• Assess IT strategy, operations, leadership effectiveness, and vendors with a C‑suite lens; deliver a fact‑based optimization plan to improve reliability, speed, security, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Discovery (Weeks 1–3): Executive interviews; org/skills review; process walk‑throughs (incidents, changes, requests); tech stack inventory; vendor & contract scan; baseline KPIs (uptime, MTTR, backlog, cycle time, ticket volumes, cost per service).
• Cost of IT: Forecast & Guardrails: Build a 12–24‑month forecast (run‑rate, growth, projects, cloud OPEX/CAPEX); scenario modeling (status quo vs optimize vs transform) with ROI/payback; define guardrails (approval thresholds, spend caps, SLA targets, change windows, exceptions tied to business value).
• Optimization Plan (Weeks 4–6): Operating‑model redesign (roles, RACI, on‑call); process fixes (incident/change/release, request intake, backlog hygiene); vendor actions (renegotiate, consolidate, or replace); security/compliance quick wins (MFA, patch cadence, backup/restore tests, access reviews).
• Execution Support (Weeks 7–12): Weekly Transformation Room; implement savings levers (license right‑sizing, cloud reservations, telco/ISP optimization); coach/realign leadership; recruit or upskill as needed.

Vendor Assessments & Negotiation / Replacement Playbook

• Inventory & Data Pull (W1–2): Consolidate vendors; gather contracts, SOWs, invoices, usage/seat data, SLAs, renewals, penalties, support metrics; normalize into a vendor ledger (spend, term, renewals, owners, dependency, risk).
• Performance & Value Scoring (W2–3): Cost, SLA/uptime, responsiveness, feature fit, security/compliance, roadmap, exit complexity; produce a vendor heatmap (keep/monitor/replace).
• Recommendation Paths (W3–4): For each vendor: Keep & Optimize, Renegotiate, or Replace with 1‑page brief (gaps, risks, savings/benefit case, timeline).
• Renegotiation Tactics (W4–6): 90–120 days pre‑renewal; right‑size licenses; RFP‑lite for benchmarks; contract levers (price caps, performance credits, portability/exit, remove auto‑renew); bundle/unbundle where it lowers TCO; CFO guardrails.
• Replacement Path (W5–10): RFP‑lite (must‑have vs nice‑to‑have, security/integration checklist, 2–3 finalists); pilot/POC with success criteria; transition plan (dual‑run if needed, freeze changes, offboarding & data export).
• Governance & Guardrails (Ongoing): Quarterly VBRs with scorecards; renewal calendar with 120/90/60‑day alerts; savings tracker and KPI dashboard (spend/employee or site, SLA hit rate, incident trends).

Typical Stacks & Category‑Specific Plays

• Productivity & Identity
•  Microsoft 365 / Entra ID, Google Workspace — license audits, E5 vs add‑ons, MFA/CA baselines, mail security, data loss prevention; SSO/RBAC cleanup and conditional access.
• Cloud / Infra
•  AWS, Azure, GCP — reservations/savings plans, storage tiering & lifecycle, egress minimization, rightsizing, tagging/chargeback, backup/DR tests.
• Networking & Edge
•  Cisco/Meraki, Fortinet, Palo Alto — ISP right‑sizing, SD‑WAN, HA/firewall posture, logging/retention, support tier optimization.
• Security
•  CrowdStrike/SentinelOne, Duo/Okta, Microsoft Defender, Proofpoint — overlap elimination, MDR vs in‑house, coverage vs alert fatigue, tabletop & response SLAs.
• Comms & Contact
•  Microsoft Teams/Phone, Zoom, RingCentral — seat/utilization audits, carrier consolidation, QoS design, survivability/failover.
• ITSM & DevOps
•  Jira Service Management, ServiceNow, GitHub/GitLab — request intake, change control, automation, CMDB/lightweight asset source of truth.
• Backup & DR
•  Veeam, Datto, Azure Backup — 3‑2‑1, immutable copies, quarterly restore tests, RPO/RTO aligned to criticality.
• Endpoints & MDM
•  Windows/Intune, macOS/Jamf/Kandji — gold images, patch SLAs, app catalogs, admin rights minimization, device posture reporting.
• ERP/LoB
•  (sector‑specific) — quick value maps for finance, field ops, POS, EHR/PM, construction PM; contract terms for data portability and integrations.
• Telco/ISP
•  AT&T, Lumen, Spectrum, local/regional — bandwidth & failover design, contract audits, MTM vs multi‑year, fee remediation.
• Engagement Options
• Assessment‑Only (4–6 wks): Deep dive + roadmap + cost forecast & guardrails.
• Assessment + Execution (8–12 wks): Advisory through first savings wave and KPIs live.
• Fractional / Interim CIO (3–6 mos): Run the plan, stabilize leadership, and support permanent hire.
• Target Outcomes
• 10–25% reduction in addressable run‑rate within 6–12 months (licenses, cloud, telco, vendors).
• Higher reliability (MTTR ↓, change failure rate ↓) and faster time‑to‑value for business requests.
• Transparent governance so the C‑suite controls spend, risk, and outcomes.