What a fractional CTO does, and what one refuses
The seat, the Operating Brief, and the line between technology leadership and the company that keeps your computers running.
The job
A fractional CTO is a part-time chief technology officer for a company whose business is not technology. Law firms, clinics, plants, and service companies have real technology problems and no reason to hire a full-time executive to sit with them. The seat exists so those decisions still get made by someone who is not selling the software.
The work sounds ordinary because it is:
- Say what the company actually runs, including the unofficial systems
- Decide what is fine, what is a risk, and what is a distraction
- Sit on the owner’s side of a vendor conversation
- Put security and continuity in proportion to the way the firm operates
- Leave a written record the next person can use
The Operating Brief
Every engagement available here starts the same way. You describe the business: name, point of contact, address, phone, site, headcount, locations, servers, and the systems you can name. In return you get a written technology assessment. Call it an Operating Brief so it does not get confused with a sales discovery call.
It is free. It is not a retainer. You can read it and stop.
After the brief, if you want a seat
Some firms want a few hours a month. Some want help through one decision: a renewal, a replacement, a scare. The shape is written down before it starts, including the fee and what is out of scope. Help-desk coverage is out of scope. So is reselling products.
Side by side
### Fractional CTO Decides what the business should do. Reports to the owner. Does not sell the tools.
### Managed service provider Keeps the chosen tools running. Should stay, if they are good at that. Should not be the only opinion in the room when the next contract is signed.
### A full-time hire Right when the decisions are a job by themselves. Premature when they are a few hard calls a month. The brief is often how you tell the difference.