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Fractional technology director · part-time CTOA company of twenty or eighty people doesn't need a technology director on the payroll, but it does need someone who decides as if they were one. I sit down with management every month, and I explain it to the board without jargon, which is usually half the job.
When the salesperson turns up with the platform that does everything, someone has to know what to ask. I review the proposals, compare them with what you already have and say what is worth it. With no commission from anyone.
Profile, technical test and interview for the company's first IT person, or for the supplier who is going to run the ERP. I have hired and been hired, and I know what to look for.
You almost never start with the biggest thing. You start with whatever pays for itself in two months and makes room for the next one. The twelve-month plan fits on one page, and it is reviewed every month.
What has been done, what it cost, what it saved and what comes next. On one page, with no acronyms, so management decides with knowledge and not on trust.
Backups, access, who has which password, what happens if the IT person leaves. The boring part nobody looks at until one Monday nothing starts.
It is for companies of between fifteen and a hundred people, with an IT person or a supplier who puts out fires but nobody who decides, and with the feeling that technology gets bought in a rush and paid for over years.
It isn't for companies that already have a technology director: there I am not needed. And it isn't for someone who wants to hear yes to what they have already decided: half the value lies in saying no in time.
Before this I ran the technology of an entire company for five years, with the budget in my hand and the team waiting. I know what it feels like on the other side of the table, and that is why I talk the way people talk there.
1 pageis enough for a small company's twelve-month technology plan. If it doesn't fit, it isn't a plan: it is a wish list.
What gets done, in what order, what it costs and what it saves. With the first thing paying for itself before the second one starts. It is the tool we work with in every session, and it is the one you keep if one day you decide to carry on without me.
If what you need is someone to build something specific, look at automation or integration. Direction is for when the problem isn't one thing, but the order of all of them.
Fifteen free minutes to see whether you need direction or just one specific thing.