AI-embedded Unit4 advisory — UK public sector

Strategic Unit4 consulting. AI built in.

Programme architecture, transformation governance, and bespoke AI for your Unit4 estate. Work directly with a senior specialist who combines strategic advisory with hands-on system delivery.

Book a 30-minute call See the case studies
01 / Commission

What you can commission

Five ways to engage, in ascending commitment. The first is free and returns a result on the page. One figure is published; the other fees are agreed in the first call.

Start here / Free

Unit4 configuration health check

Twelve questions on your Unit4 HR and payroll configuration, two for each of the six domains a Unit4 X-Ray assesses formally. Scored on the page. No email address, nothing submitted anywhere.

Fee
Freeself-serve, no gate
Duration
About 2 minutesresult rendered on the page

Run the free health check

Priced / Published figure

Unit4 X-Ray

A structured strategic diagnostic of a defined area of a Unit4 Business World estate, delivered as a written executive-grade assessment with a prioritised remediation roadmap. Six assessment domains: configuration drift, defect inventory, control gaps, undocumented architecture, capability deficit and cloud-readiness posture.

Three deliverables: a plain-English executive report, a technical configuration blueprint for the systems team, and a sequenced remediation roadmap with effort and risk profile. The SQL evidence pack and diagnostic queries are handed over at the end for internal reuse.

Price
£14,750indicative; subject to scoping
Duration
About 3 weekssubject to agreed scope

See the Unit4 X-Ray brief

Fixed fee, fixed duration

Documentation and governance package

The procedure manual and standard operating procedure layer that makes a configured system operable: monthly payroll playbooks, error catalogues, decision trees and process maps, line manager guides and support operations manuals, with a segregation-of-duties and delegation matrix and the training material to hand the set over.

Scope is agreed up front and recorded in writing. Configuration change, defect remediation and system build sit in embedded delivery, not here. The fee is confirmed in the first call.

Fee
Fixedconfirmed in the first call
Duration
Fixedagreed at scoping

Fixed fee, fixed duration

PolicyAI deployment

An HR policy assistant that answers staff and line manager policy questions from your organisation's own published policy library, citing the source document for each answer. Built on Anthropic Claude Opus, deployed on Vercel, with Azure Active Directory single sign-on. PolicyAI is a prototype: a working version was documented in a March 2026 briefing, and production deployment requires agreement on identity, security, information governance and support.

Pricing follows a scoping call, with a written quotation setting out the agreed scope, fees and operating responsibilities. Policy ownership, query-log handling and deployment rights are set out in the written agreement.

Fee
Fixedconfirmed in the first call
Duration
Fixedagreed at scoping

See PolicyAI

Retained

Embedded advisory and delivery

The same senior specialist working inside your team for the length of the engagement, on day-rate or fixed-scope arrangements, inside IR35 where required, with scope, deliverables and fees agreed in writing.

Duration is fixed and agreed in writing before work starts. The fee is confirmed in the first call.

Fee
Day-rate or fixed-scopeconfirmed in the first call
Duration
Fixedagreed in writing

Commissioning any engagement is subject to your organisation's procurement rules and delegated authority.

Compare all five
02 / Route in

Where you are, and what to do next

Five positions a buyer arrives in, and the page that answers each one.

You cannot yet name the problemEight written pieces on how a Unit4 HR and payroll estate drifts, grouped by decision stage.

Read the insights

You want to know before you spendTwelve questions across the six domains a diagnostic assesses, scored on the page in about two minutes.

Run the free health check

You want to know who this isFive Unit4 engagements described at sector level, each with the outcome in its title.

See the case studies

You are choosing the size of the workIndependent review, defined diagnostic or remediation programme, with what each one produces.

Compare the five ways to engage

You are taking it through procurementCommissioning is subject to your organisation's procurement rules and delegated authority.

How commissioning works
03 / Proof

What that has produced

Client work is described at sector level on this site. Detailed engagement material stays confidential unless sharing has been authorised.

