The practice
A small advisory for businesses that are done experimenting.
VDB IS exists for the companies caught between two unsatisfying options: an enterprise consultancy priced for a balance sheet ten times their size, or an implementation partner selling the product they happen to represent. We are neither. We work with maritime, agriculture and managed service providers serving SMBs and small enterprises — and what we build belongs to them.
Why we started
Small and medium businesses were promised transformation and handed subscriptions. Boards approved budgets for tools that nobody was accountable for and nobody measured. Meanwhile the genuinely valuable applications — quotation speed, document handling, service triage — went unbuilt because they were less exciting than the demonstrations.
We built the practice around that gap: honest discovery first, then implementation only where the numbers justify it, then continuity for as long as it is useful.
How we engage
- 01
Conversation
A free first call to establish whether we are the right fit. No proposal, no pressure.
- 02
Assessment
Four weeks, fixed fee, ending in a prioritised and costed roadmap you own.
- 03
Implementation
Selected initiatives taken to production alongside your team.
- 04
Partnership
Quarterly counsel and governance as your ambition grows.
What we hold to
01
Independent by construction
We hold no reseller agreements and take no vendor commission. When a recommendation names a tool, it is because it fits your problem.
02
Value before technology
Every initiative we propose carries an estimate of cost, effort and return. If the numbers do not hold, we say so before you spend.
03
Your IP, not ours
We develop intellectual property for our clients. Every model, line of code and dataset we produce is owned by you and deployed in your environment — we sell no platform of our own.
04
Regulation-ready from day one
We help you understand what the EU AI Act and privacy rules require of a business your size, and build those obligations in at design time, when they are cheap to address.