01 / Contact
Fano, Italy — Central European Time
Contact
I answer, not a switchboard. The most useful way to start is half an hour of conversation: you tell me which systems you run and where the work jams, and I tell you whether it is a problem I know how to solve and whether the spend makes sense. If the answer is no, I say so in that half hour and I don't waste any more of your time.
- Who answers
- Mattia Radici, solution architect. There is no salesperson in between, and there won't be one afterwards either.
- Response time
- Usually within one working day on email. If you have a deadline coming up, put it in the subject line.
- What you don't get
- No automated email sequence, no brochure, no cold sales call.
- Working hours
- Central European Time: a full working day overlapping with Europe and the UK, and the afternoon overlapping with the east coast of the United States.
02 / Channels
Which one to use, and when
Three ways to reach me, for three different situations
They are not equivalent. Each works better for one kind of conversation, and choosing well saves us both a round trip.
A half-hour call
The channel I recommend if you have a defined problem and want to know whether it is solvable. In thirty minutes we work out which systems are involved, whether they expose a way of being reached, and whether the order of magnitude of the spend makes sense against what the manual work costs you today. Video call or phone, in English.
When you have a problem and want a technical opinion, not a quotation.
The best channel if you prefer to write, or if you have documentation to attach: sample data files, screenshots of the ERP, the API documentation your vendor gave you. The more context you send, the more the first reply is useful instead of being a request for clarification. It is also the channel that works regardless of time zone.
When you have material to attach, or you prefer it in writing.
Phone
Works for short things: a direct question, a feasibility check, a deadline coming up. If I don't answer I am on a call or with a client: send me a message and I'll call you back. Worth remembering that the number is Italian, so check the hour before you dial.
When the question is short or time is tight.
03 / Details
Business and contact details
Contact and business details
These are the official details and they should match the ones you find elsewhere: if you see different ones anywhere, these are the right ones.
Business details
- Legal name
- Mattia Radici
- Trading name
- LAPI
- Contact
- Mattia Radici — solution architect
- Italian VAT number
- 02838650410
Where I work from
- Based in
- Fano, Italy
- Time zone
- Central European Time (CET/CEST, UTC+1 and UTC+2)
- Remotely
- By default, and for most of a project. Repository, ticket tool and calls on whatever you already use.
- On site
- For the analysis phase, where it is worth it: watching how people work is worth more than ten video calls. A few days, not a permanent presence, with travel costs agreed in advance.
Contracts and invoicing
- Currency
- Invoicing in euros. A project is a fixed price against a written scope, not an open hourly rate.
- VAT
- Treatment depends on where your business is registered, and I confirm it before the first invoice rather than after it.
- Contract and NDA
- I am happy to work under your contract and your NDA. I don't have a template I need you to accept.
- Working language
- English: documents, code, commit messages and calls. The architecture document is written in English, not translated afterwards.
Hours and availability
- Reachable
- Working days, office hours on Central European Time. Introductory calls can be booked from the calendar, outside those hours if that is what your time zone needs.
- Email replies
- Usually within one working day. I answer: there is no shared inbox.
- Urgent issues on live systems
- For clients with a project in production, the channels and response times are the ones agreed in the contract, not these.
What is useful for the first call
- Knowing what you run
- The name of the ERP, the CRM, the e-commerce platform or the portal. Just the name is enough to start.
- Where it jams
- Which data gets retyped by hand, by whom, how many times a day or a week.
- What you don't need
- A specification document, a defined budget, somebody's approval. Those come later, if it makes sense.
About the address
04 / Route
What happens after the first contact
What happens after you write to me
No surprises and no sales funnel. These are the four real steps, with the durations as indicative estimates rather than commitments.
- 01
First reply
I read what you have written and I answer myself. If the problem is outside my perimeter I say so straight away, and if I know somebody better suited I pass on the name.
- Cosa ricevi
- A reply written by a person, with an initial opinion.
- Durata
- Usually 1 working day
- 02
Introductory call
Half an hour. You tell me about the systems and the points where data is retyped, I ask the questions needed to understand whether and how those systems can be reached. No presentation, no slides.
- Cosa ricevi
- An honest view on feasibility and on the order of magnitude of the spend.
- Durata
- 30 minutes
- 03
Analysis
If it makes sense to continue, we start with the analysis: it is a piece of work in its own right, with its own scope and its own price, and it produces documents that stay yours even if you never build anything with me.
- Cosa ricevi
- A map of the data flows, the manual work quantified in hours, and an architecture document.
- Durata
- 1–2 weeks (estimate)
- 04
Development quotation
The quotation comes after the analysis, because before it would be an invented number. It is a fixed figure for the project, not an open hourly rate. If the analysis shows the spend cannot be justified, I write that down in black and white.
- Cosa ricevi
- A fixed-price quotation with milestones and a written scope.
- Durata
- After the analysis
The durations are estimates to help you plan, not contractual commitments. None of these steps commits you to the next: you can stop after the call or after the analysis, and in both cases what you have received stays yours.
05 / Frequently asked
Before you write
Questions before contacting me
The things people ask before deciding whether to write. If yours is missing, write to me and I'll add it.
01Is the first call free?
Yes, and it is not a sales device: it is thirty minutes in which I work out whether your problem is a problem I know how to solve. It serves me too, because taking on the wrong project costs more than turning it down. If the answer after the call is no, I don't send you anything and I don't call you back.
02Do I need a defined budget to contact you?
No. The opposite is more useful: tell me what the manual work costs you today — how many hours, how many people, how often — and from there we can tell whether an intervention makes economic sense. If the numbers don't add up I say so, and it isn't a tactic to make you raise the figure.
03You are in Italy and we are not. How does that work in practice?
I work on Central European Time, which overlaps with the whole of Europe and the UK for a full working day and with the east coast of the United States for the afternoon. Work is remote by default: repository, ticket tool and calls on whatever you already use, in English. For the analysis phase I travel where it is worth it, because watching people work is worth more than ten calls — but it is a few days, not a permanent presence, and travel costs are agreed in advance rather than appearing on an invoice.
04What are the contract and the currency?
I am an Italian sole trader invoicing in euros, and a project is a fixed price against a written scope rather than an open hourly rate. I am happy to work under your contract and your NDA; I don't have a template I need you to accept. VAT treatment depends on where your business is registered, and I confirm it before the first invoice rather than after it.
05Where would our data live, and who is responsible for it?
The infrastructure is in your name from day one, so the data stays with you: I am a processor working on your systems, not a place where your data is kept. Hosting can be pinned to an EU region — or another region if your own rules require it — and that decision goes into the architecture document together with what is logged, for how long and who can read it.
06Do you provide IT support or systems administration?
No, and I would rather say so than waste your time. I don't deal with networks, workstations, printers, servers or helpdesk. I do integration between systems, middleware for data automation, B2B portals and custom software: software that gets written, not infrastructure to be kept running. If you are looking for systems support, you need a different supplier.
07Can you sign an NDA before I describe the project?
Yes, without any difficulty: send me yours or we use a standard one. With the agencies and software houses I work for under white label it is the norm, and the same goes for companies. If you prefer to keep the first call general and go into detail after signing, that is fine.
08How long before you could start?
It depends on what I have in progress, and I don't have a fixed answer that holds at every point in the year. I tell you honestly on the call: if I cannot start within the time you need, it is better to know that straight away than to find out after three weeks of negotiation.
06 / Related
Before you write to me
If you want to understand what I do first
Three pages that answer half the questions of the first call in advance.