Strategic Advisory
Quarterly counsel and on-call consultation for boards, founders, and executive teams.
- Quarterly strategy reviews
- On-call decision support
- Vendor & contract second-opinion
- Board reporting support
Fractional CIO · CTO · Executive IT Advisory
Senior technology
Senior technology
leadership, on demand.
Without the headcount.
Prairie Mill provides fractional CIO and CTO services, IT strategy, and executive technology advisory for small and mid‑sized businesses making the decisions that shape the next five years.
Experience
25+ yrs as CIO & CTO (Apollo Education, Colibri, Bahler)
Posture
Independent · Vendor-neutral
Frameworks
NIST CSF · TOGAF · ITIL · COBIT
Operating model
Embedded, hands-on, accountable
Capabilities
Six practices.
Six practices.
One executive bench.
We work where IT strategy and executive leadership meet. Most engagements combine two or three practices — delivered by senior operators who’ve held the seats they’re advising.
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Business & IT Transformation
Engage →Take an IT function that has lost the trust of the business and turn it into a credible, predictable engine of growth. Multi-year transformation roadmaps, operating model redesign, and the executive cadence that holds after the consultants leave.
- Multi-year transformation roadmaps
- IT operating model & org redesign
- Application portfolio rationalization (1,500 → 300 apps, in practice)
- Enterprise architecture (TOGAF)
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Fractional CIO / CTO Leadership
Engage →Senior technology leadership embedded into your team — without the full-time cost. Strategic planning, vendor management, hiring, and direct ownership of outcomes. Drawn from CIO and CTO seats at Apollo Education, Colibri Group, and Bahler Management.
- Strategic planning & quarterly business reviews
- Vendor & contract management
- Team building (on-, off-, and nearshore)
- Board & investor reporting
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M&A Technology Integration
Engage →IT due diligence, integration playbooks, and post-merger systems consolidation — on the timelines deals actually require. Built from 25+ acquisition diligences and 18 integrations supporting $100M of M&A‑fueled revenue.
- Pre-LOI technology due diligence
- Integration planning & risk assessment
- Repeatable integration playbooks (“University-in-a-Box”)
- Day-one and 100-day execution
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Digital & AI Strategy
Engage →Apply AI and digital to the workflows that actually move the business — sales enablement, quote generation, knowledge capture. Practical, measurable AI rather than hype. In practice: 97% reduction in customer quote time and 20% improvement in quote accuracy.
- AI strategy & opportunity assessment
- Applied AI in sales, operations, & knowledge management
- Business process digitization & automation
- Product development & management
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Cybersecurity, Risk & Compliance
Engage →NIST CSF and CIS Controls alignment, risk assessment, and the operating cadence that turns posture improvements into measurable wins — including a 20% reduction in cybersecurity insurance premiums and security used as a B2B retention lever.
- NIST CSF & CIS Controls alignment
- Penetration testing & remediation
- DR, business continuity & incident response
- SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR & EU data protection readiness
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Cloud, Infrastructure & FinOps
Engage →Hybrid and multicloud strategy, architecture review, and cost optimization across Azure, AWS, and GCP — with the operating model to sustain it. Track record includes hybrid-cloud on Azure Stack Hub / Azure Arc and 49% enterprise IT spend reduction.
- Cloud migration & modernization (Azure, AWS, GCP)
- Hybrid-cloud (Azure Stack Hub, Azure Arc)
- FinOps discipline & vendor consolidation
- ERP selection & implementation
Engagement Models
Three ways
Three ways
to work with us.
We size engagement to the decision. Most clients start with a defined project or an advisory cadence — and graduate into longer-term fractional leadership as trust compounds.
Fractional Leadership
Embedded CIO or CTO leadership for the time you actually need it — with full ownership of outcomes.
- Strategic planning & execution
- Direct team leadership
- Vendor & budget oversight
- Board & investor reporting
Project Engagement
Defined scope, fixed timeline, hands-on delivery for the work that absolutely cannot slip.
- Cloud migration & modernization
- Security assessment & remediation
- M&A diligence & integration
- Transformation program leadership
Modernization led
$100M
Three-year enterprise modernization at Apollo Education Group — collapsed 1,500+ applications to fewer than 300.
M&A integrations
18
Acquisitions integrated at Colibri Group supporting $100M of M&A‑fueled revenue, on the back of 25+ targets diligenced.
IT spend cut
49%
Enterprise IT spend reduction at Apollo Education ($36M → $18.5M) while accelerating growth.
Teams rebuilt
11
Technology teams rebuilt and revitalized across corporate enterprises and non‑profit organizations.
Why Prairie Mill
Senior counsel.
Senior counsel.
No house style.
We aren’t a reseller, a managed service provider, or a platform partner. The only product on offer is judgment — and the only commitment is to your outcome.
Vendor-neutral by design
No kickbacks. No preferred-partner mandates. We recommend what fits the problem — even when the right answer is “do less.”
Held the seat we’re advising
Engagements are led by people who’ve run IT organizations, owned budgets, and reported to boards — not consultants who’ve only read about it.
Skin in the outcome
Engagements include defined success measures and quarterly executive reviews. If something isn’t working, you’ll hear it from us first.