Almost nobody in this market publishes a number, which makes the question harder to answer than it should be. What follows is how these engagements are actually priced, what moves the figure, and what a quote usually leaves out. There are no market averages on this page, because nobody has reliable data on a market this fragmented and a benchmark that looks researched and is not is worse than none.
Each one prices something slightly different, and each says something about the firm selling it.
A flat fee for a defined cadence, with access between sessions.
A rate per day, drawn down as used.
A quoted number for defined work with a start and a finish.
Reduced cash in exchange for equity, or a fee tied to an outcome.
In roughly the order they move it. A firm that quotes without asking about these is quoting a template.
Monthly, bi-weekly or weekly is the single largest factor, because it is the one that determines how much of the adviser's month you hold. Everything else adjusts around it.
Advice on decisions you bring is one mandate. Owning the roadmap, the budget, the vendors and the risk register is a different one, and it is priced differently because it is a different job.
Not headcount alone. A 60-person company with three acquisitions, four directories and no documentation is more work than a tidy 300-person one, and pretending otherwise is how a mandate gets underquoted and then under-served.
An active migration, an implementation or a live security programme all need driving. A quiet year needs steering. These are not the same fee.
Advice needs somebody to receive it. Where there is no internal owner, more of the execution lands on the adviser, and the engagement grows to fit.
Including the two that look free and are not. No invented figures: the only number here describing somebody else's market is a full-time salary band.
| Instead of a retainer | Shape | What it costs | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| A full-time CIO | An executive hire, on payroll | $250,000 and up, before equity, benefits and recruitment | The right answer eventually, and hard to get right before you know what you need the role to do. |
| The vCIO your MSP includes | Bundled into the managed service fee | No separate line on the invoice | It is not free; it is priced into the service you already buy. And it cannot objectively review the firm that employs it, which is most of what the role is for. |
| An IT director | A senior operator, on payroll | A senior salary plus employment costs | Strong on delivery, and rarely has run technology at the size you are heading toward. Different job, often mistaken for this one. |
| Nobody | Decisions get made by whoever raises them | Nothing visible, which is the problem | The cost shows up as renewals that rolled over, tools nobody uses, a project that overran, or an incident that had been survivable for years. Real money, never on one line. |
Fixed scope, fixed duration, fixed deliverables. A figure is an answer rather than a guess, so it is on the pricing page where you can decide whether it is worth it without sitting through a sales process first.
What a mandate is worth depends on the cadence, the size and condition of the estate, and how much of the agenda we are being asked to own. A published tier price invites a company to choose before anybody has established which one it needs, and the company that picks wrong is the one who ends up disappointed.
Not always dishonestly. But these are the lines that turn a comparable quote into an incomparable invoice, and they are worth asking about before signing rather than after.
A vague answer to any of these is itself an answer, and it is cheaper to hear it now.
What exactly is included, and what will be billed separately?
Do you sell, resell or receive referral fees from anything you might recommend?
What do we own at the end, and can we still use it if we never work with you again?
Who specifically does the work, as opposed to who is in this meeting?
What is the notice period, and what happens to our documentation if we leave?
