Technology should be helping your business grow, not just keeping the lights on. I work directly with owners across the Oklahoma City metro as their fractional CIO — learning the business first, then making the technology serve it. I don't sell hardware, software, or services, so my only stake is whether the decision was right for you.
You've reached the point where every new system, vendor decision, or security question needs someone who can think strategically — not just fix what's broken.
Most businesses aren't spending too much on technology — they're spending it in the wrong places. Overlapping licenses, tools nobody uses, renewals nobody reviewed, and gaps where the real risk actually lives. The problem usually isn't the budget. It's that nobody senior is deciding where it goes.
Managed service providers are excellent at break-fix and patch management. They are not in the business of advising your three-year roadmap, negotiating your vendor contracts, or stress-testing your risk register.
Your support provider, software vendors, ISP, and security tools each have their own contact, contract, and finger-pointing. When something breaks across them — and it always does — the business owner becomes the middleman. That's not your job.
Cyber insurance underwriters, regulators, and clients are demanding security postures most SMBs are unprepared for. Without strategic IT leadership, you're flying blind on decisions that matter most.
A vCIO sits in the strategic seat: setting direction, managing vendors, controlling spend, and owning risk. Day-to-day technical work stays with your MSP or in-house staff.
Not sure what kind of IT help your business needs? Start here →
Three-year technology plan aligned to where the business is going, not where it's been.
Risk register, security posture assessment, incident response readiness, cyber insurance alignment.
Contract review, renewal negotiation, MSP performance, consolidation opportunities.
Microsoft 365, Azure, infrastructure decisions, identity strategy, Conditional Access design.
IT capital and operating budgets, project ROI, refresh cycles, license optimization.
Microsoft Copilot deployment, workflow automation, practical AI strategy tied to business outcomes.
HIPAA, CMMC, SOC 2, PCI — gap analysis, remediation roadmap, audit prep.
Board updates, quarterly business reviews, vendor escalations — at a CIO altitude.
A vCIO complements your existing IT support — not replaces it. I sit in the strategic seat above day-to-day operations. Your support provider (or in-house staff) keeps doing what they do best.
Most IT providers say they're vendor-neutral. Here's what that actually means when there's nothing else on the invoice.
I don't resell hardware, software, licenses, or managed services. No markups, no commissions, no referral fees. I select the vendors, negotiate the deals, and hold them accountable — the contracts just stay in your name, so my only compensation is my fee. When I recommend a fix, I don't profit from it.
If your stack works, it stays. Every change I recommend comes with the business case attached — cost, risk, and payback — so you can hold the recommendation accountable, not take it on faith.
Your roadmap, risk register, budgets, and vendor contracts live in your name and your tenant. Everything I do is built for continuity — documented, standard procedures any competent provider could pick up tomorrow. You're never dependent on me to understand your own IT.
Month-to-month, no long-term contracts. If I'm not delivering, fire me — it takes one email. Thirty years in this industry taught me retention should come from results, not paperwork.
Three real engagements from 30 years of running business technology. The full write-ups are a click away.
A ransomware attack hit a manufacturer I led IT for. Air-gapped backups brought the business back the same morning — zero data loss, no ransom paid.
When my employer acquired a manufacturer, I merged the systems, network, and infrastructure into one environment — without stopping production.
A public health department brought me in as an outside verifier to assess their security posture — the same role I play against your vendors today.
I standardize around modern, secure, cloud-managed platforms — Microsoft 365 and Azure for identity and productivity, Microsoft Defender and Intune for endpoint protection, Meraki or Fortinet for networking, and best-of-breed SaaS for line-of-business needs. Vendor-neutral on the details, opinionated on the architecture.
That doesn't mean everything belongs in the cloud. Cloud where it earns its keep, on-prem where it makes sense — I've run both for 30 years, including the ERP and shop-floor systems manufacturers actually depend on.
If your existing stack is working, we don't rip and replace for the sake of it. If your stack is fighting you, we'll lay out the case for change with numbers attached.
I don't just consult on cybersecurity and infrastructure. I operate OKC CIO Partners on AI-augmented workflows. Claude, Cowork, and a tight stack of automation handle work that used to require a back-office team — which is exactly why I can keep my client load small and still go deep on every engagement.
Most vCIOs in this market are still pitching break-fix MSP partnerships from 2015. You get someone using the tools five years ahead of the local market — and someone who can tell your team where AI saves real time, and where it's a distraction wearing a tie.
That's the difference between a consultant who reads about AI and one who lives in it daily.
Small and medium businesses that have outgrown reactive IT but aren't large enough to justify a full-time IT Director.
Strongest fit is with industries where uptime, compliance, and operational risk all matter — but technology decisions still get made in a hallway conversation.
I'm Grey Lawson — over 30 years in IT — 10 of them as an IT Director running complex, multi-site enterprise environments. For most of my career I was also hands-on in the trenches: switches, servers, datacenters, the actual work. I direct the work because I've done the work.
From 2005 to 2015 I also ran my own practice, AbilitySBCC — ten years of hands-on IT support for more than 25 different clients. I advised every one of them the same way I do today: vendor-neutral, nothing to sell them, just the right call for their business.
The independent-assessor role goes back to the start. In the early 2000s I led a four-person team on a full cybersecurity assessment of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department — a top-to-bottom review of a government agency's security posture, reported straight to leadership. Verifying whether the security you're paying for actually holds up isn't a new service for me; it's most of what I've done.
I started OKC CIO Partners because I kept seeing the same gap in the Oklahoma City market: businesses where technology had quietly become critical to how they operate, but nobody at the leadership table actually owned it. That leaves an owner choosing between guessing and taking a vendor's word for it — and both of those get expensive.
I keep my client load deliberately small, so every engagement gets real executive attention — not a quarterly check-in template. If we're a fit, you get a fractional executive who actually knows your business.
From first conversation to ongoing engagement — clear stages, no surprises.
60–90 minute conversation. We talk about your business, your tech today, and what's slowing you down. No deck, no sales pitch — just whether there's a fit.
A paid written engagement: the risks I'd act on, the quick wins, and a prioritized 12-month roadmap. The foundation everything else is built on.
Monthly retainer or project-based. Flexible engagement, no auto-renewing contract, scope adjusts as the business changes.
Every 90 days we look at progress against the roadmap, recalibrate priorities, and report up to leadership.
I work primarily on monthly retainers sized to the scope of the engagement, with project-based work available for defined initiatives.
Ongoing fractional executive role. Tiered by hours, meeting cadence, and scope.
M365 migration, security assessment, vendor selection, compliance prep — fixed scope, fixed fee.
Clear rate ranges shared in our first conversation. No commissioned upsells. We tell you what you need and what you don't.
Monthly engagement, terminable for any reason. We re-earn the relationship every month.
A vendor-neutral, 12-page playbook on IT strategy, security, and AI for OKC small and medium businesses. Free — no pitch.
Get the free guideTell me a bit about where you are and what you're solving for. I'll respond within one business day.