# ACTING AS A FRACTIONAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

#### Sector

Accountancy Firm

#### Business Size

350 – 400 people

## The Client

Our client is a multi-office firm with eight major offices and around four hundred staff.

## The Engagement

The firm has considerable in-house IT skills, spanning infrastructure, development, support and project management. The executive team recognise that IT is one of the biggest non-payroll costs for the firm, and sought external oversight to ensure:

- They are making good technology choices
- They are receiving an optimal return on investment
- There is continual improvement to processes, staff and competitive edge

## Our Approach

Recruiting an internal CTO for this role, whilst expensive, was certainly in the reach of this firm. However, a full-time CTO would probably not be able to fill their time effectively; this would mean them becoming involved in projects that were a poor return on their time, or – to put it bluntly – becoming stale or bored.

We proposed providing our fractional CTO service. The engagement comprises a monthly operations meeting during which the IT team discuss issues arising and plan for the month ahead. The CTO facilitates this meeting and provides technical/personal/sector insight as appropriate.

Every other month there is a strategic meeting; some of the IT team attend this, along with the finance and managing partners and other executive members as needed. The purpose of this meeting is to review strategy and ensure that the strategic goals for the firm are properly represented in the ongoing IT projects.

It also considers new projects, approves spend/progress, and provides a liaison with other partners.

## The Result

The firm has a very well-run IT department, with room for personal career progression and a purposeful engagement with the professional staff in the firm.

The IT department undertakes and executes projects in a timely fashion, with strong executive sponsorship and good communication with the whole firm.