Advisory
Platform Architecture

The right loyalty architecture starts with your strategy.

Assess your current platform, compare viable paths, and make a defensible decision backed by a clear view of implementation and ongoing costs.

Discuss Your Platform Decision See what we evaluate
From evidence to direction
Requirements
Current
architecture
Implementation
& ongoing costs
Evaluate the tradeoffs Architecture fit.
Risk. Long-term value.
  • Optimize
  • Replace
  • Combine
  • Build
  • Wait

The evidence determines the path.

  • Fixed scopeDecision and deliverables agreed upfront
  • Vendor-neutralEvidence determines the recommended path
  • Total cost of ownershipPlatform, migration, integration, and operations

Is this the decision you’re facing?

This work fits when the platform question is consequential, cross-functional, and too uncertain for a feature comparison to resolve.

  • Underused or structurally limiting?

    Determine whether better configuration can close the priority gaps or whether the platform itself is the constraint.

  • Optimize, replace, combine, or build?

    Compare every viable path before an RFP, renewal, or vendor shortlist creates momentum around the wrong answer.

  • Can the business case withstand scrutiny?

    Make migration, integration, operating cost, risk, and organizational demand visible to technology, finance, procurement, and program owners.

What makes an architecture fit?

A platform has to fit your strategy, operating constraints, and ability to deliver.

Strategy

Audience architecture
Required B2C, B2B, and B2E models—and the operating complexity they create.
AI architecture
Where models run, what data they can access, and how their use is governed.

Control

Data sovereignty
Where data resides, who controls it, how portable it is, and the resulting exit risk.
Integration architecture
How data moves through the current stack and where dependencies accumulate.
Compliance posture
Which controls, certifications, and contractual obligations are verified and applicable.

Delivery

Commercial model
How costs change with scale, usage, service levels, and renewal.
Implementation model
Who implements, governs, supports, and extends the platform.

Requirements are weighted together, so capability, risk, cost, and ownership inform the recommendation.

Replacement is one possible answer.

What each path changes
Existing systemNew or changed capability

Optimize

Existing platform

Improve what you have

When it fits
Existing capabilities can close the priority gaps.
Main tradeoff
Structural constraints and renewal exposure may remain.

Replace

Existing platformNew foundation

Change the foundation

When it fits
The current platform cannot meet essential requirements.
Main tradeoff
Migration, implementation, and organizational change.

Combine

Existingplatform+

Keep what works. Add what’s missing.

When it fits
Parts of the current platform remain valuable, but specific gaps need new capabilities.
Main tradeoff
Integration and governance across multiple systems.

Build

Compose around your requirements

When it fits
Your requirements call for capabilities assembled or built around your operating model.
Main tradeoff
Greater responsibility for delivery, maintenance, and support.

WHAT YOU RECEIVE

A decision your team can defend

The requirements, evidence, financial model, assumptions, recommendation, and next actions remain connected—so stakeholders can challenge the reasoning without rebuilding it.

The decision, inputs, stakeholders, timing, deliverables, and fee are agreed before the assessment begins.

  • Requirements
  • Evaluation
  • Architecture
  • Economics
Illustrative decision recordExample only

Recommended path

Optimize now. Reopen selection if priority requirements remain unmet.

Why
Lower disruption while the priority capability gaps appear addressable.
Decision conditions
Validate data portability and AI governance before renewal.
Cost comparison
Compare configuration, renewal, migration, and ongoing operating costs using consistent assumptions.

Illustrative sequence

  1. NowClose priority gaps
  2. Before renewalVerify decision conditions
  3. If unresolvedRun a focused selection
Example structure only. The recommendation, evidence, assumptions, owners, and sequence depend on your organization.

Vendor-neutral by design

The evidence may support optimizing the incumbent, selecting another vendor, adopting InsightsOutward, using a hybrid model, or delaying a platform change. The deliverables remain useful regardless of who implements the recommendation.

Planning your platform evaluation

Will Tricycle always recommend InsightsOutward?
No. The recommendation follows the agreed requirements and evidence. It may support the incumbent, another vendor, InsightsOutward, a hybrid architecture, or no immediate platform change.
Do you help write or evaluate an RFP?
The requirements brief and weighted evaluation matrix can establish the basis for an RFP or assess vendor responses. The exact procurement support included is defined during scoping.
What information is needed to begin?
Useful inputs commonly include program requirements, platform contracts, architecture and integration documentation, capability usage, security requirements, operating constraints, and available cost assumptions. Discovery identifies the minimum evidence needed.
Who should participate from our organization?
Usually the program owner plus stakeholders responsible for technology, data, security or risk, finance, procurement, and operations. The decision and scope determine who must participate.
How are platforms scored and requirements weighted?
Requirements are prioritized with the client before vendors are compared. The matrix records the criteria, weighting, evidence, assumptions, and confidence behind the recommendation so stakeholders can challenge the reasoning.
How are timing and fees established?
Before work begins, both teams agree to a written scope covering the decision, inputs, working team, deliverables, timeline, and fee. Timing depends on the number of options, evidence readiness, and stakeholder availability.

START WITH THE DECISION

Make your next platform decision with confidence.

Bring your platform question, constraints, and decision deadline. We’ll define the next step together.

Discuss Your Platform Decision