Technology advice and leadership · On-Demand CTO
A senior technology and operations leader for your business, a few days a month.
An experienced CTO who owns your technology, AI and operational improvement agenda so you don't have to: the plan, the budget, your IT provider and vendors, security, and a running list of improvements delivered and measured month by month. Scaled up or down as the business needs, and a steady hand through succession or a sale. If you only want a senior voice at the table, it also works as a lighter advisory seat at your leadership or board meetings.
The question owners ask
“Who looks after all of this once the project is over?”
Someone senior has to own it. That is what an on-demand CTO is for.
In plain terms: your part-time technology director (sometimes called a fractional CTO).
- Timeframe
- Rolling, from three months
- Your time
- A regular meeting with you; we deal with your IT provider and vendors directly
- Best for
- Owner-led and family businesses with an IT provider but no technology leader
What’s included
What you get, and what we need from you.
- A technology, AI and operations plan tied to the business plan
- An improvement backlog across AI and operations, with measured results each month
- Management of your IT provider and software vendors
- Oversight of every technology project, in-house or outsourced
- Protecting business information and managing technology risks
- Plain-English reporting for owners and the board, or a lighter advisory seat if that is all you need
- Sale-ready technology: systems, data, contracts and risks put in order before a sale, investment or family handover
Questions owners ask
Before you decide.
How much time do we get?
Typically two to four days a month, scaled up or down with what the business needs. More during a system change or a sale, less when things are steady.
We already have an IT provider. Why do we need this?
Your IT provider keeps the lights on. An On-Demand CTO decides what the technology should do for the business, sets the budget and holds the provider and the vendors to it.
How long is the commitment?
Rolling, from three months. Most clients stay for years, but you can stop with a month's notice.
We are preparing for a sale or a family handover. Can you help?
Yes. We review your systems, data, contracts and risks, put them in order, and prepare what a buyer, investor or successor will ask for, so the business is easier to value and to hand on.
What happens at the end?
Everything is documented, the plan and the vendor relationships are handed over, and the business is in a state that an investor, a buyer or a successor can understand.
Seen in practice
Where this service did the work.
We took over running the rollout with the vendor, renegotiated the agreement so payments follow delivery, and designed the tests the lab's own team used to check the system before accepting it.
60% less time on former paper processesRead the case studyManufacturer · Southern CaliforniaOne consistent way to quote jobs at a family-owned manufacturerAs on-demand CTO for a new operations system, we designed how estimates and pricing work and used AI to convert years of old estimates, so the team quotes from the same data.
3 years of estimates turned into one quoting data setRead the case studyCustom fabricator · Southern CaliforniaThe right business platform for a fabrication shop, chosen independentlyRequirements written down with the owner, 13 platforms scored against them, and an independent recommendation that fits a shop rather than a general contractor, so the team can work without everything flowing through the owner.
13 platforms assessed against 36 written requirements, three shortlistedRead the case studyLet’s talk