Your business has outgrown its technology setup.
Technology decisions are piling up without a senior owner, and vendors are getting ahead of your team. Seven Roots steps in as the technology executive you need, without the cost of a full-time hire.
Five pillars that hold up the engagement
Strategic leadership without the title politics. Embedded as partners. Focused on measurable outcomes you can show a board.
Big picture thinking. Clear direction.
Embedded as partners. Invested in your success.
From strategy to results. We get it done.
We build capability that endures.
We hand it off with your team stronger.
What we work
through together.
Every engagement starts with what's not working. The shape of the work follows from there.
You need a senior voice in the room.
Technology decisions deserve someone who isn't selling you something. We sit with your leadership team on retainer and bring senior technology judgment to the strategic conversations.
- A technology roadmap your leadership team can act on
- Vendor decisions made with confidence instead of under pressure
- A senior voice in strategic conversations, not only the technical ones
- Fewer technology surprises, more predictable outcomes
How your business runs on technology needs an owner.
For companies ready for a deeper partnership, we step in as an embedded technology executive. That means a seat in leadership meetings and accountability for technology outcomes, without the cost or commitment of a full-time CIO.
- Technology governance that runs without you driving it personally
- A technology story your board can follow without a glossary
- Vendors and teams held to real results
- Security posture you can stand behind, not only report on
- AI tools adopted where they help, ignored where they don't
You have a defined initiative. Let's finish it right.
Some engagements have a clear start and end: an acquisition, a platform overhaul, a new technology capability that needs standing up. We scope it, deliver it, and hand it off with your team in a stronger spot than when we showed up.
- A defined initiative delivered, not only managed
- Your team stronger at the end than at the start
- Clean handoff with no knowledge walking out the door
- Scope that stays scope, with clear boundaries from day one
Assess. Align. Deliver. Empower.
A four-step rhythm built around outcomes you can measure, not deliverables you have to file.
Understand your goals, challenges, and opportunity.
Design a clear strategy and execution plan.
Execute with focus. Drive measurable results.
Hand it off with your team stronger and ready to grow.
Not sure what you need yet?
Ask the panel.
Heartwood is an AI advisory tool from Seven Roots. Mid-market leaders ask a technology question and get back a structured decision brief, tuned to their industry and the size of their business.
Try Heartwood free →Industry specialist included
Every session pulls in a domain expert for your sector, whether that's healthcare, manufacturing, legal, or something else.
Decision briefs, not chat
You get structured recommendations: a clear take, the reasoning behind it, the risks to watch, and what to do next.
Technology strategy only
Scoped to technology decisions. No recipes or marketing copy, just unconflicted advice on how your business runs on technology.
3 questions free
Start with no commitment. No credit card or account required. You give us a work email and your toughest technology question.
AI is moving fast.
Your governance shouldn't.
Every mid-market company is getting pitched AI tools right now. Most of them will buy something before they've answered the harder questions: Is the data ready? Is the team ready? What problem are we solving?
We sit on your side of the table, vendor-neutral, before you commit. Not as an implementation partner chasing downstream work, but as the executive helping you decide whether to buy at all.
AI readiness assessment
An honest look at where your organization stands on data quality, process maturity, team capability, and governance. The kind of read you want before the vendor conversation starts, not after.
Use case prioritization
We help you pick the two or three AI use cases worth doing in your operations, whether that's PMO automation, document analysis, or a customer workflow, and sequence them into an adoption roadmap.
Governance and policy framework
Practical AI governance sized for a company like yours: an acceptable use policy, data handling standards, and a review process a small team can run without a compliance department behind it.
Vendor-neutral evaluation
No implementation partnerships. No referral fees. When you're evaluating AI tools or platforms, you get an independent read on fit, risk, and total cost of adoption.
What we believe
Growing companies deserve the same quality of technology leadership as the enterprise, at the pace and with the trust of a close partnership.
I've been in this room before.
For more than 20 years I've sat where these decisions get made. Technology strategy inside fast-growing companies. Acquisitions under pressure. Governance built from scratch. The moments when how the business ran on technology had stopped keeping up, and someone senior had to step in.
Recently, more of that work has been about AI: where it earns its place in your operations and how to adopt it without getting ahead of your own governance.
Grounded in your business
Technology strategy that starts with your goals, not the other way around.
A trusted seat at the table
Senior counsel when you need it, without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Practical AI guidance
A vendor-neutral read on where AI helps in your operations today, and where it doesn't yet.
Wisconsin-based, regionally connected
We work with companies across Wisconsin and the Midwest, on-site when it matters.
Working with other firms.
If you're a firm running acquisitions, delivering large projects, or placing senior technology talent, we partner well. Seven Roots plays the executive layer: strategy, governance, and the technology calls that move the engagement forward. When it's time to staff, build, or run a transformation, we bring in the right partner and stay on the hook for the outcome.
The relationship runs both ways. We expect referrals back when our clients need the capabilities you bring.
Executive placement
Consulting firms and staffing agencies bring us in when a client engagement needs a senior technology executive in the room, whether interim, fractional, or tied to a project.
M&A technology due diligence
For firms running acquisitions, we evaluate the target's technology environment: infrastructure, security posture, systems debt, and integration risk, before the deal closes. Try the 100-day integration playbook tool.
Bidirectional referrals
When our clients need implementation capacity, project talent, or platform expertise, we refer them to the right firm. We expect the same in return and take those relationships seriously.
National reach, Midwest roots
On-site in Wisconsin and across the Midwest, remote everywhere else. The right fit matters more than the geography.
What buyers usually ask first.
A short set of answers for leadership teams weighing whether a fractional CIO is the right move, and how Seven Roots fits.
What is a fractional CIO?
A fractional CIO is a senior technology executive who works with a company on a part-time or retainer basis. The role covers technology strategy, vendor decisions, governance, and senior-level participation in the conversations that would otherwise sit with a full-time chief information officer.
When does a fractional CIO make sense?
When technology decisions are stacking up and nobody owns the outcome. Companies in the $25M to $300M revenue range often face this: too much technology to run without senior leadership, not enough to justify a full-time CIO hire.
How is this different from a managed service provider or a consulting firm?
A managed service provider runs technology day-to-day. A consulting firm sells hours against specific projects. A fractional CIO sits with leadership on retainer and brings senior technology judgment to strategic conversations, without selling downstream implementation work.
Do you work with companies outside Wisconsin?
Yes. Seven Roots is based in Wisconsin and works primarily across the Midwest, but engagements extend nationally depending on fit. Most work happens remotely with periodic on-site presence.
What does an engagement look like?
Most engagements start with a scoped diagnostic to establish what the company actually needs. Ongoing work happens on a monthly retainer. Scope, cadence, and hours are set to match the decisions in front of the leadership team.
Tell us what's
going on.
A first conversation is just that. No pitch, no proposal, no pressure. We spend 20 minutes on what you're dealing with and whether there's a fit worth exploring.
You tell us what's on your plate: the hard problems, the initiatives in motion, or a general sense that something is missing from your technology leadership.
We ask a few honest questions about where you are and where you're trying to get.
If there's a fit, we talk about what that could look like. If there isn't, we'll say so and point you somewhere useful.
"No pitches, no sales cycle. Just an honest conversation about whether this is the right fit and what it could look like if it is."
Seven Roots Consulting