Need senior IT leadership, but not a full-time CIO?
You get an IT plan with priorities and a budget your leadership team can decide on, and a view on suppliers and large IT programmes before the money is committed. Accel Comply was founded by Behzad Motaghi, who has held senior IT and security roles since 2009, and every engagement has a named senior lead.
The short answer
Your executive team and board get a proposed IT strategy, priorities and budget, together with a review of supplier choices and major IT projects. Founded by Behzad Motaghi, Accel Comply does the work a part-time CIO or IT director typically covers, for companies in Denmark and the Nordics where nobody leads IT full time. Your senior lead from Accel Comply works with your IT manager and outsourced IT provider. If you want a formally appointed CIO, Accel Comply can take on the role.
Fractional CIO, permanent hire or interim: what's the difference?
The difference is who holds the mandate. A permanent head of IT has the budget and the staff, and carries the accountability day to day. A temporary leader steps into the post for a period, for example while you recruit. Accel Comply takes on the leadership side of the job: direction, priorities, budget and suppliers. That can be done as an outside adviser or as your formally appointed CIO. It fits when the work is too much for the CEO to carry on top of everything else, but not enough for a full-time post. If the work grows, the groundwork is in place when you hire your own head of IT.
An IT strategy with priorities and a budget leadership can decide on
Leadership gets one plan for IT, with every item tied to something the business needs to achieve. Accel Comply looks at what you have today, what it costs and where IT is holding back sales, operations or new plans. The recommendation then sets an order of priorities, with a cost and an owner in your organisation for each item, and says what can wait. The plan goes to the executive team and board, with your senior lead at the table if you want them there. The IT budget becomes a choice leadership can explain, not the sum of whatever was ordered last year.
Working with your IT manager and outsourced IT provider
Your IT manager and provider keep running IT. Your senior lead works with them on what leadership has decided and asks the questions leadership lacks the time or background to ask. Your IT manager gets someone to discuss the bigger decisions with. The CEO gets a recommendation on each IT issue covered by the engagement.
Three situations where IT is waiting for a decision
Three supplier proposals on the table, all promising the same thing
Accel Comply lays them side by side: what each one solves for the business, what it costs over the whole contract and how hard it would be to get out again. Leadership gets a recommendation and the requirements worth putting to the supplier, so the choice rests on business needs rather than on who presented best.
Most of the budget is spent, and the new system is half-built
Your senior lead compares the milestones delivered with what's been invoiced and looks at how much depends on a single supplier. Leadership gets a recommendation to carry on, rework the plan or stop, and the board gets a decision to take instead of another status report.
Only the supplier can judge the IT contract that's up for renewal
You get a review of what you pay for, what you actually use and what a switch would cost. Leadership can then renew, renegotiate or get other quotes based on its own assessment rather than the supplier's.
What Accel Comply takes on, and what stays with others
What Accel Comply takes on
- IT strategy and a prioritised plan with a budget, tied to the business plan
- Assessment of supplier proposals, contracts and renewals before you sign
- Review of large IT programmes: milestones delivered, amounts invoiced and dependence on one supplier
- Papers for the executive team and board, with your senior lead at the table if you want them there
- Follow-up with your IT manager and suppliers on what leadership has decided
What Accel Comply does not take on
- IT operations, monitoring and helpdesk
- Software development and technical implementation
- Line management of your IT staff
Your leadership makes the decisions and stays accountable.
Questions about fractional CIOs and external IT leadership
Can Accel Comply be our fractional CIO or part-time IT director?
Yes. Accel Comply can be formally appointed as your CIO and lead your IT work: direction, priorities, budget and suppliers. A partner from Accel Comply's network runs your systems, and your senior lead manages that partner and can take responsibility for the delivery. Scope, availability and response times are agreed in the contract.
What's the difference between an interim CIO and external IT leadership?
An interim CIO steps into the post for a period, holds authority over budget and staff, and may work full time. External IT leadership covers direction, priorities and suppliers, as an adviser or with Accel Comply as your appointed CIO. If you need someone to run the IT department day to day while you recruit, an interim hire is the right call.
Can you help with IT strategy if we don't have an IT department?
Yes. IT sitting with the CEO and an outsourced provider is one of the situations Accel Comply works with. The work starts with what the business needs to achieve, what you have today and what it costs, and ends in a recommended order of priorities. Your provider keeps running IT, and leadership ends up with a plan it has decided on itself, not the provider's.
Can Accel Comply review an IT contract before we sign?
Yes, on the commercial side. The review looks at what the contract covers, what it costs over the whole term, what happens if the supplier doesn't deliver and what it would cost to switch. Leadership gets a recommendation and the points worth renegotiating.
We already have a CIO or head of IT. Is this still for us?
Yes, if your IT leader wants a sounding board or part of the load taken off, but that's a different job. Accel Comply then works for and with your IT leader, and Second opinion explains how that works. If your IT leader can handle supplier choices, the budget and board papers alone, keep the work in-house.
More on leading security, IT and AI
Describe the IT decision that's waiting.
A few lines on what the business needs to achieve and what's stuck in IT are enough. You'll hear whether it's a fit for Accel Comply and where the work would start.