Our Pricing Philosophy
Vertex CIO Advisory prices like an operating partner, not a consultancy. Every engagement is a fixed monthly retainer or a fixed project fee, scoped in writing, known before the work starts, and unchanged unless scope changes materially. There is no hourly rate. There is no timer running on phone calls. There is no scope-creep line item that shows up on the invoice.
Four principles drive how we structure fees:
- Fixed fee, not hourly. Executive judgment is not a metered utility. Hourly billing punishes efficiency, discourages picking up the phone, and creates administrative overhead neither side wants. Fixed fees align both parties on outcomes.
- Role-based retainers, not bags of hours. A fractional CIO retainer buys a role — board-level accountable technology leadership at 2–3 days per week — not a specific number of hours to be tracked. If the role requires more or less time in a given week, the fee does not change.
- Known upfront, no scope creep. Every engagement has a written statement of work with clear boundaries. If scope changes, we scope the change formally and price the extension. We do not add line items after the fact.
- Independent, no contingent fees or equity. Diligence must be independent to be useful. Technology advisory must be independent to be trusted at the board level. We do not take contingent fees tied to deal close, we do not accept equity in exchange for advisory work, and we do not take referral fees from MSPs, ERP integrators, or software vendors we recommend.
The frame
You are hiring a technology executive at a fraction of the full-time cost, priced like a retainer with a real professional service firm. Not billing hours like a consultant. Not selling hardware like an MSP. Not taking equity like a fund. The pricing is designed to make the incentives obvious.
The Three Engagement Types
Ninety percent of Vertex CIO Advisory work fits into three engagement structures. Each is priced as a fixed monthly fee or fixed project fee — no hourly component, no add-ons.
Fractional CIO Retainer
$10,000–$15,000 per month · 2–3 days per week
The standard engagement. Board-level accountable technology leadership on retainer, embedded 2–3 days per week with a specific company or across a small PE portfolio. Includes weekly executive check-in, monthly board-level reporting, vendor and MSP oversight, cybersecurity governance, technology budget management, and quarterly roadmap review. Six-month minimum term to allow the role to earn credibility with the board, the MSP, and the leadership team. Portfolio-level engagements — where the same executive covers multiple portfolio companies — are scoped separately.
See the full Fractional CIO service page →
Technology Due Diligence
$25,000–$45,000 · 3–4 week sprint
Fixed project fee. Independent technology diligence for a PE acquisition — infrastructure, cybersecurity posture, vendor contracts, IT risk, and post-close capex modeling, translated into a prioritized 100-day investment plan. Standard sprint runs three to four weeks from IOI to close. Larger deals — multi-entity, cross-border, or highly regulated — are scoped individually and priced accordingly. The fee is fixed at engagement start and does not change based on findings or deal outcome.
See the full Technology Due Diligence service page →
Technology Assessment
$5,000–$12,000 · 2-week diagnostic
Fixed project fee. A concentrated diagnostic of a single company's technology posture — infrastructure, cybersecurity, vendor relationships, and financial exposure — delivered as a written assessment with prioritized recommendations and a 12-month roadmap. Runs approximately two weeks. Common triggers: PE firm evaluating a portfolio company mid-hold, a CEO who inherited technology decisions from a predecessor, an MSP renewal decision that needs an independent second opinion, or a board that wants an outside read before authorizing a larger initiative.
See the full Technology Assessment service page →
How We Compare
The most common decision a mid-market CEO or PE operating partner faces is not whether to bring in technology leadership — it's what shape that leadership should take. Below is how Vertex CIO Advisory compares to the four most common alternatives on price, scope, independence, and accountability.
| Vertex CIO (Fractional) | Full-Time CIO | MSP with Bundled vCIO | Big 4 / Boutique Consulting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annualized cost | $120K–$180K | $350K–$500K+ with equity | Bundled in MSP fee (opaque) | $400K–$1.5M per project |
| Billing model | Fixed monthly retainer | Salary + bonus + equity | Included in monthly MSP fee | Hourly / T&M or fixed project |
| Time commitment | 2–3 days per week | Full-time C-suite | Ad-hoc, undefined | Team of consultants, project-based |
| Independence from MSP | Yes — no MSP relationship | Depends on hire | No — vCIO works for the MSP | Yes — typically independent |
| Board-level accountability | Yes — reports to CEO or board | Yes | No — reports to MSP account team | Project deliverable, then departs |
| Best fit | $40M–$400M revenue | $400M+ or high tech-intensity | Sub-$25M or MSP-managed | Large-cap or specialized transactions |
| Scope creep risk | Low — written SOW | N/A — internal | High — bundled with services | High — hourly billing model |
The pattern that shows up in this table is the reason fractional exists as a category: for a mid-market company between $40M and $400M in revenue, a full-time CIO is unaffordable, an MSP-bundled vCIO is compromised by the underlying commercial relationship, and Big 4 consulting is priced for a different customer entirely. Fractional fills the gap by pricing at fractional cost while retaining full independence and board-level accountability.
What Changes the Number
Every engagement is scoped individually. The ranges above cover the standard patterns; the number can move up or down based on scope drivers that show up before engagement start — never as surprises during the engagement.
- Portfolio scale. A PE firm engaging Vertex CIO Advisory across four or more portfolio companies is priced at portfolio scope, not four separate retainers. Portfolio-level engagements are structured differently and priced differently.
- Multi-entity or cross-border. Diligence on a multi-entity target — platform plus three acquired subsidiaries, or a US target with international operations — carries meaningfully more scope than a single-entity target and prices toward the top of the range or above.
- Regulatory density. Financial services with FFIEC/GLBA exam readiness, healthcare with HIPAA and EHR integration scope, defense supply chain with ITAR and customer questionnaire volume — all require more concentrated regulatory work. Priced at the top of the range or scoped separately.
- Incident overlap. If an engagement starts during an active cyber incident, an insurance carrier dispute, or an in-flight ERP migration, that adds interim executive coverage on top of the standard retainer. Scoped as an incident extension, priced separately, timeboxed.
- Interim CIO coverage. Filling in as full-time interim CIO during a search or after a resignation is not a fractional engagement — it is an interim executive role, priced at a higher monthly rate for the coverage period.
None of these move the number silently. Every scope driver is discussed before the SOW is signed, priced in writing, and either included in the base fee or scoped as a separately priced extension.
What Is Not Offered
Some things a mid-market CEO or PE operating partner might expect a technology advisor to do are things Vertex CIO Advisory deliberately does not offer:
- Hourly billing. Every engagement is fixed fee. There is no rate card, no timer, no minimum billable increment.
- Contingent or success fees on deals. Diligence fees are the same whether the deal closes or dies. That independence is the point.
- Equity or advisory shares. All engagements are cash-fee. Equity compensation compromises independence and complicates board relationships.
- Referral fees from MSPs, ERPs, or software vendors. Recommendations are aligned to the client, not to the vendor writing the check.
- Hands-on implementation. Vertex CIO Advisory is an executive oversight role — governance, strategy, vendor selection, and board reporting. Hands-on configuration, engineering, and system administration stay with the MSP, the internal IT team, or a specialist integrator, with us providing the executive layer above them.
- Reselling. We do not resell hardware, software, MSP services, or any third-party product. The commercial relationship is a straight advisory fee. Nothing else.
