Almost nobody sells this, so it does not happen. We scope retirement as its own engagement, with a switch-off date and a figure checked against your invoice after cutoff.
What is in it
Five capabilities, and a date.
Consumer discovery
Who is still reading from it, found by watching rather than by asking. Asking produces a list of forty; watching produces the three that are real.
Retention and legal hold
Which records somebody is required to still have in six years, agreed with legal before anything is unplugged.
Archive and extraction
Records moved to a defensible archive with an access method that has been tested by the people who will need it.
Traffic starvation
Reduced in stages and monitored. The system stays recoverable until the window closes.
Verified saving
Stated as a monthly figure and checked against the invoice after cutoff, which is the only place it is real.
Vendor and licence exit
Support contracts, licences and hosting cancelled on a dated schedule. Turning the system off does not stop the spend on its own.
Starve, do not cut
The system stays recoverable until the window closes.
Nothing is unplugged on a Friday
Traffic is reduced in stages over a window of six to twenty weeks, monitored at every step, and the system stays warm and recoverable throughout. What reopens it is a single unexpected consumer appearing in the logs, which happens on roughly one program in three and is exactly what the window is for.
What you receive
| Artifact | Form |
|---|---|
| The consumer register | Every remaining reader, with an owner and a date |
| The retention schedule | Approved by legal before extraction begins |
| The archive | With an access method your team has tested |
| The verified saving | A monthly figure, checked against the invoice after cutoff |
Questions we are always asked
Four of them, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
How do you know nothing still depends on it?
We measure rather than ask. Interviews find the consumers people remember; traffic finds the ones they do not, and it is reliably the second group that breaks something.
What about records we are legally required to keep?
Retention obligations are established before anything is unplugged, and records are extracted to an archive on a schedule your legal team approved in advance. Nothing is deleted to hit a date.
When does the saving actually appear?
It is stated as a monthly figure at the start and checked against your invoice after cutoff. A saving nobody verified against a bill is a slide, not a saving.
What if we cannot get sign-off to switch it off?
Then the system stays up and starved, recoverable, until the window closes. Traffic is reduced in stages over six to twenty weeks and never cut, which is what makes the decision reversible right up to the end.
Case studies
Programs in this area, described by what they were rather than by who paid for us.
