Fractional CIO and CISO leadership for scaling businesses.
Harben Consulting Ltd provides senior technology and security governance to businesses that need executive oversight beyond what is currently in place. Engagements are sold as security leadership and delivered with the breadth of CIO-level technology governance experience.
APPROACH
CISO-led, CIO-informed
Most engagements arrive framed around information security: certification readiness, security governance, and assurance against standards such as ISO 27001. What differentiates the service is the CIO-level lens applied within that frame.
Before any scope is agreed, Harben asks about ownership structure, target markets, key suppliers and organisational priorities, questions that go beyond a narrow security brief. This diagnostic step often shows that the engagement a business needs is broader than the one first proposed. Where that happens, the engagement is reframed openly with the client.
Harben informs and structures. It does not own decisions, policies or certifications in place of the client, because accountability cannot be delegated.
GOVERNANCE & OVERSIGHT: Executive ownership of technology and security, risk framework design, and clear accountability structures.
TECHNICAL DELIVERY: Implementation, engineering and day-to-day operations remain with the client or their existing IT provider.
POLICY & DOCUMENTATION: Reviewed and refined by Harben; drafted by the client wherever a usable baseline exists, so ownership stays in-house.
AUDIENCE
Who We Work With
Harben works with scaling businesses that lack effective internal CIO or CISO capability, and that sit within a governance or funding structure creating real pressure to close that gap, most often private equity ownership or an equivalent regulatory setting. Introductions come principally through MSP and technology partners, who identify clients where executive-level governance and security leadership is missing from an otherwise capable operation.
THE GAP: A named CIO or CISO may already be in place. What is missing is strategic breadth, not headcount.
THE MANDATE: A board, investor or regulator with real accountability for the outcome, and the standing to act on advice.
IT strategy is a business strategy conversation, not a technology conversation.