Fractional CTO

A Fractional CTO for the project that does not fit in anyone's week.

I work alongside a distributor's IT manager to get a specific technology project across the finish line: an ERP upgrade rollout, new servers, a network refresh, a vendor selection. The engagement is sized to the project, typically a couple of days every other week or a week or two a month, and it ends when the project does.

The real constraint is hours, not skill

A good IT manager at a distributor is already doing a full-time job. Users need help, systems need patching, vendors need managing, and the ERP has to stay up. Then a major project lands on top of it. The project is a second full-time job, and it has a deadline.

What usually happens is predictable. The daily work wins, because it is urgent and visible. The project slips, the vendor fills the vacuum with their own priorities, and the cost grows. None of this reflects on the person running IT. It reflects on arithmetic.

How I help

I take on the project load so your IT manager can keep the business running. They keep ownership of their systems and their decisions. I bring the planning, the vendor pressure, the technical second opinion, and the hours.

Carry a project to the finish. Upgrade rollouts, server and storage replacements, network and firewall projects, moves to Azure or AWS.
Sit in with your vendors. An experienced person on your side of the table who knows what the proposal should say and what it is leaving out.
Review the contract before you sign. Scope, licensing, support terms, and the exit. Inexpensive to check now and expensive to discover later.
Plan the next two years. What needs replacing, in what order, and what it should cost, so technology spending stops arriving as a surprise.

Why me

I designed and managed the technology for my own company for 20 years: racks of servers, network infrastructure, storage, and firewalls in a colocation facility, and later cloud infrastructure on Azure and AWS. I was a certified Cisco instructor early in my career. I ran those systems to a five-nines standard, and the reason it worked was monitoring that found problems before users did.

I also know distribution and Prophet 21, which matters more than it sounds. Technology decisions at a distributor are ERP decisions sooner or later.

What an engagement looks like

A conversation with the owner and the IT manager together. The engagement works when both want it.
A defined project and a defined stretch of time. You know what done looks like before we start.
Regular, flexible hours. A couple of days every other week, or a week or two a month. More when the project needs it, less when it does not.
A clean exit. Your team owns the result and the knowledge. The 30-day guarantee applies here too.

Questions

Is this a long-term arrangement?

It can be, but most are not. Most clients want experienced help through one project.

Do you work on-site?

Most work is remote. On-site visits are available, with travel billed at cost. Distributors near Evansville, Indiana can expect me in the room more often.

Does this include software development?

It can. The line is flexible. If the project turns out to need an integration or an app, I can build it, and you will get a separate estimate for that work.

Request a call back

Tell me about the project that keeps slipping

Tell me what is not working. I will tell you plainly whether it can be fixed, roughly what it would take, and whether I am the right person to do it.

One conversation, no obligation. There is no charge and no pitch.
A plain answer. If it is not feasible, or I am not the right fit, I will say so.
The first 30 days are guaranteed. If you are not satisfied and I cannot make it right, in your opinion, you get your money back.