Start with five real options
A fair second opinion includes “stay and repair” and “do less” alongside migration choices. It does not compare a detailed preferred platform with generic descriptions of the alternatives.
| Path | Strongest when | Decision risk |
|---|---|---|
| Stay and stabilize | The platform fits, data is sound, integrations matter, and current defects are bounded. | Short-term repairs can preserve avoidable long-term complexity if architecture is not reviewed. |
| Modernize Magento or Adobe Commerce | Core B2B, catalog, pricing, multi-store, or ERP workflows fit, but frontend, extensions, releases, or hosting need change. | A “modernization” label can hide a rebuild unless scope and acceptance are explicit. |
| Change the frontend | Backend workflows fit but customer experience, content velocity, or performance needs a new presentation layer. | Hyvä, headless, and Edge Delivery Services create different capability, extension, skill, and ownership changes. |
| Move to enterprise SaaS | Operational simplicity and standard capabilities matter more than deep customization. | Complex pricing, accounts, product, or ERP logic may move into apps, middleware, or manual work. |
| Use composable commerce | The organization can own product boundaries, integration contracts, observability, and several vendors over time. | Architecture flexibility can become permanent coordination and operating cost. |
Score evidence, not platform slogans
Use the rows below as questions. Define the evidence and acceptance rule before assigning any rating.
| Criterion | Evidence to request | Decision question |
|---|---|---|
| Business workflow fit | Named journeys, edge cases, approvals, pricing, account, and service rules. | Which requirements are native, configured, extended, external, or removed? |
| Systems and data | Source-of-truth map, event and batch flows, reconciliation, failures, and ownership. | Where will product, price, stock, customer, order, and payment truth live? |
| Customer and content experience | Design, content, search, merchandising, accessibility, analytics, and localization needs. | Who can safely change the experience, how quickly, and with which dependencies? |
| Extension and feature disposition | Current extension inventory and per-capability keep, replace, rebuild, retire, or externalize decision. | What stops working, changes owner, or requires new software? |
| Operating model | Named internal and supplier roles, skills, support, release, and incident responsibilities. | Can the organization run the chosen architecture after launch? |
| Security and compliance | Data classification, access, patches, dependencies, evidence, and response duties. | Which controls move, remain, or become shared? |
| Migration and continuity | Data, URL, order, customer, integration, parallel-run, rollback, and cutover plans. | What can fail during transition and how is business truth protected? |
| Total cost | Defined-period license, hosting, apps, people, suppliers, integrations, upgrades, and risk assumptions. | Which cost moved rather than disappeared? |
Frontend choices need a separate disposition list
Hyvä, headless commerce, and Adobe Edge Delivery Services are not interchangeable labels for “faster frontend.” Compare checkout, customer account, content, search, merchandising, Adobe services, extensions, analytics, consent, accessibility, hosting, releases, preview, and the skills needed to operate each path. Mark every existing capability as retained, replaced, rebuilt, retired, or unresolved.
Make total cost reproducible
State the period and show license, infrastructure, platform services, apps or extensions, implementation, retained team, support, releases, security, upgrades, content operations, data and integration ownership, rework, migration, and contingency. Do not hide a cost because a different department pays it.
Record why the losing options lost
A board-ready matrix does more than announce a winner. It records assumptions, evidence, gaps, dissent, rejected options, switching conditions, and the owner of the final decision. If the source changes, the record should show whether the recommendation changes too.
Use one matrix with every adviser
Start with the buyer brief, evaluate conflicts with the OPINION-7 method, and verify access and claims with the due-diligence checklist. Return to the consultant comparison for route-specific fit.