Proving a payroll against an estate of over 2,500 employees before anyone was paid

Sector and scale
An international organisation. An estate of over 2,500 employees across multiple pay groups.
The artefact
A parallel-run comparison and acceptance evidence pack, with a defect register reporting resolution rates and a residual-risk statement to the board.
The result
Calculation parity demonstrated before the first live run, with the residual risk quantified rather than reported as a status colour.
Read this engagement in full

A support backlog cut by 50 per cent in a higher-education Unit4 team

Sector and scale
Higher education. A central Unit4 support function.
The artefact
A triage and resolution routine plus the training that let the team run it afterwards.
The result
The backlog halved, and the capability to hold it there left inside the team.
Read this engagement in full

A payroll review forecast to free 500 administrative hours a year

Sector and scale
Local government. A council payroll running multiple pay entities, including a schools payroll.
The artefact
An operating review with a phased remediation roadmap and consultancy estimates.
The result
A forecast saving of 500 administrative hours a year, from the move to self-service time, attendance and travel claim entry the review enabled.
Read this engagement in full
See all five case studies
04 / Record

The delivery record

Test manager on more than ten Unit4 ERP implementations, spanning HR, payroll, learning and development, and finance modules.

Unit4 delivery across local government, policing, central government, higher education, regulated and nuclear environments, international organisations and financial services.

Hands-on across the Unit4 and Agresso release line: Agresso Milestone 4 and Milestone 5, Unit4 Business World 7.4 through 7.8, and the Unit4 cloud 26.x generation.

Payroll procedure manuals
More than seventy-fiveOne public-sector payroll function: personnel, pay elements, payroll processing, absence, pensions, deductions, period end and HMRC, reconciliation and system administration.
Accounts receivable manuals
ThirteenCustomer record and sales order through payment allocation, matching, write-off, reminders and reporting.
Cloud-upgrade test script workbooks
Twenty-twoEvery module in scope, from asset management and general ledger to purchasing, project accounting, timesheets and expenses.
Test evidence documents
More than thirty-fiveIndividually referenced, for a single upgrade programme.
HR solution design
Twenty-seven configured HR process areasBuilt by extracting the live configuration from the production database.
Procurement and purchase order manual
Twenty-four sectionsGovernance, procure-to-pay, roles and approval limits, supplier setup, receipting, three-way match, contract management and data protection.
Excelerator reports
ElevenBuilt and taken into operational use by a payroll team.

Counts are artefact counts. No organisation is attached to any of them.

More about the practice
05 / Method

How the work runs

The Embedded Intelligence Method has three pillars: strategic ERP advisory, AI engineered to the system, and embedded senior delivery.

Pillar 01

Strategic ERP advisory

Programme architecture, governance design and transformation roadmaps, authored at the level a decision-maker can commit budget against.

Pillar 01 in full

Pillar 02

AI engineered to the system

Bespoke AI built against the Unit4 data model rather than bolted on beside it. PolicyAI is the worked example.

Pillar 02 in full

Pillar 03

Embedded delivery

One senior specialist working as a peer inside the client team, with direct responsibility for the agreed advisory and implementation work.

Pillar 03 in full

A single senior specialist sets the strategy, writes the test script and the SQL, and builds the AI application.

How the method works
06 / Insights

Recent insights

Ungated. No email address, no download, no newsletter.

All eight insights
07 / Engage

Start with a 30-minute call

Every engagement starts with a thirty-minute call with Mircea Rogojan-Rush, who founded the practice and delivers every engagement. It is booked directly rather than by email exchange.

You leave the call with a view on whether the model fits, and with the one route out of the five above that matches the situation you described.

Book a 30-minute call Compare the five ways to engage

Direct

mircea@bearconsultingservices.com

A personal response within one working day.

See Privacy for how personal information is handled. Professional indemnity insurance details are available on request.

What to send

The modules involved, the decision the work has to support, and the urgency.

Commissioning is subject to your organisation's procurement rules and delegated authority.

Client work is described at sector level on this site. References and sample deliverables can be discussed during a scoping call, subject to confidentiality and permission to share.