THIS GEEK SPEAKS YOUR LANGUAGE

Picture the scene. After years of loyal service, your laptop is no longer fit for purpose. You’ve achieved extraordinary things together, but the time has come, and you need a newer, faster model. You’re about to have a tech midlife crisis. Giddy as a schoolgirl, you skip on down to Shiny Things R Us to gawp at retina displays while discussing RAM and hard drives (like you know what you’re talking about) with the young salesperson until you stumble across The One. And it’s two grand.

Here’s your dilemma: You need a laptop; you love this one; it’s shiny, but you have no idea how it works, why it’s so expensive, or even if a five hundred quid model will do. But the young salesperson swears blind it’s perfect. What do you do? Have a word with yourself? Take a punt? Phone a friend?

Imagine that scenario if you’re running a large organisation whose digital ecosystem needs a significant overhaul, and you don’t know your JavaScript from your API. You need professional help, a freelance Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Digital Transformation Officer (DTO) to come in and guide the strategy. Clare Wilkinson is your woman. She is your digital phone-a-friend.

Clare and her husband Will have run Hot Horse for over 20 years, developing and designing bespoke online software focused specifically on efficiency.

As a freelance CTO, Clare can view a project from either standpoint, having been both a service provider and a client. She says, “I am a geek who translates. It’s reversing my skillset from designing the solution to spotting the gaps in someone else’s digital strategy and rollout.”

What does a freelance CTO or DTO do? It’s a bit like being a wedding planner. A digital transformation is a delicate and expensive process, fraught with opinions and too many choices. It’s Clare’s job to ensure you get the Vera Wang gown you paid for and down the aisle without a hitch.

“It’s the same as anything else; you don’t know what you don’t know. A company without the competence of a full-time CTO or DTO may lack the knowledge and confidence to design and commission a big digital project themselves, especially one with such high stakes. That company hires someone like me to oversee the project and help with strategy, planning, specification, tendering and contracts, and reporting to the board.”

Hiring a freelance CTO comes with all the benefits of buying in a service: value for money, flexibility and being an unbiased sounding board are a few. But when it comes to digital, most of us don’t have a clue what we’re looking at beyond the device we hold in our hands or the software we use every day. The CTO does. And when it comes to value perception, a reasonably priced project to a developer can feel like a mugging to a client.

“I am unbiased because I don’t have any skin in the game besides ensuring a positive outcome for everyone. It’s my job to knit the client and supplier teams together by acting as chief interpreter and hogwash detector. I handle the technical conversations with the supplier and translate them to the client. It’s my job to reassure them and explain why something costs as much as it does, but also protect them from unreasonable additional charges.

“Equally, when a job costs £10,000 more than the client expected it to, I speak up on behalf of the supplier because I know it’s a reasonable cost for that piece of work. The supplier knows I’m an expert who also does what they do for a living, which makes for better communication and an easier life. I’d question the intentions of any supplier that didn’t appreciate a client having a skilled CTO on their project team.”

“It’s a bit like being a relationship counsellor.

“I have tremendous enthusiasm for the work and the value I can add to a client’s business and future growth. I only struggle to tell a potential supplier they didn’t get the gig because I know how much hard work goes into a pitch. I wouldn’t say I like making that phone call.

“I don’t get to connect face to face that much with a lot of my work, so I class my MDHUB peers as my colleagues. It’s a real privilege to belong to such an exciting group of people of the calibre MDHUB has built over the years. I’ve grown in confidence and come to understand my value.

“I learn something new whenever I meet with my peer groups. I’m swimming every day for a year to raise money for the Trussell Trust, and I realise that being an MDHUB member is just like exercise. You know you should go, a thousand other things are vying for your attention right now, but you fit it in and always feel better afterwards.” www.hothorse.com

So, if your laptop is dead, do your research and hit the shops. If your company is growing and your digital strategy is no longer fit for purpose, Clare is your shiny thing in waiting.

If you are interested in finding out more about the MDHUB, please visit www.mdhub.co.uk

Email MDHUB Directors: Fiona Shafer: fiona@mdhub.co.uk or Phil Green: phil.green@mdhub.co.uk

Cleankill Pest Control has been named as a finalist in two categories –Business of the Year Over £1m and The Award for Customer Delight –of this year’s Gatwick Diamond Business Awards