Cherrystone · Ipso

See what holds your business back.

Cherrystone maps, measures and improves how your operation runs. Ipso, our product, models what changes when you do — so you can decide what to fix, improve or invest in.

See Ipso in action Talk to Cherrystone

Thirty seconds, no sign-up, no company details. The example is illustrative; the real sample package is one link away.

An operation, one day · work enters, one stage limits progress, work waitsillustrative

Bars show how much of each stage is used. The red outline is the stage that limits output.Open the real Ipso sample ↗

How an operation becomes a decision ↓ scroll

How an operation becomes a decision

01 · The operation

Work moves through stages.

Three stages; each can handle a set amount a day. 300 units arrive. This is the picture Cherrystone draws first, from your documents and your people — before any number is trusted.

02 · The constraint

One stage sets the pace.

Processing can handle 240 a day, so 240 get through and 60 wait. Not a guess: the arithmetic sits under the picture, and it has to balance.

03 · The test

Not every change helps.

Raise intake to 450 — nothing moves; processing still limits output. Raise processing to 330 — 300 through, nothing waits. The picture is recalculated, not redrawn.

04 · The decision

Sequence: processing first.

Every Ipso analysis ends in one of nine decisions with its reason written down. This one: address processing before adding intake. Illustrative here; the real package does it across your whole operation.

Test it yourself

Skip the story ↓

01 · The operation · as it runs todayAnnotations

sequence

Address processing before adding more intake. Raising intake left 240 through and 60 waiting; raising processing cleared the queue. Illustrative interpretation, not an Ipso finding.

Every number on this panel comes from one small calculation.illustrative

02 Test a change

Now move it yourself.

The same operation, 300 units arriving. Two capacities to change, one calculation underneath. Move a capacity and read what actually changes.

The same operation · move the slidersAnnotations

Every number here comes from one small calculation you can open below.units per day

Intake capacity 360 / day

Add a loading window: more work can be taken in.

Processing capacity 240 / day

Add a shift: more work can be processed.

240units a day get through

60units waiting by day's end

Processing limits output.

sequenceaddress processing before adding more intake

Illustrative interpretation, not an Ipso finding. Capacity headroom is shown as headroom, not as a promised increase in sales.

The arithmetic, and what it leaves out

Output = the smallest of arrivals and the three capacities. Queue added over the day = arrivals − output. Starting work-in-progress is zero; losses and transfer delays are left out. The queue is a quantity accumulated during the day, not a rate, and no waiting time is derived from it.

Input or result	Start	Raise intake	Raise processing
Work arriving	300	300	300
Intake capacity	360	450	450
Processing capacity	240	240	330
Dispatch capacity	400	400	400
Achievable output	240	240	300
Added to the queue in one day	60	60	0

This is a separately built illustrative example, not a production Ipso module. The real product does the same kind of arithmetic on a whole operation and prints a balance line under every view — open the Meridian sample package ↗ (synthetic; it describes no real company).

03 What an Ipso engagement produces

A package you can argue with, not a report you file.

Ipso turns how your operation runs into a few true numbers. Each is calculated when you look at it, each says how sure it is, and every analysis ends in a decision with its reason written down. Four screens:

Views

Your operation drawn as the analyses that matter: where work is lost, where it waits, what limits it.

Findings

One of nine decisions, with the reason in a sentence you can repeat in a meeting.

Evidence

Every number carries a grade. Replace an assumption with an observation and the package re-derives.

Method

The package checks its own arithmetic each time it opens. Nothing is stored, so screens cannot disagree.

Every number says how sure it is

placeholdera starting value

assumedsaid in conversation

reportedfrom a report or system

documentedin a document you own

measuredtaken from a system of record

observedrecorded on the Evidence screen

Every analysis ends in a decision

The example above ended in sequence: do processing before intake. These are the nine.

investprotectoptimisesustainfixgosequencedeferreject

Built for flow businesses and estates. A balanced calculation does not make an input true, and a scenario is not a forecast; the grades keep that difference visible. More about Ipso · Read the method on the Ipso site ↗

04 What Cherrystone does

The operation understood first. The model when a decision needs it.

Cherrystone is a process and business-analysis practice. Most of our work never needs a model; all of it starts by understanding how the operation actually runs.

01 · Process mappingHow work actually moves

People, systems, hand-offs, exceptions — drawn so an operator recognises it and a board can read it. The waiting is on the map, not hidden in an arrow.

02 · Business analysisThe case for the change — or against it

The question behind the request, the requirements behind the change, and the cause that actually binds. It ends in a decision, not a document.

03 · Measurement and documentationWhat can be measured, measured

What must stay true is written down where the people who run it will keep it true. Every number carries the grade it earned.

04 · Improvement and changeThe sequence, run with your people

Changes in the order the numbers said, checked against the numbers they were meant to move.

When a decision needs numbers you can argue with, we bring Ipso. When it doesn't, we don't. Consulting in full →

05 How we work

Two ways in. One question first.

Tell us what you are trying to improve or decide. We say which path fits, and what it would show you.

Consulting

A scoped engagement

A mapping, an analysis or an improvement programme, scoped from your question. Fixed scope, written findings, your people involved throughout, and nothing to license when it ends.

Ipso

From a sketch to a package you keep using

1 · Studio

A free sketch from a short guided brief, or a facilitated session with us. Every number starts as a placeholder or an assumption, and says so.

2 · Sprint

Three weeks, fixed scope. We read your documents and systems, log where they disagree, turn assumptions into documented and measured numbers, and read the findings with you.

3 · Live and re-snap

Your people record what they observe; the package re-derives. A re-snap refreshes the numbers and re-reads the decisions with us.

A responsive model, not a live feed: the package recalculates when a number changes; it is not connected to your business systems. Prices and terms live in one place, on the Ipso site ↗.

If you hold several companies, the same package runs in each and the decisions sit on one board. We start with one company and one decision. How we work, in full →

06 Proof

What you can check yourself, today.

Approved client evidence will appear here only when it exists. Until then, three things you can verify yourself.

The arithmetic proves itself

Under every view in the sample package, a balance line reconciles to zero, recomputed each time the page opens.

Open the sample ↗

The method is written down

Six rules, nine decisions, six grades of evidence — read them before deciding whether to believe a view.

Read the method ↗

Your numbers stay yours

A receipt for every upload, nothing derived stored, and a runtime that only does arithmetic.

How we handle data ↗

The sample company, Meridian Distribution, is synthetic and describes no real organisation. Proof, in full →

07 About

A process practice that built its own instrument.

Cherrystone Business Services is a Johannesburg process and business-analysis practice founded by Zander Marais. Its discipline — map the operation, measure what can be measured, log what disagrees, end in a decision — became Ipso. The practice is the company; Ipso is its instrument. About Cherrystone →

08 Talk to Cherrystone

What are you trying to improve or decide?

Tell us the operation and the question. We reply with which of a mapping, a sketch, a session or a Sprint fits, and what each would show you.

What happens next

1 · We read itA person replies

With which path fits — a mapping, a free sketch, a session or a Sprint — and what each would show you.

2 · One questionWe start small

One company, one operation, one decision. The portfolio comes after the first finding.

3 · Your numbersNothing leaves your workspace

Documents stay yours; every upload gets a receipt; nothing derived is stored.