The Strategic Technology Partner Your Board Has Been Looking For

A Fractional CTO sits in the CTO chair for a defined portion of executive bandwidth — usually 1–8 days per month — and carries the responsibility that comes with that seat: technology strategy, executive decision-making, board interface, vendor and partner relationships, and accountability for outcomes. A consultant delivers a defined scope of work against a statement-of-work and exits. The difference is responsibility shape: a consultant is staffed onto a project; a Fractional CTO is responsible for the technology function of the organisation, at a fraction of a full-time hire's hours and cost. Both have a place; they solve different problems. Most organisations engaging DEBCOR's Fractional CTO need ongoing executive judgement on technology decisions, not a project deliverable.

Gareth de Bruyn — DEBCOR's founder and Chief Architect, personally. 30+ years of enterprise technology leadership, co-author of the first ABAP textbook ever published (Introduction to ABAP/4 Programming for SAP, Prima Publishing, 1996), author or co-author of 13 SAP technical books in total with three more in 2026, holder of every SAP architect-tier certification SAP currently offers (Enterprise Architect, Solution Architect BTP, Data Architect BDC, LeanIX) plus the SAP Generative AI Developer credential, and named on three AI patents pending. The Fractional CTO engagement is with Gareth specifically — not a rotating account team or a junior staffed against the role. That is the deliberate model: if you are buying executive judgement, you should know whose judgement it is.

Four common shapes. First, sitting CTO for organisations without one — typically PE-backed portfolio companies, mid-market firms in transition, or growth-stage companies where a full-time CTO hire is six months away. Second, board-level technology advisor — independent technology voice for the board on transformation programmes, vendor selection, M&A diligence, AI strategy, and technology-risk assessment. Third, transformation programme leadership — sitting at the executive level of an SAP or AI transformation, owning the technology decisions while DEBCOR's delivery team runs the build. Fourth, second-opinion mandates — a defined engagement to independently assess an incumbent technology direction, partner relationship, or programme health, with a written executive read at the end. All four are delivered by Gareth directly.

Monthly retainer, scoped by committed bandwidth. The typical range is USD $25k–$75k per month for 2–8 days of committed executive time, including board and steering-committee participation. Engagements run on quarterly minimums — long enough for the CTO to develop substantive context on the organisation, short enough for either side to exit cleanly. Hourly or per-diem pricing is available for one-off advisory or second-opinion mandates (typically $5k–$15k for a defined deliverable). The engagement letter specifies committed days, response-time expectations, board and meeting participation, and escalation paths — same discipline as any senior engineering engagement.

For the customer, somewhere between two days of executive time per month (lighter advisory mandates, board-level second-opinion) and eight days (sitting Fractional CTO for an organisation without one). For Gareth, the same committed time plus the standing context-management — reading the operating reports, staying current on the programme, being available for unscheduled calls. The honest constraint is that the bandwidth cannot scale arbitrarily; a Fractional CTO running too many concurrent mandates stops being useful to any of them. DEBCOR caps concurrent engagements at a small number specifically so the role can be delivered at executive depth, not as headline branding.

Three differences worth knowing. First, the operator behind the role: Gareth has carried responsibility for production SAP and AI delivery at the executive level for 30 years, with named public references (McLarens, iFIT) and patent-protected IP behind the platform recommendations he makes — not a CV from a marketplace pool. Second, the firm behind the role: when a Fractional CTO mandate identifies work that needs delivery — an S/4HANA migration, an AI deployment, a programme rescue — DEBCOR's senior engineering team is the same firm, with continuity between executive judgement and execution. Marketplaces decouple those, which often leaves the CTO advising on vendor selections they cannot follow into delivery. Third, the conflict model: DEBCOR's Fractional CTO mandate explicitly allows for independent advice that may not recommend DEBCOR for the resulting work; that is part of the engagement letter, in writing, because it is the only way the executive role is genuinely independent.