Everything you need to know about CTO-as-a-Service
In this article, read what CTO-as-a-Service is and how technology consulting can shape your company’s technology vision and improve business performance.
You’re a leader in a small to mid-sized company, and you have a great idea for an app. However, you have no idea how to implement it. Or maybe you need someone to help you ensure that the business strategy you’ve developed is properly supported with the right software. At some point, you decide to hire a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who will take on all the responsibilities related to product architecture, technology stack, and product tech vision and roadmap. But you’re a growing company that’s not ready for a full-time CTO. This is where a CTO-as-a-Service and technology consulting come in handy.
When do you need a Virtual CTO?
So here are cases when a virtual CTO can be helpful for your business if you:
- need to translate your idea into a viable product
- need a senior tech specialist who will help your business stand out from the competitors
- want to audit your app, website, platform, system, or architecture
- are not sure what technology stack will be most suitable for your business
- want to update current organizational and technical tools
- need senior guidance to support, manage, and hire tech talents for your project
- need to create a project technology roadmap but can’t afford a full-time CTO at the moment
- are ready to scale and need a temporary CTO to help you make the right decisions
- pitch your product to investors and don’t want to screw up
If you agree at least with one statement, it’s time to consider virtual CTO as an option for your business.
But first, let’s clarify what we are talking about here. Just like a CTO, a CTO-as-a-Service or a virtual CTO provides go-to technology consulting services to ensure that company technology decisions align with business goals. The only thing is that you don’t pay a full-time salary.
What does the external CTO do for your firm?
According to Gartner, the CTO has overall responsibility for managing the physical and personnel technology infrastructure, including deployment, integration, systems management, and the development of technical operations personnel.
More recently, however, the role is moving beyond infrastructure management and shifting focus to driving technology innovation and leading digital product development.
Just like a CTO, an on-demand CTO acts as the organization’s technologist, responsible for developing product technology vision and roadmap.
McKinsey&Company distinguishes four types of CTOs:
Which style will be the best fit for your company depends on your industry and business domain. Here’s an example:
“Influencers” and “Enablers” can become a perfect match for low-tech industries, where CTOs have a lower level of control over technology agendas.
By contrast, “Challengers” and “Owners” are a great choice for more technology-intensive companies with multiple business units, each with its vital R&D operations.
But no matter which style will make the most sense for your company, the main requirements are the same for everyone: the CTO, whether in-house or remote, should shape technology vision, ensure that the technological resources satisfy the company’s short and long-term needs, keep an eye on the trends and turn opportunities into strategies.
Related video: Why do you need a CTO?
When Should You Hire a CTO on-demand for Your Business?
Let’s take a look at several cases when virtual CTO can benefit your project:
You have a product idea and want to make it viable.
In this case, a virtual CTO can assist you with:
- Competitors’ analysis
- Architecture design and development
- Choosing the right technology stack and set of tools
- Feature prioritization
- Suggesting the most cost-effective way for your business.
You need an experienced technologist with business acumen.
The steps to be taken by your emote CTO include:
- Selecting technologies according to business objectives
- Auditing current technology stack and suggest improvements
- Dealing with tech issues that your team can’t manage or have no resources to solve.
Your business is scaling, and you need CTO to help create a scaling strategy.
The CTO-as-a-Service can help you with:
- Cloud optimization strategy
- Analysis of the current situation and suggest the most optimal approach
- Creating an effective plan to scale up
You are going to pitch your product and need a CTO to help to convince investors.
To successfully pitch your idea to investors, the CTO will:
- Answer investors’ questions
- Help to get prepared for the pitch deck
- Describe the product’s value proposition
- Ensure that everything is smooth from a technology perspective
Your business is growing, and you need a CTO to help recruit the best people.
In this case, the virtual CTO helps the human resources department to recruit specialists. Her responsibilities include:
- Evaluate candidates and conduct technical interviews.
- Assemble a team so that they have the necessary soft and hard skills.
Related Article: Being a Virtual CTO is More Than Just Giving Advice: An Inside Peek
Benefits of hiring a remote CTO
Here are some advantages of hiring a virtual CTO:
The most apparent reason is cost-effectiveness. You can hire from any country where the salaries are lower. In addition, you may not need to hire a CTO full-time and pay monthly. You can employ a project-based CTO or a specialist who will provide technology consulting.
To compare the average CTO salary in different countries and know more about how to choose an external CTO — follow the link.
