What does an interim CIO do?

An interim CIO takes the executive decisions of the information-systems estate while it has no permanent owner: platforms, data foundations, suppliers, run cost and security posture. The role assumes digital direction already has its own leader, and sets out to leave an estate whose cost, risks and owners are known and written down.

When is an interim CIO the wrong answer?

When nobody yet understands the run cost, an Assessment or Technology Strategy should come before any seat. When digital direction has no owner either, the CDIO seat fits better, because the roadmap and the estate then need deciding together. When the estate holds and only digital channels lack an owner, that is the CDO seat.

What does the CIO hand over at the end?

An estate inventory with an owner for each platform and data domain, a run cost broken down and defended line by line, a supplier register with renewal dates and exit options, a sequenced plan for what is kept, changed or retired, and a register of security and continuity risks with their owners.

What does the interim CIO lead?

The platforms, data foundations and suppliers the business runs on, with operating cost, supplier decisions, security posture and system priorities in one executive view. Teams receive direction on what to maintain, what to change and which risks need a leadership decision, while investment and change continue around them.

Choose a CIO when digital direction already has its own owner and the estate needs one too. A CDIO combines the information-systems estate with digital direction in one role, for organisations where the roadmap and the systems it depends on cannot be led separately during the transition.

Interim & Fractional CIO

Interim and fractional CIO in short

An interim or fractional CIO leads the systems estate the business runs on: platforms, data foundations, suppliers and run cost, when digital direction already has its own owner. The interim makes the estate legible, takes the supplier and risk decisions that were waiting, and leaves an estate with named owners, a defended cost and a clear plan.

Lead the estate the business runs on.

The organisation needs its platforms, data foundations and suppliers to keep supporting the business while investment and change continue. The interim CIO leads that estate through the transition.

The role brings operating cost, supplier decisions, security posture and system priorities into one executive view. Teams receive direction on what to maintain, what to change and which risks need a leadership decision.

When to bring in an interim CIO

The CIO has left and the estate has no owner, while projects, contracts and incidents keep arriving.
A carve-out has to stand up its own systems, contracts and support, separated from the former parent on a fixed timetable.
Two estates must be integrated after an acquisition, and someone has to decide which platforms and suppliers remain.
The run cost is understood but keeps rising, and nobody owns the decisions that would bring it down.

When it is the wrong answer

The run cost needs to be understood before anyone takes the seat. An Assessment gives one diagnosis and a prioritised path first.
The open question is what the estate should become and what it should cost. That is Technology Strategy, with an internal owner of the roadmap at the end.
Digital direction has no owner either, and the roadmap and the estate need deciding together. The CDIO seat holds both.
The estate holds, and what lacks an owner is digital channels and online revenue. That is the CDO seat.

What the CIO holds

The platform portfolio: what is maintained, what is changed and what is retired, in an order the business can absorb.
Data foundations: the systems of record, their quality, and who owns each of them.
Suppliers: contracts, renewals and exits, and the service levels each supplier is held to.
Run cost: a breakdown the finance function can audit, and the decisions that bring it down.
Security posture and continuity: the risks that need an executive decision, and the order in which they are treated.

The first 90 days

Days 1 to 30

Confirm the terms fixed at entry: the platforms, suppliers and budgets the seat holds, the results that define success and the forum the CIO reports to.
Build the inventory the estate lacks: systems, contracts, renewal dates, and the owner of each where one exists.

Days 31 to 60

Break down the run cost by system and supplier, and mark what nobody can justify.
Take the supplier decisions that were waiting: renewals, renegotiations and exits.

Days 61 to 90

Set the plan for the estate: what is maintained, changed or retired, in sequence.
Name an owner for each platform and data domain, so decisions stop coming back to the seat.

What you keep

An inventory of the estate, with an owner for every platform and data domain.
A run cost broken down by system and supplier, defended line by line.
A supplier register with renewal dates, exit options and service terms.
A plan for the estate: what is maintained, changed or retired, and in which order.
A register of security and continuity risks, each with an owner.

We leave when the function can run without us: an identified permanent owner, a roadmap they hold, and a team that no longer routes through the interim.

Full seat or fractional, how a mandate runs and how it is billed: see Interim Management.

Discuss the information-systems leadership gap

Questions

What does an interim CIO do?: An interim CIO takes the executive decisions of the information-systems estate while it has no permanent owner: platforms, data foundations, suppliers, run cost and security posture. The role assumes digital direction already has its own leader, and sets out to leave an estate whose cost, risks and owners are known and written down.
When is an interim CIO the wrong answer?: When nobody yet understands the run cost, an Assessment or Technology Strategy should come before any seat. When digital direction has no owner either, the CDIO seat fits better, because the roadmap and the estate then need deciding together. When the estate holds and only digital channels lack an owner, that is the CDO seat.
What does the CIO hand over at the end?: An estate inventory with an owner for each platform and data domain, a run cost broken down and defended line by line, a supplier register with renewal dates and exit options, a sequenced plan for what is kept, changed or retired, and a register of security and continuity risks with their owners.
What does the interim CIO lead?: The platforms, data foundations and suppliers the business runs on, with operating cost, supplier decisions, security posture and system priorities in one executive view. Teams receive direction on what to maintain, what to change and which risks need a leadership decision, while investment and change continue around them.
CIO or CDIO?: Choose a CIO when digital direction already has its own owner and the estate needs one too. A CDIO combines the information-systems estate with digital direction in one role, for organisations where the roadmap and the systems it depends on cannot be led separately during the transition.

Interim and fractional CIO.