Assessment
Application inventory: list the systems, decide what connects.
A dashboard is only as useful as the systems feeding it. We build the full list of what runs your business. Then one call per system: connect it, export from it on a schedule, leave it for later, or leave it alone. We also flag the spreadsheets the dashboard should replace.
Sample client, month 1. Illustrative connection map.
In one sentence
We list every system you run and decide which ones feed the dashboard, and how.
- Advisory review
- Delivery
- Monthly watch
One engagement, in this order. You can start at the stage that fits you.
Assessment
What this work involves
The dashboard is only as useful as the systems feeding it. The applications assessment builds the full list: what runs the business, who owns each system, what information it holds, and how it can be reached.
For every system we make one decision: connect it directly, export from it on a schedule, leave it for a later phase, or leave it alone. The systems marked to connect become the plan for setting up the dashboard.
We also list the reporting that exists today outside any system. Those spreadsheets and exports are the first things the dashboard replaces, so leadership sees something useful in the first month.
Who does what
You keep your team, and we take this part.
- You — Name an owner for each system and approve the list.
- Third Shift — List the systems and make the connect call.
- Your IT firm — Give access and keep the systems running.
- Software vendors — Provide the connection we asked for.
Who it is for
A fit when
- Companies running several systems that never talk to each other
- Leadership whose numbers come from a spreadsheet someone rebuilds every Monday
- Firms planning to retire an old reporting server
Scope
What it is not
- Not a software selection project. We read what you run, we do not sell it
- Not a data migration. Systems stay where they are; the dashboard reads from them
- Not a license audit, though duplicate tools usually turn up
Where this has run
Profiles using this work.
- Tax season copilots, zero policy.
Regional accounting firm · ~45 staff - Reporting was three exports reconciled by hand.
Light manufacturer · ~120 staff - They asked for automation and needed a foundation first.
Professional services firm · ~30 staff - Patient data was being entered into a public AI tool.
Multi-site healthcare practice · ~60 staff - Grant reports took a week, though the data was already available.
Regional nonprofit · ~25 staff - A capable IT firm with no one directing its work.
Regional wholesale distributor · ~90 staff - The IT director left mid-project, but the project continued.
Regional construction firm · ~180 staff
Who buys this
Industries that start here.
- Accounting, tax, and CPA firms — Client financials in personal AI accounts, and partner reporting rebuilt by hand every quarter.
- Legal, consulting, and agency firms — They asked for an automation, and the environment needed a written rule first.
- Light manufacturing and industrial — An unenforceable ban upstairs, and a monthly report assembled from three exports by hand.
- Wholesale distribution and logistics — A capable MSP, no one directing it, and fill rate answered by three exports and a phone call.
- Construction, trades, and engineering — Job costing that depends on one person's spreadsheet, and an IT director who left mid-project.
- Medical, dental, and specialty practices — Patient letters drafted in an unapproved AI tool, and no rule to point to when someone asks.
- Nonprofits and associations — Grant reports that take a week, volunteers using free AI on donor lists, and no IT staff.
The order
Part of the sequence, not the whole of it.
In the method this work usually leads into Base dashboard deployment (Deployment). Nothing obliges you to buy it: the order is how the work is delivered, not what you have to purchase.
Questions
Questions about applications assessment
What does it mean for a system to connect to the platform?
When a system connects to the dashboard, it means the dashboard reads data from it on a schedule. That happens through a direct connection where the system offers one, or through a scheduled export where it does not. The system itself does not change, and it stays with the people who run it today.
Which systems can you connect?
Third Shift can connect most of the systems a company runs. That includes accounting and ERP, CRM and sales tracking, practice management, ticketing, payroll, and Microsoft 365. Any system that offers a connection or a scheduled export can feed the dashboard. Every system gets one call in the applications assessment: connect it, export from it, leave it for later, or leave it alone.
What happens to the spreadsheets we report from today?
The spreadsheets you report from today are listed in the applications assessment as old reporting to be replaced. Once the dashboard is live, it replaces them one at a time, starting with the ones leadership relies on most. Nothing is switched off until the dashboard version has been checked against it.
Start here
Start with the review.
The first conversation covers your environment, and this work is scoped from what it finds.