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CTO as a Service · technology leadership

On-demand CTO. Technical decisions with a business mindset.

A master plan, independent opinions for vendor selection, presence in executive meetings. Without the cost of a full-time CTO, and without the distance of a six-month consultancy engagement.

Book 15 min → See the areas ↓

PSA · Projects · IT Master Plan

IT Master Plan in PSA: board of decisions and projects by stage, with priority and deadline for each area

model

monthly fee + projects

client

no in-house CTO

presence

executive committee

Where technology gets stuck

Technology leadership isn't a full-time job. In most companies, it's an intermittent function.

A mid-sized company makes only a few big technical decisions a year: choosing an ERP, migrating to the cloud, setting a cybersecurity posture. In between, the in-house team runs operations, and a full-time CTO is expensive and underused. The on-demand CTO covers these decisions with someone who has been through them, with no payroll weight and no resale incentive, for companies of any size without a permanent CTO.

The CTO's 4 areas

One role, from opinion to committee.

Zulti's on-demand CTO is not "a consultant who shows up at a meeting". It's a role with clear deliverables, an agreed frequency and defined responsibility over the four areas where technology leadership needs to be present.

01 Area 01

Technical opinions

on demand · written document

Evaluating a vendor proposal, choosing between two ERPs, deciding whether to migrate or stay, a second opinion on an ongoing project. You bring the decision; Zulti returns a written analysis with clear criteria, with no resale incentive.

written opinion · no commercial bias

02 Area 02

Technology Master Plan

annual · document + presentation

The core deliverable. An annual document with an assessment, initiatives prioritized for the short, medium and long term, an architecture review and technical choices, validated in a board meeting. It replaces "decisions by gut feeling" with "decisions with method".

annual deliverable · validated by the board

03 Area 03

Technical leadership for the in-house team

ongoing · mentoring / conversation

For companies with in-house IT (analyst, coordinator, infrastructure), the on-demand CTO becomes the team's technical reference, guides day-to-day decisions, helps structure processes and sets standards. A counterweight, not a boss.

mentoring · technical counterweight

04 Area 04

Executive presence on the board

recurring · seat on the committee

A recurring technology seat at board, advisory board or committee meetings. Continuous follow-up between planning cycles, vendor reviews and roadmap milestones. Reports as an executive, not as a vendor.

agreed frequency · an executive, not a vendor

today × Zulti CTO

Who decides on technology today? And who would decide with Zulti.

A binary heat map of the 6 areas where technical decisions matter most. Where today choices are improvised versus where on-demand leadership brings method.

technical areas →

today CEO + IT decide together no permanent seat · no method

with Zulti On-demand CTO monthly fee + projects

PLANTechnology Master Plan

1/3

3/3

STACKStack decisions (cloud, ERP, platform)

2/3

3/3

BUILDBuild vs Buy

1/3

3/3

ROAD1–3 year technical roadmap

1/3

3/3

TEAMTechnical team strategy

2/3

BOARDSeat on the executive committee

1/3

3/3

Technology leadership as a service, without slide-deck meetings. Technical decisions from people who operate alongside you.

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Frequently asked questions

When there's no CTO at the table, every CEO asks the same things.

How a CTO works without being in-house, what they decide and what they execute.

How is it billed: retainer, fixed project or hourly?+

Hybrid. At its core is a recurring monthly fee (what consultancies call a retainer) covering continuous technology leadership, meetings at the agreed frequency, availability for one-off decisions between meetings, and the annual Master Plan. Big decisions that need in-depth work (evaluating 3 vendors, building an RFP, a second opinion on a project) become fixed-scope projects, priced upfront.

Zulti also operates and resells technology. How does that not compromise the CTO's impartiality?+

They're two separate contracts. The on-demand CTO is a monthly fee paid directly, with no vendor commission. Technical operations (MSP, Cybersecurity, Cloud) are a different contract, and that's where we operate and resell tools as part of the scope. The CTO recommends what makes sense: if the right tool is in our portfolio, we integrate it; if not, we point you to an outside one, because the CTO's pay doesn't depend on the sale. The split is declared at onboarding, with no gray area.

Do I need Zulti's MSP to get the on-demand CTO?+

No. The on-demand CTO is standalone: it works with any company, with or without an MSP, with or without in-house IT. When the client is also a Zulti MSP client, the monthly fee is lower (part of the environment insight already comes from operations) and the roles stay separate in the scope: operations is operations, leadership is leadership. But starting doesn't require any other contract.

How often do we talk? How many hours per month?+

Agreed case by case. We don't use a fixed "X hours for Y" table, because real demand varies a lot between clients. Some need weekly meetings; others, monthly. Some have many one-off decisions between meetings; others have a more predictable flow. The monthly fee is sized to the demand pattern and reviewed when it changes. No charge for every email answered.

How is this different from a large consultancy or a digital transformation firm?+

It's a different role. A consultancy delivers a study, a framework and recommendations, then leaves. The on-demand CTO takes the seat: they're responsible for technology leadership between recurring meetings, defend decisions to the board, follow execution and update the plan when things change. It's an executive role, not an advisory one. That's why billing is recurring monthly, not a one-off project. And that's why the relationship lasts years, not months.

Who it's NOT for

Shared technology leadership has limits, and we'll tell you when.

Commercial honesty has kept us going for almost a decade. In some scenarios, another model is a better fit. We list them openly to save you evaluation time.

Your company has technology as its main product (software house, fintech, digital product scale-up). Zulti competes in technology leadership for companies whose business happens outside software. A CEO running a software house needs a full-time in-house CTO, inside the product.

Your technical team is already past 10–15 people and the main need is people management (careers, performance, headcount, culture). Zulti competes in technology leadership for companies where operations still need more strategic counterweight than people leadership. That stage calls for an in-house CTO.

You buy IT based on a fixed vendor recommendation or a channel program. Zulti has technical operations (MSP, Cybersecurity) with a defined portfolio and leadership (CTO) paid separately from sales, but if your technology decisions are driven by an external channel, this two-sided model makes no difference in practice.