For startups and companies in the scaling stage, having a technical leader on the team is a must. Senior developers or founders with a solid technical background can manage the software development team in the initial stages and control the project’s technical scope. When the business starts to grow, the company needs a technically trained manager to advise and guide the organization, providing the best technology solutions to achieve business goals. Let’s find out why.

Definition of Chief Technology Officer as a Service

Chief Technology Officer as a Service is a new way of collaborating with a workshop: the company hires an external expert to solve technical tasks, develop and solve technical team problems, and help bring your ambitious ideas to life. Outsourcing a workshop allows you to apply a flexible payment model: depending on the company’s needs, an external workshop will work for you when you need it: from a few hours per week to a standard full-time job, or occasionally for a meeting with your development team or investors.

A few situations where the help of an outside service station can be helpful to your business:

  • you have a great product idea but don’t understand how to implement it;
  • you’ve developed your first product or part of an application, but realize that its architecture doesn’t match the next steps of your product/service, or it’s outdated;
  • your business needs a professional with years of technical leadership experience who can help with product development, effectively discuss technological aspects with investors, evaluate contractors, and create technical roadmaps for the project;
  • at this stage in your company’s growth, you don’t need a full-time technical director, but you do need the maximum level of flexibility and cost-effectiveness to pay only for the services your business needs;
  • you need an objective opinion on various technical issues and an expert to guide your development team.

If you agree with at least one or more of the above statements, then CTO outsourcing services is something that can help your company.

The Role of the CTO in Business

Depending on a company’s scope, marketing goals, and business niche, a CTO may have different responsibilities. The role of the CTO will depend on startup level, team size, business management style, and other factors. The CTO is the public face of the tech department. It is responsible for managing research and development, the technology budget, aligning its IT strategy with business goals, and developing innovative products.

Top Management

Typical responsibilities requiring STO involvement typically include the following:

  • Short- and long-term strategy:
  1. Monitoring technological, social, and scientific trends that may impact the company’s business goals.
  2. Participating in management decision-making.
  3. Identifying business risks and opportunities.
  • R&D: managing research and technology development, maintaining up-to-date information on technology standards and compliance policies, researching and recommending the most effective solutions, etc.
  • Technical design and platform selection: supporting the strategic direction of projects, managing multiple development teams, making critical technology decisions like development platform selection, product architecture layout, technical design planning, technical controls, and more.
  • DevOps and MVP issues: building the technical component of the product from scratch, solving technical problems related to the first iteration of the product, backups, workflows, budgeting for MVP enhancements, and more.
  • QA, product testing, and cybersecurity: assigning tasks to team members involved in testing and product setup, aligning QA and technology approaches, developing security procedures and algorithms, emergency audits, etc.
  • Evangelism: presenting the company’s technology strategy to partners, directors, investors, and employees, finding technical specialists and managing team growth, building relationships with customers, vendors, and the public, etc.

CTO as a Service for Startups

If your business is a product, you need to plan all aspects of its development from the start, including the development team and responsibilities, technology stack, development tools, and systematize all processes to minimize the risk of failure.

By turning to STO consulting services, startups can get expert advice on the best technologies and architecture, professional management of the development team, operational coordination of tasks, as well as technical consulting on the following IT services:

Web Portal Development.

 Defining architecture, platform design, and selecting unique solutions.

AI Solutions. 

Creating practical solutions based on artificial intelligence technologies will be feasible and within the project budget.

SaaS Development. 

We have a severe technical stack and proven processes, allowing you to find a balance between ready-made components and custom development to create a unique SaaS product. Back-end/front-end development, scalable architecture, integration with back-end systems and CRM, testing, support, and maintenance after launch.

IoT Development. 

We have experience developing IoT-enabled mobile applications and web services to manage IoT devices to minimize routine operations and create additional competitive advantages for businesses.

Development of Highly Loaded Systems. 

Technical design and design of failure tolerant architecture capable of withstanding high loads to create efficient commercial projects.

UI/UX Design. 

Technical consulting on architecture, site logic, and visual design will deliver value to users of your product and help you differentiate yourself from the competition.

Startup Development from Scratch. 

A full range of turnkey startup design, creation, and implementation services. We have techniques to pick up the project started by other developers and bring the product to market.

MVP.

Prototyping, testing, MVP application development, choosing the best product/market fit, going through all pivots in product life, and testing on real users for market evaluation, supporting further growth and scaling of the product development team.

CTO as a Service for SMBs

If a company is in the growth process and plans to attract investment, it is essential to convince investors of its potential. The chances of success are much higher if you already have an experienced technology specialist on your team or if you should consider outsourcing your service.

We constantly monitor the technology market and offer our customers technical innovations that could be profitable or will soon become trends. We make sure that all technologies used in the project are up-to-date and grow relevant and reliable technical solutions that do not require significant investments. STO services cover the following categories of solutions for small and medium-sized businesses:

AI Solution and Chatbot Development. 

We will provide you with the best technical advice and develop effective AI-based solutions to increase the productivity of your business by minimizing the routine operations of your staff and taking communication with your customers to the next level.

Business Process Automation. 

Experience technical leadership in developing automated business management systems that ensure your business runs smoothly and allow your teams to focus on more creative tasks.

CRM. 

We will advise you on how to implement CRM before the start of the project, install and configure CRM and accompany you after the launch.

UI/UX Design. 

We will ensure the creation of a quality UI/UX that will be an advantage for your users, allowing you to sell more without changing the product features.

UI/UX Audit. 

Our experts will examine the issues that lead to lower conversions and find ways to change those processes in your favor.

Website Redesign. 

Creating a plan for the redesign includes changes to the visual part and part of the site functionality and aims to improve the conversion and statistics of visits.

Technical Support. 

Our specialized approach is not limited to only updating the site content but also involves continuous improvement and optimization of the functional with the help of our team for further support.

B2B Development. 

We carefully plan all projects beforehand and always take into account the specifics of your B2B customers.

Corporate Websites. 

Creating robust websites integrated with accounting, CRM, document management, and team management systems based on a deep understanding of the business we work with.

Development of high load systems and e-commerce solutions. 

Technical design and construction of high load architectures to create practical commercial projects—customized approach, reliability, and selection of the best solution to achieve the best results for your business.

The benefits of engaging CaaS for businesses

The main benefits of CaaS engagement for startups and SMBs can be summarized as follows:

It Reduced Operational Risk. 

CaaS helps establish sustainable operations, processes, and infrastructure by keeping track of IT budgets and improving resource planning, participating in business crisis management, security issues through overall governance and risk management, product and plan development.

Monitoring Industry Market Trends and Business Transformation. 

Given the multitude of projects we work with, it is crucial to define and implement development strategies in line with current development methodologies and best practices, focus on target business markets, and implement projects to support the customer experience.

Creating a Digital Transformation Strategy 

by overseeing the transformation of each business process and offering options on how technology can help the company achieve tremendous success.

Support in Team Development. 

Mentoring the team, coaching and assisting with professional development, hiring new employees, and filling technical gaps in the process of finding needed tech talent.

Rising Management. 

Communicating with stakeholders and investors and presenting technology strategies and implementation plans.

Conclusion

Startups and other small businesses need to implement and monitor technical solutions. CTO as a service will allow you to get a manager who will supervise the technological scope of the project. The primary purpose of CTO as a service activity is to achieve results for the client: the calculation of ROI before the start of the project, advice on choosing the best technical solution by the requirements and interests of the client.

Next, can read: Technology Resolutions for a New Business

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