The Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CIO

Is your organization needing the technical guidance of a chief information officer, but you’re hitting barriers keeping you from making the move? Sometimes it can be good to start small by engaging with a fractional CIO. There are many reasons why you’d look at hiring a fractional CIO (sometimes referred to as a vCIO, virtual CIO, or CIO as a service). Maybe you have a critical technology project that you don’t have the in-house expertise to lean on. Maybe your technology practice is progressively maturing, but it isn’t to the point of necessitating a full-time resource to manage it. Regardless of your need, a fractional CIO may be the perfect solution for your growing business. Let’s dive into the benefits of hiring a fractional CIO to see if it makes sense.

Cost

According to Glassdoor, the median salary of a chief information officer in 2024 was $375,000 a year. The pay range spanned $281,000 to $515,000. That compensation could include things like bonuses, stock, and profit sharing. Not to mention, benefits can tack on an additional 20-40% on top of that salary figure. For small to mid-sized businesses and startups, this translates into a sizable investment to commit to a full-time chief information officer. A fractional CIO is an easier commitment. It could be engaging with an executive for 10 to 20 hours per week or working full-time with a fractional CIO for six months. Regardless of how you approach it, the costs are lower and adaptable. You pay for the value you need without shouldering an additional executive salary.  

Expertise

Say your company has committed to moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud to take advantage of scalability, reduced capex, and better availability and performance. Moving to the cloud can be a fantastic thing if you have the experience in-house to guide that transformation. Often, organizations are missing this key expertise and invite significant risk in proceeding without it. Some fractional CIOs have made a career out of helping clients execute specialized IT initiatives, like digital transformations or cybersecurity, and they bring those collective successes with them so your company can benefit.

Workload

Remember when I talked about your maturing technology practice? Your practice may be making great strides, but sometimes there isn’t enough work to necessitate the strategic presence of a full-time CIO. Just because you can’t keep someone occupied for 40-plus hours a week, 52 weeks a year doesn’t mean you shouldn’t benefit from strategic technology leadership. That is the beauty behind the fractional relationship. You can lean in and engage to whatever degree you want. This engagement can also scale up as your business grows. It’s up to you and your fractional CIO to define those boundaries so they best fit your ever-changing needs.

Diversity of Experience

Due to the position’s limited scope, fractional CIOs frequently shift between companies to go where the needs take them. They may start the year helping out a logistics firm only to end the year at a healthcare startup. This affords them a breadth of experience rarely seen in traditional CIO candidates who build their careers in a given industry. This diversity of experience across industries and business models gives the fractional CIO a keen advantage when solving thorny IT problems.

Fill the Gap

One morning, you may find yourself staring at a resignation letter you hoped you’d never see. If you suddenly find your CIO is departing the organization, it’s not easy or prudent to seek out a quick hire. It will likely take time to find the right fit for your organization. Unfortunately, you can’t put your IT department’s management and leadership needs on pause while you conduct your search. A fractional CIO can help fill the leadership void on an interim status to provide much-needed stability during this rocky transition.

Try Before You Buy

Introducing a new executive into the C-suite isn’t a trivial matter. You need to make sure this person is the right fit. They need to be a technology leader, bringing innovative solutions to the table. They need to be able to challenge ideas and push the group to make them better. They need to be able to navigate personalities and understand how to get things done. It can be helpful for the group to work with a few people in a fractional CIO context to define what personality and contribution best fits your company. It’s also not unheard of for a fractional CIO to shed the fractional part of their title to take on the role full-time. There can be a lot of value in trying before you buy.

As you can see, there are numerous reasons why a fractional CIO can be a great option for your growing organization. Your team needs to explore why you are pursuing CIO leadership, and what you are hoping to get out of this engagement. Also, it helps to explore the limitations keeping you from pursuing a full-time chief information officer. Putting these pieces together can help you have exploratory conversations with candidates to help you pinpoint the right person to fit your needs.

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