Why a Fractional CTO could be the smart choice for your business

For many small/medium enterprises the budget for full-time, experienced senior-level leaders is already stretched, so for those looking to implement or scale up a business technology area, considering hiring a full-time CTO can be a daunting thought. We'll consider how a fractional CTO can help make the task seem less intimidating.

The beauty of a fractional CTO is that it gives you the opportunity to get all of the experience and expertise you need  at a fraction of the cost. Whether you’re looking for help to make or buy decisions that support your long term goals (or those of a required project lifetime), or assistance to identify the business need for certain tools and choose them accordingly, a fractional CTO can be the smart, budget-friendly way to efficiently meet your business goals.

Ready-made Experience

A fractional CTO will have built up a wealth of knowledge from working with other businesses and they will be able to bring this expertise to the table and make it work for you. From supplier and recruitment management to architecture design and test automation, they can help you ensure best practices around architecture, infrastructure and security without needing to invest on a full-time basis.

Low -level Commitment

The temporary nature of the role also allows quick and easy onboarding without the need to complete a lengthy recruitment process - something that is always useful if you need a project delivered quickly and efficiently. The flexibility can allow your business to build and test a strategy without the long-term commitment of a permanent role - if the process, or the person, turn out not to be the right fit for your enterprise there is an easy out.

For a more detailed understanding around where this role could be relevant to your business, consider the following areas:

•    Scaling up a business technology area.

•    Starting up a business technology area.

•    Architectural design and associated patterns required for the use case.

•    Defining best practices around the architecture, the infrastructure and security of any solutions.

•    Interpretation of industry buzz words - Devops, Secops, Techops, Data Fabric, Data Mesh, Service Orientated Architecture, Microservices etc etc etc.

•    Understanding cloud versus on premises and the related cost and security implications.

•    Support with ‘make or buy’ decisions that support the long term (or the required project lifetime).

•    Choosing the right tools (having identified the need for certain tools).

•    Supplier management.

•    CICD / Deployment lifecycle.

•    Test automation.

•    People strategy, on shore vs offshore, perm vs contractor.

•    Recruitment and performance management.

•    Recognising the appropriate risks in managing all of the above.

•    Critical thinking and balancing the oversight / thinking / doing.

•    Technical debt creation and management.