Most technology advisors are vague about this. We'd rather you read it before the first conversation than wonder about it afterwards.
MALA is an independent technology advisor paid by providers, never by clients. Clients pay no direct fee for our advisory services. After you select and move forward with a participating provider, MALA is compensated by that provider. Providers within each category have similar compensation models, so our compensation does not meaningfully change based on which one you choose — and you are never required to select a participating provider at all.
Similar compensation models within every category.
That last sentence is the one that matters most, so it's worth putting plainly. Providers competing in the same category compensate advisors on similar models, so choosing one over another does not make a recommendation meaningfully more valuable to us. If you want to see how a specific recommendation is compensated, ask — we will show you.
Before any provider conversation happens, we document what your environment actually needs — architecture, constraints, compliance obligations, budget. That document is yours.
Multiple providers, evaluated against the same written criteria, with pricing benchmarked against what comparable organizations actually pay.
We recommend, and we'll tell you plainly which option we'd pick and why. The selection is yours, and it is documented so you can defend it to a board, an auditor or an examiner.
Providers in the same category compensate on similar models, so the amount is similar whichever qualified provider you select.
That is a real outcome and it happens. Sometimes the right answer is to keep what you have, or to do nothing this budget cycle.
Contracting, implementation oversight, and the renewal calendar afterwards — so the same gap doesn't reopen next term.
Because the amount doesn't meaningfully change with the choice: providers within a category have similar compensation models. An advisor whose compensation varies widely by provider has a reason to steer; one whose compensation is similar across the qualified options does not. That's the whole answer — it's a fact about the structure, not a promise about our intentions.
There is no direct client fee for our advisory services. We say “no direct client fee” rather than “free” because free invites the question of what the catch is, and there's a straightforward answer instead: the provider you select pays a placement fee. You are never invoiced by us.
No. You can take our assessment, our benchmarks and our recommendation and go a completely different direction — including staying exactly where you are. We'd rather be useful and unpaid on this engagement than push you into a decision you regret.
Providers within a category have similar compensation models, so the question has little purchase here. But it's the right question to ask any advisor, and if you're evaluating others alongside us, ask them this one first.
Then we'll say so. It happens — sometimes the right move is an incumbent renegotiation, an internal build, or nothing at all this cycle. Telling you that costs us the fee and keeps the relationship, which is the trade we'd make every time.
These are the questions that separate a structurally neutral advisor from one who just uses the word, and they work on us as well as on anyone else you're considering:
We wrote both of these up in more detail: how vendor-neutral advisors actually get paid, and the questions to ask before you sign with any advisor. If our answers don't hold up against them, that's worth knowing before the first meeting rather than after.
Thirty minutes on a renewal, an evaluation or a modernization plan you're weighing. You'll get an outside read on it, and an honest answer about whether we're the right fit.
No fee to you. No obligation. An advisor responds within one business day.