Senior technology leadership, without the full-time hire.
The technology decisions are piling up. You don't have anyone senior to hand them to. That's the gap this fills, whether it's AI, ageing systems, a vendor contract you can't read, or tech that's fallen behind a business that grew fast.
You are making technology decisions that need senior oversight. You do not have it.
Maybe the business grew faster than the systems did, and now nothing quite joins up. Maybe you've just lost the one person who understood how it all worked. Maybe you're being sold AI tools and can't tell which are worth it, or there's a vendor contract on your desk you can't fully read. Different triggers, same gap underneath: decisions with real financial consequences, being made without anyone in the room who has made them before.
You probably don't need a full-time CIO. You might never need one. But you do need experienced judgment on the decisions that matter, before the contracts are signed and the commitments are locked in.
Why people bring me in
A fractional CIO is rarely hired because someone wants one in the abstract. There is usually a specific problem on the table. These are the most common.
Staff are using tools nobody approved. Data is going to places nobody can name. Vendors are pitching AI products and the comparison is happening on vibes. The exposure is real, and the person who should be holding the line does not exist.
A platform migration, an ERP or CRM choice, a major vendor contract, an AI implementation. Decisions with real money attached, where the cost of getting it wrong is much higher than the cost of getting senior judgment in the room before you commit.
Tools that do not talk to each other. Contracts you are not sure you still need. Costs creeping up with no one watching. An MSP doing what it has always done while the business has moved on. The job is untangling it: working out what is actually there, what it is costing you, and what to fix first.
The one person who understood how it all worked is gone, or was never there in the first place. The owner or executive team is now making technology decisions they are not equipped to make, and the pile is growing.
Privacy Act changes. Essential Eight maturity expectations. AML/CTF reforms for businesses brought under the Act in 2026. Cyber insurance renewals demanding evidence of controls that do not exist. The pressure is real, the deadlines are real, and there is no one inside the business whose job it is to handle this.
The business has a direction. The technology is heading somewhere else. Nobody has written down what the next three years of technology investment should look like, and the conversations at the board or leadership table keep going in circles. The work is to fix that.
What a bounded engagement could look like.
Engagements are sized to the problem, not to a template. Most run between three and six months. Some are shorter, some extend. What follows is an illustrative example of how a three-month engagement might run when the focus is on getting a business with no senior technology oversight onto solid ground. Real engagements take different shapes depending on what your situation actually requires.
Weeks 1 to 4
Understand the real picture.
Businesses typically have a version of what they think is going on, and a version of what is actually going on. The first four weeks close the gap. That means sitting down with you, with whoever inside the business touches technology day to day, and with your MSP if you have one. Working through what is actually being done versus what is assumed. Auditing the tech stack and the licences you are paying for. Mapping every AI tool staff have quietly adopted. It is not unusual for something in that picture to catch the owner off guard. That is the point.
Weeks 5 to 8
Build the guardrails.
Once the picture is clear, the next four weeks focus on the things that reduce risk fastest for the least effort. A straightforward AI acceptable use policy aligned to the Australian Privacy Principles. A review of SaaS subscriptions, because SMEs in the $3M to $20M range often pay for things twice. A baseline against the ASD Essential Eight, working with your MSP or internal IT to move toward Maturity Level 1. A two-page incident response plan so that if something does go wrong, nobody is googling what to do at 11pm.
Weeks 9 to 12
Shift from survival to strategy.
By week 9 the immediate exposures are being managed. The last four weeks move from cleanup to forward planning. Mapping where your genuinely valuable data sits and whether it is properly segregated. Designing an AI approach that keeps data within Australian tenancy rather than scattered across free tools. Setting up a 12-month IT budget so there are no surprise invoices. And crucially, making sure capability stays inside the business when the engagement winds down. If there is an internal IT person, that means making sure they understand the decisions made and can hold the line after the engagement ends. If there is not, it means making sure you as the owner understand enough to hold your MSP and vendors accountable from here.
Most fractional CIO engagements are triggered by something specific. These are the pressures showing up most often in conversations right now.
When the timing makes sense
- October 2025
- First Privacy Act civil penalty, $5.8 million against Australian Clinical Labs.
- Active
- OAIC civil proceedings against Medibank and Optus.
- Maximum penalty
- Greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30% of adjusted turnover.
- December 2026
- New automated decision-making transparency obligations take effect.
- Cyber insurance
- MFA, EDR, tested backups, and written incident response plan now treated as non-negotiable for coverage.
None of these are problems that wait. Each one is a reason businesses are bringing senior technology judgment into the room now rather than later.
Built for businesses between $2M and $20M revenue.
You are large enough that technology decisions have real financial consequences, but not large enough to justify a $300,000+ full-time CIO. You need senior technology oversight applied to specific decisions, not a permanent seat at the executive table.
- Businesses where the systems have not kept up with how fast the company grew
- Organisations preparing for or recovering from a major technology decision
- Companies scaling their technology team for the first time
- Businesses where technology decisions are currently being made by people whose core expertise is somewhere else
One person. The work does not get handed off.
This advisory is delivered by me directly. I have spent thirty years in technology, from developer through to Chief Information Officer. I have replaced legacy platforms, migrated to AWS and Azure, scaled IT teams from scratch, and delivered major projects under real operational pressure.
I am not an observer. I am a practitioner who has made these decisions and lived with the consequences. That experience is what I bring to your business.
Based in Brisbane, working remotely across Australia.
Availability
Engagements are sized to the problem and scoped before any work begins. Most run between three and six months. Some are shorter, some extend. The fee is agreed up front against the scope, and there are no surprises.
If a bounded engagement uncovers further work worth doing, we discuss continuation at the end. Continuation is a decision made then, not a commitment made now.
What this is not.
I do not build software, configure platforms, or write code for your business. If you need that, I can help you find and evaluate the right people to do it.
I have no affiliate arrangements. I do not sell AI tools or platforms. My interest is that the decision was made well, not which product you choose.
Whether it is a short bounded engagement or a longer one, the work is applied directly to real decisions. If you want an independent assessment of AI governance gaps, the Audit service is the right fit.
Some situations are better served by a full-time hire, a specialist contractor, or a different kind of advisor altogether. If a bounded fractional engagement is not the right shape for what you need, I will tell you honestly and point you somewhere better.
Book a call to discuss fit.
A brief conversation to understand your situation and whether this level of engagement makes sense. No obligation.
Not implementation. Not a vendor.