Almost every growing Australian business hits the same wall. Staff are frustrated: processes are clunky, systems are creating complexity, and someone's re-keying the same data across three systems. Leadership hears about it but can't get a straight read on how big the problem actually is. There's no one in-house with the expertise to dig into it properly, and no one on the leadership team wants to be the one who made a costly call on incomplete information. So, they do what businesses have done for decades: they call in a consultant.
The traditional model
The pattern is familiar to anyone who's sat through it. A firm is selected, a price and timeline are agreed, and then the real work starts, usually months of questions, interviews and workshops. Leadership eventually sits through an 80-page slide deck over a few hours and is left to decide what happens next. Often that means re-engaging that same firm, or a different one, at further cost, to actually solve the problem. Just as often, it gets parked and picked up again years later, once the same frustrations have resurfaced.
It's slow and expensive by design. The traditional model bills for the hours spent researching and building collateral, not for the outcome at the end of it, and the results don't always justify the spend. McKinsey's own 2018 survey found that only 16% of respondents saw their digital transformations actually improve and sustain performance. Vertice's 2026 SaaS wastage data backs that up, showing that roughly two-thirds of SaaS tools end up unused or underutilised. That's a significant expense, producing little to no return.
Where we started
We've lived this from the inside. Rethink Digital's founders spent years running large-scale digital transformation projects at one of Australia's largest professional services firms. Along the way, we sat down with hundreds of staff, from frontline admins through to leadership, to find out what was actually going on. We took thousands of individual complaints and condensed them down to the following major friction points: inefficient processes, manual data entry, poor data quality, an overly complex UX, and systems not talking to each other.
That's not a niche problem. It's the same handful of issues showing up in almost every business we've spoken to since.
A different way to do this
That experience is why we started Rethink Digital. We believe that the traditional model has the right instinct: bring in outside expertise. We just think it's running on the wrong engine. Our framework is built around automation and efficiency from the ground up. Discovery starts with real conversations, because that's where the honest answers come from. Everything after that runs through our framework, which then gets reviewed and delivered to the client. Months of meetings and an 80-page deck become a tight, clear set of findings, delivered fast enough so leadership can actually act on it while it's still relevant.
Unlike a traditional engagement, ours doesn't end when the presentation lands. We handle the configuration, integration, data migration, testing and training, then support you as your business adopts and scales.
If any of this sounds familiar, it's worth a conversation. We offer a free consultation to understand your technology issues and what we can do to help your business grow.
Traditional Consulting vs. The Rethink Digital Model
| Feature | Traditional Consulting | Rethink Digital Model |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | Hours spent researching and building collateral. | Automation, operational efficiency, and business outcomes. |
| Timeline | Months of questions, interviews, and workshops. | Rapid discovery and fast delivery while data is still relevant. |
| Deliverables | Overwhelming 80-page slide decks. | Tight, clear, and actionable findings. |
| Engagement Scope | Ends when the presentation lands; extra costs to implement. | End-to-end: handles configuration, migration, testing, training & support. |
| Risk Mitigation | Only 16% of respondents saw their digital transformations improve and sustain performance, per a 2018 McKinsey survey, with hand-off gaps adding risk. | Single-source accountability, with zero vendor hand-offs from initial design to live operations. |
Compare: who stays for which stages
Same problem. How much do they cover?
2/4stages covered
Ends with a report. Build and Scale are up to you.
Based on this article’s comparison table.