A fractional chief information officer differs from a traditional chief information officer in that they serve as a working member of a company's executive management team as a contractor and may or may not serve on the company's board of directors. A fractional CIO, also known as a part-time CIO, parachute CIO, or CIO on-demand, is an experienced, multi-faceted professional who serves as the part-time chief information officer of a small or medium-sized business that otherwise could not afford or would not need a full-time executive to hold the position of chief information officer. A virtual CIO or vCIO may have a similar role, but the term virtual suggests that the individual is not present in the organisation on the same basis as an employed executive. An interim CIO is generally retained for a limited time period, often to oversee a specific project or to cover an interregnum. As with traditional CIOs, a fractional CIO often helps with technology roadmaps, business process improvements, and business technology strategy.
The key business benefit of retaining a fractional CIO is that they provide the same expertise and capability of a full-time CIO without the associated level of overhead and benefits associated with adding another top-level executive. Care, however, must be taken to ensure the skills of the fractional CIO align primarily with the needs of the business, and not weighted with technical expertise in order to achieve the best results.
Fractional CIOs typically serve several companies and may or may not engage in the day-to-day management of a company's IT staff or other resources.