Rescue

What you are buying

You are buying a time-boxed engagement with a named outcome: a written risk picture, a stabilisation path, and a clear recommendation for what should come next. Localhost holds scope and escalation for the spike. Specialists are matched to the stack and the uncertainty, then managed under that same accountability rather than dropped in as interchangeable capacity.

When this commercial shape fits

Choose Rescue when a project is underwater, when a key person or supplier has left, or when leadership cannot tell whether the work is salvageable without spending another quarter guessing. It also fits when you want a bounded first step before committing to Build or Managed Service.

What usually comes next

Rescue is rarely the whole commercial relationship. A good spike ends with clearer risk and a recommendation: continue as Build against a done definition, move into Managed Service for ongoing ownership, or stop without sinking more budget into an unrecoverable path. Named Build and Managed Service work on this site often sits downstream of that kind of decision, even when the public case study describes the programme that followed rather than the spike that unlocked it.

How AI shows up in delivery

AI helps map debt, surface risk, and compress the time to a written picture of what is salvageable. The spike still ends with a human judgment call: Build, Managed Service, or stop. We do not sell AI-led rescues that leave security and operability out of the brief.

How Rescue shows up in delivery

• Supplier-exit platform stabilisation

  A public-safe Rescue case: map risk after a delivery partner exited a live UK platform estate, stabilise what had to keep running, and leave a clear Build or Managed Service path.

• Stabilise, then Build

  When an estate arrived partially finished or poorly bounded, Rescue framed the real done definition before fixed-scope delivery. DHL UK Returns is the public example of the kind of production build that can follow once risk and architecture are clear enough to sign.

• Stabilise, then Managed Service

  When the urgent gap is ownership of a live path rather than a single milestone, Rescue can lead into Managed Service. The IOSH membership platform engagement shows what ongoing ownership looks like once someone accountable is watching identity, APIs, backend services, and weekday operational delivery.

If the programme is already carrying unknown risk, start with a short diagnostic. We will say within two working days whether a Rescue spike is the right first move.

Also see Build · Managed Service.