Planning
Fractional CIO Services
A business of 20 to 200 people faces CIO-sized decisions about budgets, vendors, security posture and build versus buy, with no CIO to make them. A fractional CIO, sometimes called a vCIO, gives you that judgment without creating the job.
Those decisions happen anyway. Technology money gets spent and vendors get chosen whether or not anyone senior is looking. Without an owner, decisions get made by whoever takes the sales call, and nobody defends the total.
A fractional CIO gives them an owner: someone on your side of the table who has heard the pitches before and reports to your leadership, with no vendor to answer to.
The work is a standing seat at your leadership table. It starts with a technology roadmap with dates and budget figures, reviewed with leadership on a schedule. Contract decisions are weighed against the plan with help from vendor management, and security and continuity are reported in language a board or an insurer can use.
Fractional means the hours match the need. Most businesses this size need a few hours of CIO thinking a month, consistently, and a full-time hire can't be sized down to that. Fractional CIO services are part of our IT consulting services, and the Q4 IT planning checklist shows the kind of planning involved.
What We Include in Fractional CIO Services
- A technology roadmap with dates and budget figures, kept current and reviewed with leadership on a schedule.
- An annual technology budget you can defend line by line.
- Vendor selection and renewal decisions made by someone who has heard the pitches before.
- Security and compliance posture, including continuity planning, reported in language your board can use.
- A recurring seat at your leadership meetings, sized in hours to what the business needs.
In their words
Questions About Fractional CIO Services
How is this different from the technology roadmap service?
The roadmap is a deliverable. A fractional CIO is the person who owns it afterward, attending leadership meetings and adjusting the plan as the business changes. Most fractional CIO engagements include the roadmap, and not every roadmap needs the standing seat.
Do we need to be a managed services client?
No. The advice is worth having whoever runs your day-to-day support, and a fractional CIO who only recommends his own company's services is writing quotes. Where we also provide your managed IT services, we tell you which hat we're wearing.
How many hours does it take?
It varies with the size and pace of the business, and the hours are agreed up front. The common shape is a monthly leadership review plus availability in between, revisited quarterly so the hours track what's happening.
Part of IT Consulting & Advisory
An honest assessment of what you run and what it costs you, plus a plan for what to fix first.
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Planning