Complex problems, solved.
Our risk, not yours.
We take on the technology problems organisations struggle to solve — for a fixed price, in short stages you can stop at any point. If it costs more than we said, that's our problem, not yours.
Three things you can't buy from a big consultancy.
A fixed price for an agreed outcome
Like a builder quoting a house — not a temp filling a seat. Time-and-materials pushes the delivery risk onto you. We price the outcome and carry that risk ourselves.
Success is not being needed
We find the path, set the patterns and guardrails, and mentor your team to widen it. By the end of delivery we're a safety net, not a bottleneck — no dependency, no lock-in.
Business and technology in the same head
Most projects lose the plot in the hand-offs between analysts, architects and developers. Meladian is deliberately one senior expert working both sides of that divide — the person you meet is the person who delivers.
Bring us the problem, not a job spec.
Every engagement starts with understanding the problem from your side of the fence — then bridging it to the technology. From the budget-holder's boardroom to production code, without the layers in between.
The system everyone's afraid to touch
Business-critical, ageing, half-documented. We modernise it in reversible steps with the legacy system as the safety net — proven across Classic ASP, VB6 and every era of .NET.
The delivery that's lost its way
Budget half-spent, nothing shipped. We rebuild the vision, put working screens in front of you within weeks, and get the programme back on course — we've done it with half the time already gone.
The system that has to be right first time
New line-of-business systems designed from the problem, not the brief — the system the business actually needs, validated early and cheaply before serious money is spent.
The problem nobody can quite pin down
Solution architecture and technical leadership that starts by seeing the problem from your side — then holds the vision all the way to production code.
AI promises everywhere, value nowhere
Structured human + AI-agent delivery with guardrails and safety nets — we set the vision and the patterns; the agents take the toil. Quality and pace raised together, not traded off.
Not sure which fits? Most engagements start with an honest conversation about the problem — no pitch, no deck.
Start that conversation →Problem-solving is 10% creativity and 90% communication.
Technology lives on one side of a ravine; the business with the problem lives on the other. If they could bridge that gap themselves, they wouldn't need us. Every solution has to bridge it — but a bridge built from one side only comes out weaker and costs more. Building from both sides is where all of our work starts.
Feel the problem first
No assumptions, no early solutions. We start on your side of the divide, taking in the problem as if we'd just joined your team — then replay it back in your own words, so you know we've understood it before anyone talks solutions.
Validate before we build
A proposed solution is a model of the world to be tested — against the business reality and the technical practicalities. The cheapest place to find a flaw is before a line of code is written, so that's where we hunt for them.
Flexibility saves
Everyone arrives with a solution already attached to their problem — the danger is falling in love with it. We hold ours loosely, change our minds when the facts do, and treat that as a saving, not a weakness.
Never go dark
Working screens in front of you every couple of weeks, show-and-tells early and often. Work happens in the bright light of the customer's gaze — that's how course corrections stay small and cheap.
Free until we both believe in it.
We don't build systems that ensnare businesses — we build systems that free them. Engage with us and you keep control: low coupling, no lock-in, and everything you pay for keeps its value on its own. Every stage is your call.
An honest conversation
About the problem, not a pitch. No deck, no obligation — and a first impression of whether we're a fit for each other.
Our read of the problem
We investigate alongside you and report back: what we think the problem is, whether we can help, and a fixed quote for what comes next.
A shared vision, tested
The solution described in your language and tested like a hypothesis. If we can't agree a vision, we walk away — the cheapest failure you'll ever have.
Working software every stage
Stages of six weeks or less, each ending in working software with stand-alone value — yours to keep whether you carry on or not. You own everything we build.
What our promises mean for you
At the end of every stage, carrying on is your decision. Stop here and you keep working software that already has value on its own — a graceful exit, not a sunk cost.
Whatever a stage produces is yours to keep — the code, the designs and the decisions behind them. No lock-in, and nothing licensed back to you.
We price the outcome, not our hours. If the work runs longer than we judged, that's ours to absorb — the quote is the quote.
From the people who led the programmes.
Public LinkedIn recommendations from the senior colleagues who led and delivered those programmes.
"He shaped a pragmatic, low-risk modernisation approach, helped size the work realistically, and then built and guided the team that delivered it: all four applications shipped on time and within budget, with no defects beyond the cosmetic."
"Ian has a particular talent for bringing stability to challenging situations, helping teams navigate complexity, regain momentum, and successfully deliver outcomes… a genuine technical leader whose influence improves both the people and projects around him."
"What sets him apart is the breadth of his thinking — beyond code to the architectural, business and user perspectives. He designs genuinely original solutions, presents them convincingly to client decision-makers, and leads teams to deliver them."
Got a problem everyone says can't be solved?
The first conversation is free: an honest look at the problem, no pitch, no deck. And if Meladian isn't the right fit, we'll say so.