Fractional CTO

A Fractional CTO is the senior technology leader you would hire if you needed one every day, for the hours you actually need. We help organizations plan and implement IT, security, compliance, and digital transformation: the decisions that need someone experienced in the room, and the follow-through that turns a plan into something that works.

Organizations tend to go wrong in one of two opposite directions. Some run on too little structure — the spreadsheet passed between three people, the report someone rebuilds by hand every month, the knowledge that lives in one person's head. Others run on too much — process, compliance, and sign-off consuming the day long after anyone remembers why. Both are expensive, and the fix for one is poison for the other.

Most advisors have only seen one of those failure modes, so they sell you the cure they know. The point of this engagement is to work out which problem you actually have before anyone reaches for a solution.

It is a monthly retainer. We start with a conversation about what you need, then put it in writing.

• A written retainer agreement — what we will do, what we will not, and how we will work together, scoped to your needs rather than picked from a package.
• A set number of hours each month — you buy the hours your needs call for, at $100 an hour.
• Planning and implementation — IT, security, compliance, and digital transformation, from the roadmap through getting it done.
• An honest answer — including when that answer is that you already own the fix, or that nothing should change at all.

CCG Labs is Brian Reich, who spent fifteen years running his own business and then eight years inside an organization — as Team Lead, Manager, and Director — before starting this one. That is where the both-sides view comes from: he has worked in a company that was process-weak to its own detriment, and in a five-thousand-person one where process, compliance, and legal consumed most of the day.

He has led and taken part in ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 implementations, so the advice is grounded in what real quality and security management ask of an organization — not a checklist copied off the internet.

The value here is an honest broker. We do not sell the biggest engagement we can justify; we sell the smallest one that solves your problem, and we are glad to be the people who tell you that you do not need us yet. If something in your operation feels slower than it should be, tell us about it and we will give you a straight read on what would actually fix it.