Fractional CTO Services in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tampa

CTO Services

Running a successful software company takes strategic coordination and collaboration. First, you need a marketer to take charge of creating the best offers and the effective communication around the offers, a product owner to manage the prioritization of software development and evaluate what’s possible within the set time and budget, and an IT manager or Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to oversee the development teams and manage the technical aspects of your business.

So, depending on how experienced your product development team is, you may or may not urgently need to hire a CTO. For example, if you have young, inexperienced developers, you should get a CTO as soon as possible. But if you’re working with a senior team that is highly knowledgeable about your software solution, then you can work with that for a while.

However, hiring fractional CTO services could save you significant money regardless of the technical background of your development team. Typically, you’ll need to hire a CTO once your team has grown beyond five developers.

What are Fractional CTO Services?

A Fractional CTO or a Virtual CTO is a CTO who is not a full-time employee of your company. You can utilize fractional CTO services just like other on-demand IT services, on a retainer, part-time, or as-needed basis. Hiring a part-time CTO is always a smart choice since it saves you costs while providing the visionary technical leadership your internal teams might lack.

Why Hire Fractional CTO Services

There’s no doubt hiring fractional CTO services can promote the growth of any tech firm. However, defining the roles of a CTO can be challenging. If you or someone in your team is not a technical person and filling in for the CTO, you need to hire a professional CTO.

A CTO must possess a specific skill set. To fill the position, you must be a visionary technology leader dealing with cutting-edge innovations, keeping abreast with evolving industry trends, and constantly exploring the next opportunity.

Overall, you’ll need a Fractional Chief Technology Officer to manage your growing tech company or startup without spending significant money on a full-time CTO. You may also consider a fractional CTO to offer IT leadership and management for your development staff. Other times, you may need a virtual CTO to fill in for your in-house CTO while on temporary leave.

What a Fractional CTO Does

A fractional CTO does many of the regular tasks a traditional CTO does, including:

•    Developing technology solutions through the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
•    Cybersecurity assessments, remediation strategies, and penetration testing
•    Create technology road maps
•    Sprint planning
•    Project management
•    Automated Event Management
•    Outsourcing
•    Vendor management
•    Management reporting

Besides, an experienced Fractional CTO provides the necessary straightforward communication between your operations and development teams and business leadership. A fractional CTO is particularly essential in a startup environment by coordinating fund-raising and building relationships. Overall, using a Virtual CTO can improve your company’s profile without excessive overhead.

How Your Business Can Benefit from Fractional CTO Services

When you hire a fractional CTO to be part of your technology development team, you stand to benefit in several ways, including:

1: Experience

A Virtual CTO typically has several years of experience in the industry and can provide the technology leadership your business needs. It saves you the headache of trying to resolve technical issues on your own. A fractional CTO will also dial into your business and IT systems and has a pool of talent required to handle any technical issues that may arise. Typically, a fractional CTO is a quarterback for your IT team.

2: Cross-Domain Knowledge

In most cases, related technology issues have similar solutions. Instead of wasting valuable time and money reinventing the wheel every time you have technology issues, you can leverage a fractional CTO’s experience and cross-domain knowledge. They have generally worked with many organizations within your industry, some of whom are facing similar technology issues. As a result, they can employ reusable knowledge, hence reducing costs associated with research and implementation.

3: Reduced Overhead and Enhanced ROI

An experienced fractional CTO can leverage cross-domain knowledge to minimize the number of hours needed to manage your IT resources and reduce overhead costs. In addition, by using automation tools and centralized reporting systems, the learning curve is reduced significantly. Besides, you can reduce your payroll and office expenses since hiring a virtual CTO is a fixed-cost or on-demand arrangement.

How to Source the Right CTO Services

When it comes to running technology companies, the CTO is the long-term visionary leader, while the VP of engineering handles the day-to-day responsibilities. Therefore, filling the role of CTO requires a deeper understanding of what the roles entail and who can be an excellent fit for it. By engaging the right fractional CTO services, you can have peace of mind knowing that an expert makes the right decisions and manages the technical aspects of your business.

When searching for outside expertise, look for a provider your current team respects and can provide leadership for technology development. More importantly, you need a provider with several years of experience and access to emerging technologies that apply to your industry. Fortunately, you can contract fractional CTO services on-demand, or anywhere from 10 to 40 hours per month retainer. Besides, you can scale the service up or down to suit your business demands and budget.

360 Smart Networks Provides Fractional CTO Services

360 Smart Networks provides fractional CTO services in Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, and surrounding areas. We understand that many small- and mid-sized organizations may not afford a full-time Chief Technology Officer, which may leave your organization with limited voices advocating for digital transformation. We proudly serve engineering firms, architects, and construction firms in the Southeast.

Our Fractional CTO services can help you overcome various challenges associated with technology development. By turning to 360 Smart Networks for strategic IT consulting, you can gain valuable access to our pool of strategic thinkers who have completed several similar projects for other organizations. Contact us today to schedule a consultation!