Solitude Consulting
Senior technology consulting for organisations navigating complex commercial platform programmes
Solitude Consulting provides strategic and technical leadership for businesses implementing, integrating, or rescuing enterprise CMS, commerce, CRM, and martech platforms. Founded and led by Stephen Leathem, the practice works directly with senior technology leaders on programmes where clarity, architecture rigour, and delivery accountability matter.
Industries Served
Deep experience across regulated and complex commercial environments
Most enterprise technology programmes sit in an uncomfortable space. Large consultancies design strategies but rarely stay close to delivery. Agencies build quickly but don't always address architectural complexity. Internal teams inherit platforms they didn't design and struggle to stabilise them.
Solitude Consulting was founded to bridge that gap — combining strategic architectural thinking with hands-on delivery awareness. The practice works embedded within client organisations, providing senior-level judgement throughout platform selection, implementation, and operational handover.
There's no model to scale, no offshore delivery team to feed, and no technology partnerships that create conflicts of interest. Just experienced guidance, clear decision-making, and accountability for outcomes.
Senior-led throughout
No delegation to junior consultants. You work directly with the person accountable for the advice.
Architecture before tooling
Technology decisions follow business requirements and integration realities, not vendor roadmaps.
Delivery-aware consulting
Strategy is built around what can actually be implemented, governed, and maintained.
No reselling
Independent assessment of platforms, vendors, and system integrators.
Stephen Leathem
Founder & Principal Consultant
Stephen founded Solitude Consulting after more than 15 years leading digital architecture, solution design, and delivery programmes across enterprise organisations and consultancies.
His career includes senior architecture roles at global consultancies, leadership positions within digital agencies (including founding and scaling a practice acquired by a larger group), and embedded technical leadership roles inside complex multinational organisations.
He has worked across industries including financial services, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services — primarily on programmes involving CMS and DXP platforms, ecommerce and product data ecosystems, CRM and marketing automation, and enterprise data integration.
Stephen's work typically involves platform selection and vendor evaluation, architecture governance on large-scale implementations, technical recovery of troubled programmes, or interim leadership roles where senior digital capacity is needed quickly.
Platform experience
Optimizely (CMS, Commerce, PIM), Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, InRiver, Aprimo, OneTrust, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager
Programme types
Global CMS rollouts, martech stack consolidation, platform modernisation and replatforming, data architecture for customer and product ecosystems
Roles held
Solution Architect, Head of Digital, Technical Director, Interim CTO, Implementation Governor, Architecture Lead
Sectors
Financial services, retail and ecommerce, manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, B2B SaaS
Platform Expertise
Hands-on architecture and delivery experience
Experience and Track Record
Enterprise CMS and DXP Platforms
Leading architecture, implementation governance, and technical rescue for global content management and digital experience platforms. Work includes multi-region rollouts, legacy platform migrations, and integration with commerce, CRM, and analytics systems.
Typical challenges: global content workflows, personalisation architecture, headless CMS design, integration complexity, vendor lock-in mitigation.
Martech and CRM Ecosystems
Designing and stabilising marketing technology stacks involving CRM, marketing automation, customer data platforms, and analytics infrastructure. Programmes often involve consolidation of fragmented tools, data governance, and operational handover.
Typical challenges: data integration across siloed systems, platform selection under budget pressure, marketing ops capability gaps, attribution and analytics architecture.
Commerce and Product Data Architecture
Technical leadership for ecommerce platforms, product information management (PIM), and digital asset management (DAM) systems. Programmes typically involve complex product catalogues, multi-channel commerce, and integration with ERP and supply chain systems.
Typical challenges: product data quality and governance, integration with legacy systems, performance at scale, localisation and multi-currency support.
Platform Selection and Governance
Independent assessment of enterprise platforms and technology vendors. Work includes RFP evaluation, proof-of-concept design, vendor negotiation support, and ongoing architecture governance to ensure system integrators and agencies deliver to standard.
Typical challenges: vendor claims vs. delivery reality, technical fit assessment, commercial negotiation, quality assurance of third-party delivery.
Programme Recovery and Stabilisation
Taking over troubled platform implementations that are late, over budget, or failing to meet business requirements. Work includes root cause analysis, relationship reset with vendors, re-architecting where necessary, and restoring delivery momentum.
Typical challenges: loss of stakeholder confidence, technical debt accumulated under pressure, misaligned expectations, contractor performance issues.
How Solitude Works With Clients
Senior clients engage Solitude Consulting on a retained, embedded, or project basis depending on need. Engagements range from short strategic reviews (a few weeks) through to multi-year programmes where Solitude acts as technical lead, implementation governor, or interim technical authority.
Direct Client Relationship
You work directly with Stephen Leathem. No account managers, no tiered delivery model. The person advising is the person accountable.
Embedded Collaboration
Solitude works inside your organisation, attending governance meetings, reviewing vendor deliverables, and making decisions alongside your team — not remotely from a consulting office.
Independent Position
No technology reselling, no system integrator referrals for commercial gain, no pressure to adopt specific vendors. You get honest assessment of platforms, partners, and options.
Flexible Scope
Engagements adjust based on programme realities. If the scope needs to change because a vendor underdelivers or requirements shift, we adapt without contractual friction.
What Clients Value
"The ability to explain complex technical decisions in terms the board could understand and act on."
"Calm, structured thinking when the programme was chaotic and stakeholder confidence was low."
"Honest advice about what could realistically be delivered, rather than what we wanted to hear."
"Experience across multiple platforms and vendors — not locked into one technology ecosystem."
"Accountability. When something needed a decision, it got made."
"Understanding delivery constraints, not just architectural theory."
Where Solitude adds the most value
Common scenarios where clients engage Solitude Consulting
Platform selection is underway but confidence is low
You're evaluating enterprise CMS, commerce, or martech platforms but need an experienced perspective to pressure-test vendor claims, identify risks, and validate technical fit.
An implementation is running but losing momentum
Your system integrator or agency is struggling with technical complexity, scope creep, or delivery quality. You need a senior technical voice to diagnose issues and restore control.
You're planning a transformation but lack senior technical capacity
Your internal team is strong operationally but doesn't have experience leading large-scale platform programmes. You need interim technical leadership to design, govern, and deliver.
A platform is live but not performing as expected
You've launched a new commerce, CMS, or martech platform but it's unstable, slow, or difficult to manage. You need root cause analysis and a roadmap to fix it properly.
You're inheriting a technology estate and need clarity
Following a merger, acquisition, or leadership change, you need rapid assessment of platform capabilities, technical debt, and integration dependencies to inform your strategy.
Integration complexity is holding back the business
Your platforms don't talk to each other properly. Data flows are fragile. You need a coherent integration architecture and delivery plan that reduces risk and cost.
Working on a complex platform programme?
If you're navigating a difficult technology initiative — whether it's platform selection, implementation governance, or programme recovery — and need experienced senior support, let's talk.
Get in touch