System Fit Sprint

Vendors are built to sell. Their discovery is designed to find a path to a signature, not surface reasons their system might not fit. The System Fit Sprint has no stake in which system wins.

The gaps that cause implementation failures aren't in your SOPs. Workarounds and process realities that have become invisible through familiarity don't surface in remote interviews. The site visit is the only input not filtered through your own normalized view of your operation.

Never. Fullstride has no vendor relationships, takes no referral fees, and earns no implementation revenue. The client's fixed fee is the only way Fullstride gets paid, which means the only incentive is an accurate recommendation.

The System Fit Sprint is built for warehouses that run on rules they don't set — 3PLs, and distributors whose complexity has outgrown the warehouse module in their ERP — evaluating their first or next WMS. Client SLAs, retailer chargebacks, lot and expiry traceability, and B2B and B2C shipping from the same building are what make a selection high-stakes enough to justify the work. It's not a fit for simple pick-and-pack or pallet-in/pallet-out operations, or if you've already picked a system and want it validated.

Often, yes. Fullstride specializes by problem class, not industry label — the qualifier is whether your warehouse runs on rules set by other parties: retailer chargebacks, lot and expiry traceability, customer SLAs, or B2B and B2C shipping from the same building. Distributors carrying that complexity have the same selection problem 3PLs do, usually while evaluating their first real WMS beyond the module bundled with their ERP. And if you hold inventory you don't own, you have 3PL system requirements whether or not you call yourself one.

Operations that can bend themselves to fit the software. If your warehouse sets its own rules — one channel, one way of working, pallet in and pallet out — most mainstream systems will fit, and a careful DIY evaluation is the right call. Fullstride is also the wrong hire if you've already chosen a system and want it validated, or if the recommendation has to land on the vendor leadership already favors. The Sprint is built to change the answer, not to confirm one. A recommendation with a pre-approved outcome isn't independent.

Before you've had substantive vendor conversations — ideally before you've built a shortlist. If you've already started demos and feel like vendors are glossing over your more complex needs, the sprint can reset the process. The earlier the better: the cost of changing course drops significantly before contracts are signed.

WMS selection is a multi-year, high-switching-cost commitment, and a system chosen against an inaccurate operational picture doesn't reveal its problems until after contracts are signed. The System Fit Sprint is the cost of not making that mistake — typically around a tenth of what the first year of a WMS implementation runs. The fee is priced by operational footprint rather than revenue, because the work scales with the buildings walked, not the dollars earned.

The sprint is designed to be high-impact and low-friction on your end. Beyond the structured intake before the visit and being available during the site audit, Fullstride handles the analysis. You'll be pulled in for targeted follow-up questions as needed, and for the delivery debrief at the end.

Every operationally distinct facility gets a full US-based onsite day, travel included, and the fee scales with that footprint: $20,000 for one facility, $30,000 for two, $37,500 for three, and $5,000 for each facility beyond that. Only distinct operations are counted — if ten buildings run what's presumably one playbook, we visit two and you pay for two. The increments taper on purpose: the second facility is where one operation usually turns out to be two, the third tells us whether that divergence is a pattern or a one-off, and each facility after that is more confirmation than discovery. Visits are scheduled in quick succession, and deliverables land two weeks after the final onsite visit.

Deliverables land two weeks after the final onsite visit. For a single-facility operation that makes the System Fit Sprint a two-week engagement end to end: onsite early in week one, the three deliverables through week two, and a delivery debrief to close. Additional facilities add onsite days at the front, not analysis time at the back.

The sprint stands alone — it ends with the delivery debrief and the three deliverables, and no further engagement is assumed. Clients who want the same independence carried through demos, contract review, and final vendor ranking can add Vendor Scrutiny, an optional second engagement quoted as a fixed fee alongside the sprint deliverables — once the shortlist exists, the scope is known.

Independence is the asset. Implementation revenue creates an incentive to recommend familiar systems over fitting ones, so Fullstride stays out of implementation entirely — that's what keeps the recommendation unconflicted.

The sprint produces three documents: the Operational Reality Check — a floor-level audit of your operation's critical levers and readiness gaps; the Vendor Intelligence Report — a fit-filtered shortlist of 3–5 vendors with structured analysis across product fit, vendor health, and financials; and the Independent Vendor Analysis — a ranked recommendation with implementation risks and vendor positioning flagged.