A 40% Leaner Cost Base. A Team That Ships More.
~3x
output per engineer
Over 40%
less spent on IT
- Sector
- UK eCommerce Platform
- Engagement
- Post-Acquisition Turnaround
- Roles
- Interim CTO, Head of Engineering
- Duration
- 8 months engagement
The Situation
Not On The High Street needed its technology costs down fast after a private equity buyout. A smaller team now ships more, on a far leaner cost structure.
- since the tech cost base was last reviewed
- 5+ years
- of engineering work carried an estimate
- 0%
- median time to deliver a piece of work
- 12 days
Not On The High Street, like much of online retail, faced a tougher market after COVID. Under new ownership from early 2026, the business wanted a leaner, faster technology function, and brought us in to lead its technology team.
The technology had been built for about 100 engineers and was never cut back as the team shrank. Tools stayed paid for after the people who used them had gone.
Day to day, work reached engineering poorly defined, and nobody could say when anything would ship. Decisions were agreed out loud in meetings, so anyone who disliked one could reopen it.
What We Did
Reduced software and server costs.
We pulled every software contract from Finance, across five departments. We cancelled what nobody used, and renegotiated or resized the rest to what the business actually uses, servers included.
55% of contracts we touched, cut or resized
Built an Agentic AI Factory.
We redefined the organisation and restructured its processes around agentic work. Then we trained every single engineer, one to one and in fortnightly sessions, for the new era of engineering. The whole team made the switch inside the existing AI budget.
95% of new code now written by agentic tools
Required sign-off before work reaches engineering.
Idea, then shaping, then building, with a gate between each. Nothing reaches engineering without the business case, the requirements and an hours-based plan, all approved. Every decision is written down, so it holds after the meeting.
2 sign-offs approved before any work reaches engineers
Measured the effort on every task.
Every task carries an estimate, and the time it took is recorded against it. The work became visible per team and per engineer, which showed exactly where it stalled.
~90% of engineering work now has an estimate
Before vs After
| Output per engineer | After: ~19 tickets a sprint Before: 6 tickets a sprint | Change: ~3x |
|---|---|---|
| Median time to deliver | After: 6 days Before: 12 days | Change: −50% |
| Overall cost | After: 2027 Before: 2026 | Change: Over 40% lower |
Showing the after state.
Where They Are Today
1.5 to 3 months
of roadmap the business can plan against
For the first time, the business produces well-defined, prioritised work, enough to build a proper roadmap. With the Agentic AI Factory in daily use, the teams ship faster than ever, and delivery dates go to the board and hold. A technology function that costs less and hits its dates adds to the company's valuation.
What shoppers say about Not On The High Street
- ★★★★★
“I have made a lot of great purchases from creative businesses across the UK, which has seriously levelled-up my gifting! … Website is well laid out and easy to navigate.”
Bethan · Sep 2024
- ★★★★★
“…these sellers are trying to make a living so we support them by buying their unique items. They’re always quality and never had any issues with NOTHS sellers.”
David S. · Dec 2023
- ★★★★★
“Great selection of gifts … The website is very easy to use, the gifts are so unusual. I can't wait to try the experience section for myself!”
Helene · Jun 2023
- ★★★★★
“5* for unique and classy gifts! … Will use NOTH again and again as I have in the past. I support small and talented businesses.”
Danielle S. · Apr 2025
- ★★★★★
“Stumbled across this website by mistake, but found loads of interesting and different items, great for presents. … Will use it again.”
Ben M. · Dec 2023
- ★★★★★
“A fantastic website with a range of products to choose from. … always my go-to for prezzies!”
Becky · Dec 2023
What SIROC Brought
We sat inside the business and ran the work ourselves. We cancelled unused contracts and right-sized the rest, trimmed the servers, and took development that had stalled for months off the team's hands and shipped it. We also reorganised the tech organisation so a smaller team produces more.
The mandate was engineering. We fixed product as well, though it was out of scope.
“We don’t shy away from hard problems. Whatever the challenge, we take it on and deliver it quickly and well.”
Javier García Head of AI, SIROCWe had rolled out agentic coding at other companies before, so we knew how to land it across a whole team at speed.
- as Interim CTO and Head of Engineering
- 2 roles
- also fixed, though it was not in the brief
- Product
- to get agentic coding into daily use
- 1 month
“SIROC entered a challenging situation that required difficult decisions and operational discipline. They delivered results significantly faster than we expected.”
Pascal Schuster Interim CEO, Not On The High StreetWhen tech spend rises and output stays flat, look upstream. Gating work, raising output with AI, and cutting and resizing suppliers took 40% off costs.
