Shabel Enterprises

Senior Hours, Bought by the Block

Prepaid senior hours at a discount, drawn down when you need them.

Senior Hours, Bought by the Block.

Prepaid hours at a discount, drawn down when you need them. Nothing to wait for and no retainer quietly running up a bill. You buy the block, and you decide when and how the hours get spent.

Buy a Block · Start With a Diagnostic

Why a Block, and Not a Retainer

A retainer buys a seat, and a seat has to be filled every month whether or not there is anything worth filling it with. Most of the moments when a data program needs senior judgement do not arrive on a schedule: a design decision nobody wants to own, a vendor proposal that looks too good, a hierarchy change that is about to move last year's numbers, a new owner who needs someone to check their reasoning.

A block of hours fits those moments. The hours are yours, prepaid at a lower rate than ad hoc work, and they sit there until you draw on them. A quiet month costs you nothing. A busy week is already approved, so nobody has to go back to procurement for it.

What the Hours Are For

Fractional CDO work — the assessment, the plan, and the scheduled reviews that follow it.
Architecture and design review — before you commit, not after it ships.
Governance decisions and standards — and the checks that keep them enforced as the requirement rather than just a suggestion.
Master data management and Profisee — modelling, matching, hierarchy and platform questions, from someone certified across the full Profisee track.
A second opinion on a vendor or integrator — their estimate, their design, or the work they have just handed you.
Remediation after a diagnostic — hands for the sequence we left you, if you want them.
Coaching the person who will own it — so the knowledge stays with your team when the hours run out.

Price

Ad hoc work is $250 an hour. Buy the hours in advance and the rate comes down:

40 hours — $9,000. $225 an hour, ten percent off.
80 hours — $17,000. $212.50 an hour, fifteen percent off.
160 hours — $32,000. $200 an hour, twenty percent off.

We publish the numbers for the same reason we publish the price of the diagnostic: you should not have to book a call to find out what a senior hour costs, and a number you can put in front of one approver is worth more to you than one we could negotiate.

See What You Get

Page 1 of a sample monthly statement for a fictional client: the block, the balance, and every draw in fifteen-minute increments.

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Fictional company. Full sample sent on request.

Page 1 of a sample monthly statement of hours for a fictional client: a 40-hour block with its expiry date and remaining balance, followed by a table of this month's draws by date, work done and hours. — Page 1 of 2The block and this month's draws

How the Draw Works

Hours are drawn in fifteen-minute increments, against the work actually done.
You get a statement every month showing what was drawn, for what, and what is left.
Up to two hours a day on short notice. Anything larger, give us a week and we will put it on the calendar.
Hours are good for eighteen months from purchase, longer than most. If a balance is not on track to be used by then, we will tell you at twelve months, while there is still time to spend it well.
When a block runs out, you choose — buy another block, or carry on at the ad hoc rate. Nothing renews on its own.

What the Block Is Not

It is not a way to keep us around. Every hour should leave your team more able to do the next one without us; that is the same rule that governs everything else we do. If the right answer is that you need a permanent hire rather than more hours, we will say so, and some of those hours may go on helping you find them.

Buy a Block

Tell us which size, or tell us what you are facing and we will tell you which size fits.