Fractional CIO
Senior technology leadership, in whatever shape the situation needs.
The seat, the advisor beside the seat, or the person holding a program to account.
Ongoing. A defined mandate, reviewed each quarter. Weekly, monthly, or heavier for a defined stretch.
CEOs and owners without a technology leader, and CIOs who need weight beside them for a mandate they are carrying.
The decisions have outgrown whoever is making them, or a program has landed that nobody currently has the time or authority to hold.
The shapes it takes
The CIO seat
Accountable technology leadership on your executive: priorities, budget, vendors, delivery, and a written account each month in language a board reads.
Advisor to an existing leader
Weight beside the person already in the role — a second opinion on the big calls, and cover on the decisions they have nobody to test with.
AI mandate
Leadership specifically over the AI agenda: what gets evaluated, what gets funded, what the rules are, and who owns the outcome.
Program governance and assurance
An independent read on whether a major program is where it says it is, with the uncomfortable finding delivered early rather than at the post-mortem.
Vendor and contract oversight
Proposals reviewed, negotiations attended from your side, and delivery held to what was agreed.
Budget and investment
What is committed, what is discretionary, what can stop, and what the mix should be next year.
Portfolio and roadmap ownership
The portfolio and the roadmap kept current between planning cycles rather than rebuilt every budget season.
Building the permanent function
Where the answer is a full-time hire, scoping the role, sitting in the interviews, and handing over a function that is already running.
Not always the seat.
The mandate is written for the situation, agreed at the start, and reviewed every quarter.
The same person every month, with the authority to decide what was agreed they could decide.
- The CIO seat
On your executive: priorities, budget, vendors, delivery, and a written account each month.
- Advisor beside a leader
Weight next to the person already in the role, for the calls they have nobody to test with.
- AI mandate
Ownership of the AI agenda: what is evaluated, what is funded, what the rules are.
- Programme governance
An independent read on whether a major program is where it says it is.
We take the seat, or sit beside whoever holds it: priorities, budget, vendor and contract oversight, delivery accountability, and a written account each month in language a board reads. The mandate is agreed at the start and reviewed every quarter.
Not always the seat
Sometimes the need is the whole role. Often it is narrower: a CIO who wants someone to test the big calls against, a board that wants an independent read on a program, an executive team that needs the AI agenda owned by somebody with judgment. The mandate is written for the situation rather than a job description.
What the mandate covers
Priorities, budget, vendors and delivery, in whatever proportion the situation calls for. It is agreed at the start, reviewed every quarter, and changed when the need changes.
The arrangement
Weekly, monthly, or heavier for a defined stretch — a system replacement, an acquisition, a year where too much lands at once. The same person throughout, which is most of the point.
Work we have done
AI advisor — financial services. A six-month fractional term advising on which tools to use, where to implement them, and how to enable people on them. The role did not exist at the company before.
What you keep
The code and the data·Your existing relationships·Approval and control·The ability to stop·The off switchWhat that means
IT Strategy
A technology plan tied to what the business is trying to do, and funded.
Learn more ↗Enterprise Architecture
Standards, reference models and the governance that makes them stick.
Learn more ↗AI Strategy & Enablement
The same strategy discipline, pointed entirely at AI.
Learn more ↗IT Portfolio Management
Demand, capacity and money, managed as one view instead of three arguments.
Learn more ↗IT Operating Model
How IT is organized, funded and held to account — and who decides what.
Learn more ↗IT Service Management Design
Designing the processes — not running your service desk.
Learn more ↗Program & Project Delivery Assurance
An independent read on whether a programme is where it says it is.
Learn more ↗IT Financial Management
Knowing what technology costs, where it goes, and what it buys.
Learn more ↗Start with a 45-minute briefing.
No pitch. We’ll map your situation against what actually works and tell you honestly where to start.