We guide businesses in developing competitive advantages with tech, data, and AI. Our programs build digital competencies and develop transformation leaders.
At StarCIO, we help leaders adopt the practices needed to lead transformational change in their organizations. We deliver advisory, learning, and leadership programs to
Digital Trailblazers at small and medium businesses and enterprises to develop centers of excellence in key “Driving Digital” transformational practices. We mentor aspiring transformation leaders, advise organizations on developing experimental cultures, and guide multidisciplinary teams in developing agile ways of working.
C-Suite and Board Directors by assessing digital capabilities, refreshing digital transformation strategies, and delivering programs to recruit, coach, and advise their organization’s Digital Trailblazers.
Technology company marketers and sales leaders by building awareness, connecting with difficult-to-reach audiences, and delivering original content by experts with unique perspectives.
Our philosophy working with SMBs and Enterprises
Becoming competitive in a digital world requires developing core competencies in innovation, technology, and data. SMBs and enterprises can’t adopt the same playbooks as the big tech companies and must adopt smarter, faster, safer, and more innovative digital transformation practices
Established companies may have all the data and practices to be smarter but may not have the culture, leadership, or practices to move faster and pivot to beat out new competitors.
Smaller and midsize businesses may have a natural edge because they can go faster, but they must work harder to be smarter to outfox larger competitors and bring on early customers.
Working smarter and faster is a hallmark of any successful digital organization – large and small, old and new, operating in entrenched markets or defining new ones.
“StarCIO helps you make transformation a core competency”
StarCIO Team and Partners
continuous Transformation requires a dependable approach
At StarCIO, we believe becoming smarter and faster is what truly differentiates digital organizations from their peers. But that’s not enough for success. Organizations must also develop standards and agile ways of working to lead safer and more innovative transformation programs.
In this age of nonstop transformation, having the skills and tools to lead ongoing experimentation is no longer optional – it’s a business necessity.
StarCIO helps organizations adopt agile practices and establish Centers of Excellence that turn transformation into a core competency. Our commitment is to help you become smarter, faster, safer, and more innovative.
Learn more about the key areas we focus on and our services.
Our approach
When self-organizing teams create and drive adoption of their standard practices they can make transformation a core competency.
One thing we never lose sight of is that your team’s culture is unique. It has developed over time based on the nature of your business, industry, and market conditions. Your culture is influenced by your mission, geography, how individuals are hired and rewarded, and many other factors.
From the beginning, StarCIO will make sure we understand the strengths of your current culture and identify how to best implement our proven practices in a way that will amplify – not undermine – the culture and mission you aspire to achieve.
We bring expert guides who have led transformations in diverse industries to advise both your current and aspiring leaders. We call these leaders Digital Trailblazers, and we will help them expand their skills and grow confidence in leading through culture, process, and technology transformations.
We will help you establish your organization’s transformation Centers of Excellence with our highly-efficient practices while also helping your teams advance their leadership skills.
Why We’re Different
Our foundation is the thought leadership by StarCIO’s President Isaac Sacolick, a lifelong technologist who has served in startup CTO and transformational CIO roles. Sacolick (pronounced Sa-Co-Lick) founded StarCIO with the belief that agile ways of working and data-driven practices can empower diverse teams to drive transformation.
Sacolick has worked in the weeds developing customer facing experiences, creating data/analytics systems, and transforming business processes. He’s led teams at organizations big and small, worked in multiple industries, and has written a playbook for leading digital transformation and developing talent – the Amazon bestselling books Driving Digital and Digital Trailblazer: Essential Lessons to Jumpstart Transformation and Accelerate Your Technology Leadership.
StarCIO rejects rigid frameworks that are difficult to implement. Instead, we focus on adapting our proven practices to your organization’s unique needs and mentoring your leaders to continue transforming your digital transformation practices.
Every aspect of our work is built around the understanding that no matter how badly leaders want to deliver business results and innovate, they must do so while also addressing technical debt and culture challenges. Sacolick has experienced those challenges first hand and has designed StarCIO’s programs to be pragmatic and sustainable.
StarCIO Guides Your Transformation
StarCIO’s services include centers of excellence, Driving Digital Assessments, Digital Trailblazer Workshops, and Agile Planning Guides
We have clients across a spectrum of industries and sizes, and our services help businesses become Driving Digital organizations.
StarCIO Driving Digital practice areas include:
Digital transformation - Strategy, business reviews, vision statements, product audits, financial analysis, culture transformation
Agile ways of working - New to agile, continuous planning, transformation management, requirements management, release management, estimating practices, agile tool configuration, reporting, communications, agile culture
DevOps - Culture alignments, strategy, roadmap, tool selection, QA, AIOps, app monitoring, automation
Product management - Customer segmentation, vision statements, roadmaps, tool selection/integration, product design, business case, sales management, agile product owner coaching, experience assessments, and market research.
Citizen data science and proactive data governance - Data-driven strategies, data architecture, data prep/integration, data visualization, citizen data science programs, proactive data governance, dataops (including quality, MDM, cataloging, integration)
Low-code technology and integrations - Specialties in databases, big data, business intelligence, data integration, application development, CRM, marketing automation, content management, search, citizen development, cloud migration, BPM/workflow
Outsource enablement - RFP development, vendor management, program management, service levels, and metrics
Agile portfolio management - Project portfolio management, ideation, IT financial practices, vendor management, demand management, tool integrations, dashboarding/reporting