from any vendor.
- Are you paid to promote any product?
- No. I keep up with every major vendor's technology, but none of them pays me anything.
- Do you earn anything if we pick another tool or build it ourselves?
- No. I am paid only for my own work, whichever route you choose.
- Do you put the alternatives in writing?
- Yes. Every recommendation to buy or build names the alternatives considered and why they lost.
- Would you advise us to do nothing?
- Yes, when that is the right answer.
Contact
Want to know more?
I go through it with you in the first call. It takes an hour and costs nothing.