Ethics and independence

Advice is only worth having when the person giving it has nothing to gain elsewhere. The commitments below restate the ethical principles accepted in independent consulting, applied to geospatial work. They are not negotiated engagement by engagement.

Only accepting what I am qualified to do

I accept an engagement only if I can carry it out in your best interest. When a subject falls outside my field, I say so rather than learn it at your expense, and I point you to a specialist whose work I know.

Loyalty and confidentiality

Your interest comes before mine for the whole duration of the engagement, including when the most useful conclusion for you is the shortest one for me.

Whatever is entrusted to me stays confidential without time limit: documents, data, internal trade-offs, and the very existence of the engagement if you ask for it. No reference is published on this site without written agreement.

No payment other than yours

In carrying out an engagement I accept no commission, no kickback and no benefit from a software vendor, a supplier, an integrator or a subcontractor. My only payment is the one you make, and it does not depend on the tool I recommend.

I resell no software and am tied to no platform. A recommendation may therefore be to keep what you have, or to buy nothing at all.

Conflicts of interest

I disclose any tie liable to affect my judgement: a current engagement with a competitor, a relationship with a shortlisted supplier, a personal interest in a solution under consideration. Disclosure comes before the discussion, not after it. If the conflict cannot be removed, I decline.

Everything in writing before we start

Scope, objectives, deliverables, schedule, fees and expenses are agreed in writing and accepted before work begins. A moving scope is reviewed together before the spend is committed, never when the report is handed over.

Skills kept current

I keep my technical level equal to the engagements I accept. A skill I no longer practise is a skill I no longer charge for: I bring it in through the network, and I say so.

Respect for other professionals

I disparage neither a peer's work, nor an incumbent supplier's, nor an internal team's. An audit can establish that a past decision was wrong without calling into question those who made it, often with less information than I have today.

I take part in no prior arrangement between providers, whether on a tender or on a division of scope: it would necessarily work against your interest.

The framework set by my sabbatical leave

Oktri was founded during a period of sabbatical leave. My employment contract is suspended, not terminated: the obligations flowing from it still apply, and I treat them as part of my ethics rather than as a formality. They cover loyalty to my employer, confidentiality over everything I learned in that capacity, and non-competition.

Every engagement I accept has to fit within that framework. I decline those that would not, and I raise the question at the first exchange rather than once a proposal has been sent. There is something in it for you: the information you entrust to me is held to the same standard as the information I am already bound to protect.

If a commitment is not met

These commitments are only worth something if you can hold me to them. If you believe one of them has not been honoured, write to contact@oktri.io: you will get a written answer on the substance.