Market scans don’t slow down delivery—they sharpen it. By challenging assumptions and surfacing alternatives, they reduce risk, expose trade-offs and turn instinctive decisions into informed, strategic ones.
Before you sign off on your next major tech investment, it’s worth asking: Are we making the best choice – or just the most familiar one?
In many organisations, decisions about platforms and vendors tend to stick close to home. Perhaps a known system gets an upgrade, or a long-standing partner gets the call-up. Meanwhile, the team that’s already flat out with BAU is asked to review options – but only from within their current frame of reference.
The problem is that of missed opportunity at the expense of maintaining the status quo. Whilst there may be reduced delivery risk in doing what is familiar, there is a less obvious risk of falling behind the competition by not taking the opportunities to extract maximum return from an investment. When decisions are made in a closed loop and with a narrow perspective, opportunities get missed and business cases start to reveal their hidden flaws before the project even begins.
This is where a market scan comes in. When done well, it can act as a circuit-breaker – offering a chance to step back, widen the lens and make sure the assumptions underpinning your business case still hold up in the current landscape.
It’s not about starting from scratch or replacing what works. It’s about sense-checking the path ahead – before you commit to it. And in today’s environment, that matters. Technology moves quickly, funding is harder to secure and the cost of getting it wrong can be hard, if not impossible to claw back. Every opportunity must be exploited.
When to scan
Market scans are most valuable when you’re facing a decision point and not entirely confident the current path is still the right one. That could mean you’re thinking of upgrading a long-standing platform, reviewing an underperforming vendor, or planning a shift in how a key capability is delivered.
It’s especially relevant when previous investments haven’t landed well – or when the team recommending the solution is the same team under pressure to keep delivery moving. That’s not a criticism of internal teams; it’s a reality of bandwidth. When people are focused on delivering today, it’s hard to take a step back to fully explore what tomorrow might need.
A market scan, in that context, doesn’t slow things down. Rather, it supports better decision-making and gives teams breathing room. It can also quietly augment their capability by adding external insight and perspective without the need to hire or restructure.
Making the decision smarter – not harder
The real value of a market scan isn’t in spreadsheets or side-by-side comparisons. It’s in the conversations it prompts, as well as the assumptions it challenges.
Rather than getting bogged down in features and functionality, a strong scan starts by reframing the conversation: What capability are we trying to unlock? What outcome are we solving for? That shift in focus changes the nature of the decision. You’re no longer choosing between products – instead, you’re weighing up which approach best supports the direction of the business.
It also introduces a degree of objectivity that’s hard to generate from inside the team. Familiar platforms tend to feel safer and long-term vendors come with embedded trust. Meanwhile, delivery teams that are already stretched often lean towards solutions they know how to implement quickly. A scan helps balance that internal pull with external perspective. It doesn’t dismiss existing preferences – it simply asks whether they still hold up.
And because the process is deliberately high-level, it avoids analysis paralysis. A scan doesn’t need to model every scenario or interrogate every technical detail. What it offers is a clear, directional view of the landscape: Who’s leading? Who’s falling behind? Which vendor roadmaps align with your future state – and which ones don’t?
A market scan also helps surface trade-offs that often go unnoticed. Doing what you’ve always done may feel like the safe option – but inaction can carry a bigger opportunity cost than expected. Sticking with a familiar vendor or platform might mean missing out on a solution that offers better performance, greater scalability, or a clearer fit for the future. Even when the scan confirms the original direction, that validation is stronger because it’s been tested, not assumed.
Perhaps most importantly, the market scan helps decision-makers see the market as it is now, not as it was when they last encountered it. And in doing so, it turns what could be a high-stakes guessing game into a far more grounded discussion.
Smarter inputs make stronger business cases
In tight delivery environments – where teams are spread thin and the pressure to get things right is high – market scans offer a way to reassess and move forward with clarity.
They don’t replace internal expertise – they complement it. When time is limited and focus is split across competing priorities, bringing in an external partner to lead or support the scan can take pressure off the team and ensure the process stays objective. It shouldn’t be about pushing for a particular outcome; instead, the process should focus on surfacing options, questioning assumptions and helping you make a call based on insight, not instinct.
If the business case is meant to justify the why, a market scan sharpens the what – and helps ensure the how is still fit for purpose.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes to turn a good decision into a great one.
Quay Consulting is a professional services business specialising in the project landscape, transforming strategy into fit-for-purpose delivery. Meet our team or reach out to have a discussion today.
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