What Hlido Covers in Its Technology and Strategy Advisory

Hlido's advisory phase covers four things: a technology strategy and roadmap, architecture and build-versus-buy decisions with vendor selection, a build-cost versus run-cost view, and AI adoption guidance including governance and EU AI Act readiness. It is aimed at leadership, procurement and compliance teams, and the output is a written assessment of what to build, buy or leave alone — with a gap list, owners and dates where governance is involved. It suits a company deciding whether and how to invest in a system before committing to a build engagement.

The four advisory areas

Hlido, a technology consulting and implementation practice based in Prague, describes its first phase as advising "on strategy and technology" — specifically "where technology earns its place, what to build, buy or leave alone, and how to run it."

Technology strategy and roadmap

This ranges from "a first CTO-level view to a specific project." In practice, that means a company without a technology leader can get an outside view of its overall direction, while a company with a defined project can get advice scoped to that project.

Architecture, build-versus-buy and vendor selection

The advisory covers architecture decisions and the build-versus-buy question, plus vendor selection. This is the decision layer that precedes any development work: whether to construct something in-house, buy an existing product, or leave the need alone.

What it costs to build versus what it costs to run

Hlido explicitly frames cost in two parts: "what it costs to build and what it costs to run." The run-cost side matters because a system that is cheap to launch can be expensive to operate — and Hlido's own delivery model includes post-production support, so the run phase is treated as a real, ongoing cost rather than an afterthought.

AI adoption and governance

AI guidance is scoped to where it pays back: "where it pays back in your operation, and where it does not." On governance, Hlido offers "EU AI Act readiness" support that produces "a gap list with owners and dates" — a concrete artifact rather than a general opinion.

Who the advisory is for

Hlido names three audiences for advisory work: leadership, procurement and compliance teams. That maps to the three decision types above — direction (leadership), vendor and buy decisions (procurement), and AI governance (compliance).

What you get and how the engagement starts

The advisory output is a written assessment: what to build, buy or leave alone, and what it costs to run. Hlido states that an engagement is "scoped and quoted in writing," and the process begins with "a short call on the problem" followed by that written assessment.

How advisory connects to the rest of the engagement

Advisory is step one of a four-step model: ideation and strategy, design and development, delivery, then post-production support. The written assessment from the advisory phase becomes the basis for scoping any build, and delivery is later accepted "against an agreed list of what the system must do." If you only need the decision input — not a build — the advisory phase stands on its own as a written assessment.

For cybersecurity, Hlido delivers through channel partner IrisInfosec, and for automation it works with AutomationEdge; those are separate from the core advisory described above.

Practical checkpoints before you engage

• Confirm the advisory output will be written, since Hlido's model centers on a written assessment rather than verbal recommendations.
• Ask that build cost and run cost be separated in the quote, matching how Hlido frames the cost question.
• If AI is in scope, request the governance gap list with named owners and dates as a deliverable.
• Clarify whether the advisory is scoped to a specific project or to a broader CTO-level view, since Hlido offers both.

Pricing for advisory work is not published on the site; engagements are described as scoped and quoted in writing, so cost should be confirmed directly with Hlido.