A fractional CTO elevates your operation.
A fractional CTO catalyzes crucial change for your business.

Considering adding a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to your organization presents a complex decision. Do you need to invest in a full-time, in-house position, or would contracting an IT consultant better suit your needs?

For a start-up, hiring someone for an in-house position can be excessive, and if you’re already working with outside vendors or consultants, adding a fractional CTO into the mix can seem redundant. But after taking a closer look at what a fractional CTO could offer your business, you might reconsider.

A fractional CTO is someone who applies their focused expertise to your business over a small portion of each month, ideally one or two days each week. Even if you are confident in the growth of your business, a fractional CTO offers specific advantages and value to your operation. They bring rich and varied experience to innovate and propel your business with their IT solutions and business prowess.

A fractional CTO provides IT skills and knowledge while bestowing strategic vision and business acumen upon your leadership team. They’re more than a consultant or vendor; their deep familiarity with IT and your business allows them to advocate and advise with your best interests in mind.

It may seem unnecessary to hire someone for this role if your team is confident in its strategic vision and already working with various consultants and vendors. However, a fractional CTO can be an invaluable move for your organization if you’re in a variety of situations.

So how do you know if a fractional CTO is right for your business?

     - You’re creating a new product, tool, or framework.

     - You must adhere to a new market mandate or regulation in your industry.

     - You use manual or home-grown tools to run your business.

     - You have general IT frustration.

     - You plan to sell your business.

     - Digital transformation is calling your name.

 

You’re creating a new product, tool, or framework.

 

Expanding your product line will require a lot of work from your team. When unexpected things come up, having the right people to handle them is essential. Adding a fractional CTO to keep development on track ensures your product goes out into the world seamlessly.

A fractional CTO ensures your product develops in line with its stated strategic objective. Often new tools can go off course as they grow from idea to reality. Your fractional CTO maintains the trajectory of your new product to ensure it fulfills its original goal.  

Since fractional CTOs perform this type of work regularly for various customers, they will have a wide cast of contacts they can reference as vendors for your product development. This gives you access to the best vendors for the job.

 

You must adhere to a new market mandate or regulation in your industry.

 

New rules can mean no changes at all; they can also upend your entire operation. If you must modify your workflow, cooperating with the new rules requires extra time for learning the new mandates, adjusting your processes, and maintaining compliance after the transition period.

This is a huge task and can be overwhelming for a regular staff member with other responsibilities to shoulder. A fractional CTO will have the experience and vision to head this endeavor. They may have led other organizations through a similar transition, and they can use their knowledge to help your business thrive in the new landscape.

A CTO can ease your business through this shift without compromising the broader objectives of your business.

 

You use manual or home-grown tools to run your business.

 

While tools built in-office are highly customizable and designed exactly to your needs, using home-grown tools often means only a few people know how to work or fix the system. This can bottleneck certain processes and create larger issues down the road as new staff joins your operation and others leave.

Home-grown tools often don’t work with industry standard products without extra configuration. Ultimately, these tools are too niche for the longevity you need for your business.

Any manual processes that can be automated should be. While it seems like a daunting project to take on, the time it takes to set up an automated process will quickly make up for time spent completing a manual task.

A fractional CTO can help transform your in-house solutions into new systems that will optimize your workflow. They know the best tools and have experience implementing them. As they oversee the transition to your new systems, the viability and future of your business improves.

 

You have general IT frustration.

A fractional cto can hone your IT strategy
A fractional CTO creates a strategic framework to propel your business forward.

 If you regularly struggle with your server, cybersecurity, or software, it’s easy to get frustrated by the constant necessity to call an IT professional for help. While one issue is resolved, another pops up, and the problems keep on mounting.

Handling continual frustrations is simply too much to expect from a regular vendor. Unfortunately they usually just fix the issues as they appear and don’t anticipate future problems.

A fractional CTO can provide strategic vision for your IT woes and offer solutions on how to overcome them for long-term relief. You’ll get focused results for the complicated issues beyond the scope and expertise of your staff. A fractional CTO is there not just to remedy one problem, but to set up an innovative plan for the continued success of your business.

 

You plan to sell your business.

 

Selling your business is exciting--and a huge milestone--but it’s not as simple assigning the paperwork upon receipt of the highest offer. Before you hand over your hard work, be sure everything is set up to your advantage. And getting that high offer will take some strategy.

A fractional CTO will optimize your pitch to make your business as appealing as possible to investors so that you get every dollar your business is worth. They collect crucial data to make the case as a solid investment for potential investors and set the plan for the sale to ensure you’re receiving what you deserve.

 

Digital transformation is calling your name.  

A fractional cto can lead the way to digital transformation
A fractional CTO summons lasting change for a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Change is inevitable. Leading your business into the future, and maintaining viability within your industry, means anticipating and adapting to change. No one knows what’s over the digital horizon, but investing in your organization’s future is the smartest way to prepare for it.

While many CEOs understand the strategic value of technology and will hire to provide it for their business, hiring consultants isn’t enough. Many IT consultants simply don’t bring the business acumen and prowess to align IT strategy with business strategy.

Relying on in-house manpower to head the change usually isn’t sustainable. Everyone will have to be on board; it’s too much to give one person the responsibility to lead the endeavor.

If you’re ready to digitally transform your operation, employing a fractional CTO to guide the evolution sets you up for success. A fractional CTO conjures the digital magic that a regular consultant can’t while offering vision and experience to your team. They help businesses simultaneously adapt to the current environment and anticipate inevitable change.

A fractional CTO costs less than a full-time in-house CTO and provides more value than a managed IT vendor. At Vudu, you get five CTOs to provide vision, talent, and clarity for your organization’s bright future.

At Vudu, we are technology wizards who want to bring IT magic to your business and achieve supernatural results. Think a fractional CTO is right for you? Tell us more about your goals.

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