Growing businesses reach a point where technology decisions are business decisions, and nobody senior owns them. A Fractional IT Director joins your management team part-time and owns the roadmap, the budget, supplier decisions and the plan for data, automation and AI.
Most of the businesses we work with recognise at least two of these.
Tickets get closed and the lights stay on, yet no one senior is deciding where technology should take the business.
A new site, an acquisition, a new line-of-business system or a push into AI, with no one to weigh the options and the cost.
Renewals arrive as surprises, subscriptions overlap and nobody can say what the business gets for its technology budget.
Security questionnaires, Cyber Essentials requirements and insurance renewals are landing on a director's desk.
A capable in-house IT manager who would benefit from someone at board level to plan with and to make the case for investment.
Several versions of the same information across systems, and no agreed answer to which one is right.
A project builds the foundation and a managed service keeps it running. Neither is responsible for deciding where technology should take the business next. That decision belongs to the Fractional IT Director.
Projects, migrations and infrastructure, scoped and priced before work starts.
Day-to-day IT, security and support for a fixed monthly per-user price.
Senior leadership that looks ahead at the whole business, including systems outside Microsoft 365.
The managed service review looks back at how IT has performed. The Fractional IT Director looks forward at where the business is going. You can take it on its own, without our managed service.
Most SMB IT estates weren't designed. They accumulated, with decisions made by renewal dates, by whoever shouted loudest or by the last salesperson in the room. As a business grows, the questions shift from IT support to how the business runs: which systems should connect, where automation can remove manual work, how data should be governed and where AI can help.
A practical 12 to 24 month roadmap tied to your growth plans. Systems, investment, risk and improvement projects in one plan, so decisions happen in the right order with a clear business case.
AI should remove work, improve decisions or help you serve customers better. Being available is no reason to adopt it, so every idea is ranked against what it gives back.
Where important information belongs, who owns it, who can see it and how long it is kept. As systems connect, everyone works from the same, trusted information.
Oversight of cyber risk, continuity and the suppliers you depend on. When regulation, customers or your insurer bring new obligations, they go into the roadmap before they become urgent.
Every engagement starts the same way, and each stage ends with documents your leadership team keeps. The pace and the priorities after that depend on your business.
Conversations with the directors and key staff. Every system, supplier, contract and renewal mapped. Security, backup and continuity checked against Cyber Essentials.
Data ownership, access and retention agreed. Automation and AI opportunities ranked. Priorities set for the year ahead.
The roadmap and budget built, costed and signed off by the directors.
Projects delivered in the agreed order, suppliers reviewed, continuity tested and the plan reset each year as the business changes.
The role is held by a senior dataplanet director, who joins your regular management meetings and stays across the detail between them. How often depends on what the business needs.
The retainer pays for leadership, planning and decisions. Engineering and project work are agreed and priced separately before they start, so the retainer stays focused on what comes next.
A senior technology leader who works with your business part-time on a retained basis. They own the decisions a full-time IT Director would make: the roadmap, the budget, suppliers, data, security risk and where automation and AI fit. You may also hear it called a Virtual IT Director or a fractional CIO.
A service review looks back at how IT has performed: tickets, patching, backups. A Fractional IT Director looks forward at where the business is going and makes the technology decisions to support it, including systems your support company doesn't manage.
No. The role can be taken on its own and works alongside your existing IT support, whether that is an in-house team or another provider.
Often, yes. It gives your IT manager a senior partner to plan with and someone at board level to make the case for investment, while they keep running IT day to day.
As a monthly retainer, sized to how involved you need us to be. Projects, migrations and automation builds are quoted separately with a fixed price before any work starts, so the retainer stays focused on leadership.
If your business grows to where a full-time IT Director makes sense, we'll tell you, help you recruit them and hand over a clean roadmap. The goal is IT that works for your business, whoever ends up running it.
If the honest answer is "nobody", or "our support company, when we remember to ask", that's the gap this role fills. The first conversation is free, and free of jargon.