Fractional CIO Leadership
A seasoned CIO on retainer — setting strategy, owning the budget, managing vendors, and steering security — for businesses too small for a full-time chief but too important to run on guesswork.
Why a fractional CIO
Most businesses under a hundred employees carry full-time CIO problems on part-time attention: security exposure nobody owns, vendor contracts that auto-renew unread, aging systems that quietly accrue risk, and technology spend that never gets challenged. The work is real; the full-time salary often isn’t justified yet.
A fractional arrangement puts an experienced executive in the seat for the hours the role actually demands — and because you work directly with the founder, there are no hand-offs and no account managers between you and the decisions.
How an engagement runs
Every relationship starts with a fixed-price assessment so we both work from facts, not assumptions. From there, a monthly retainer covers strategy, budgeting, and oversight, anchored by quarterly business reviews where technology decisions are framed against your goals and your P&L — not a vendor’s product catalog.
What the retainer covers
- Technology strategy and a living 12-month roadmap
- Annual IT budgeting and spend accountability
- Vendor selection, management, and contract negotiation
- Security oversight and incident readiness
- Cloud tenant governance (Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace)
- Quarterly business reviews with clear, plain-English reporting
- Priority access for projects: ERP, migrations, integrations
Not sure you need a CIO yet?
Start with the fixed-price Technology Assessment. You get written findings and a prioritized roadmap whether or not we ever speak again.
Book a Technology Assessment