According to LinkedIn I'm now supposed to write that adversity made me stronger — but mostly what it did was wreck my planning.
Anyone who read my previous post knows what that's about. The first months of this year went differently than planned, and that's the polite summary.
Then again, plans often turn out differently. Business plans too. I set out in February with an idea, and it took longer than I thought to turn it into something I'm actually happy with. The work at my client sped that up. I only really understood what I had to offer once I'd spent time at a client seeing what's genuinely needed — and held that up against the services I'd dreamt up in advance.
In the meantime I just worked. For that same client I first designed and built a data platform, so that proper reporting can run on it. Now I'm in the middle of an extensive security assessment for them.
People, Process and Technology — all examined.
And it's going well. It's producing an improvement plan the board can act on straight away. Concrete actions, sorted from critical to low, and for each one it says who picks it up and when. The coming months will hopefully be about prioritising and executing that, together with their own people.
That last part is exactly where most assessments stop. I go as far as needed. Looking over shoulders, rolling up my sleeves, keeping the overview. Sometimes it's training, sometimes it's setting up the team and the processes so they can carry it themselves afterwards.
And I've finally written down what I do. With the prices included, on a site that goes live today. The things I don't do are on there too, because that matters just as much.
What I do is called a fractional IT manager. Carrying IT responsibility one or two days a week at companies that have grown too big to do IT on the side, and are too small to hire someone full-time for it.
Alongside my current client there's room for one more company. I don't want more than that — otherwise I'm only half-present everywhere.
That conversation is usually with a director who's been doing IT on the side for too long, or with someone in finance who signs off on contracts he has little visibility into. Sometimes with an IT manager standing on their own.
Know someone like that, or is it you? I'd love to hear from you.