Fractional CTO & CIO for SMEs explains practical Digital Adaption support for UK SMEs, with a focus on data quality, ERP migration readiness, reporting trust, automation or delivery where it fits the page.
A fractional CTO or CIO is senior technical leadership without the full-time hire. You get someone who owns the strategy, brings order to the systems and data, makes the build-or-buy calls, and stops technology decisions being made by accident. Engaged a day or two a week, or less. The difference here: I have built and run a live software platform, not just advised from the sidelines. ACS, a SaaS used by children's residential care homes, is mine end to end, conceived, architected, built, and operating in production in a regulated, compliance-heavy sector.
For SMEs and owner-managed businesses that need technical leadership, not another contractor
Most growing businesses hit the same wall. The systems are a mess, nobody owns the data, every decision about software gets made by whoever shouts loudest, and there is no one in the room who can actually set the technical direction. You do not need a full-time CTO on a six-figure salary to fix that. You need someone senior, part-time, who has done it for real.
Book a call See the proofThree things go wrong in almost every growing business that has never had anyone owning the technology.
Decisions get made by whoever is loudest or whoever sold you the last system. There is no single person setting direction, so the tech stack grows by accident and the business pays for it later.
Spreadsheets, half-used software, three tools doing one job, and numbers that never quite agree. You are running the business on tribal knowledge and manual workarounds.
A full-time CTO costs £100k+ a year once you add everything up, and that is a big commitment for a business your size. But the gap is real and it is costing you in slow decisions, wasted spend, and risk nobody is watching.
A part-time CTO, an outsourced CTO, a fractional IT director, call it what you like. The job is the same: senior technical judgement in the room, owning the direction so you are not making it up as you go.
If you have ever searched for "what does a fractional CTO do", that is the honest answer. It is CTO as a service: the seniority and the ownership, billed by the day or two a week instead of a full-time CTO's six-figure salary.
People use the titles loosely, so here is the plain version. A fractional CTO leans towards the technology you build and ship: software, product, the engineering side. A fractional CIO leans towards the systems, data and information the business runs on: ERP, reporting, the tools your team uses every day. Most growing businesses do not need to pick. I cover both, which is what most SMEs actually need from one experienced person rather than two expensive hires.
So whether you are looking for a virtual CTO, an outsourced CTO, a fractional IT director, or CTO advisory services, it is the same engagement. Senior, part-time, and accountable for the direction.
The difference between someone who tells you what good looks like and someone who has built it, shipped it, and runs it.
I run a digital transformation consultancy. My background is ERP consolidation, data migration and reporting trust across manufacturing and aerospace, the unglamorous work of making the systems a business runs on actually reliable. A £4.5m Infor LN programme, four legacy systems into one, 220 users, owned end to end.
Then a friend brought me a problem: the software for children's residential care homes was broken, manual and expensive, and the dominant players could not fix it. We diagnosed exactly why. I built the answer. ACS is now live, used by real homes, in one of the most compliance-sensitive sectors there is. See the ACS case study.
That is the difference between me and an advisor. I do not just tell you what good looks like. I have built it, shipped it, and I run it.
Owner-managed businesses, SMEs, and founders without a technical co-founder.
This is for you where:
Manufacturing, software, services. Based in the North West, working UK-wide and remote.
A low-commitment first step, then ongoing ownership scaled to what the business needs.
1A call, then a proper look at where your technology, systems and data actually stand. No sales deck, just an honest read.
2What to fix first, what to leave, what is risk and what is noise. Quick wins before big programmes.
3A day or two a week, or whatever the business needs. I own the direction and the hard calls so leadership does not have to.
What owner-managers ask before bringing in fractional technical leadership.
A fractional CTO sets your technical direction, brings order to your systems and data, makes the build-or-buy calls, and owns the developer and vendor relationships, part-time, usually a day or two a week.
A CTO leans towards the technology you build and ship. A CIO leans towards the systems, data and information the business runs on. I cover both, which is what most SMEs actually need.
A full-time CTO costs £100k+ a year once you include everything. A fractional CTO costs far less: you pay for a day or two a week, scaled to what the business needs, so you get senior judgement without the full-time salary.
No. The fractional CTO and CIO work is for SMEs and owner-managed businesses generally, across manufacturing, software and services. My background spans ERP and data, and I built and run a SaaS platform in a regulated sector.
I am based in the North West and work UK-wide and remote.
The systems and data work that a fractional CTO or CIO actually depends on.
Data migration ERP and CRM, into one source of truth Data quality Profiling, cleansing rules, duplicate handling Services How I help SMEs across the boardBased in the North West, working with SMEs and owner-managed businesses UK-wide and remote.
Tell me where the systems are messy, where the data is not trusted, or where you are making technology decisions with nobody really in charge. The first conversation is a straight diagnosis, not a pitch.
Book a call Start with a straight diagnosis, not a pitchIf technology decisions are being made by accident, the systems have grown into a mess, or you need senior judgement without a full-time hire, that is exactly what a fractional CTO or CIO is for. Tell me where it hurts and I will give you a straight read.
Book a callSee the proof