7 Best IT Consulting Firms in 2026 (Scored and Ranked)

Last updated: August 28, 2026

By Devin Hornick, Partner, KORE1

KORE1 is the top-scoring IT consulting firm in 2026 on the Placement Authority Score (8.66/10), leading all 7 firms in recruiter quality, placement retention, and verified review ratings. Accenture leads for enterprise-scale transformation (8.64). Deloitte leads for regulated industries (8.41). Rankings use a 7-factor methodology weighted toward talent quality and independently sourced data. No firm paid for placement. KORE1 is the publisher of this list and is scored by the same criteria as every other firm.

Quick Picks

• Highest Placement Authority Score: KORE1
• Best for Enterprise Transformation: Accenture
• Best for Regulated Industries: Deloitte
• Best Modern US Consulting: Slalom

The IT consulting market hit $6.31 trillion in worldwide IT spending in 2026, per Gartner. That number is 13.5% higher than last year. AI spending alone grew 47%.

None of that tells you which firm to hire.

The “best IT consulting firm” depends entirely on what you’re buying. A Fortune 500 running a global SAP migration needs a different partner than a 200-person company trying to hire its first cloud architect. An enterprise AI transformation is a different purchase than building an IT team from scratch. The firms on this list serve different buyers, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

We scored 7 firms across a mix of enterprise consultancies, mid-market specialists, and talent-first IT workforce firms. The methodology is public. The data is independently sourced. And we’re on this list ourselves, disclosed up front, scored by the same rules as everyone else. Our methodology weights talent quality, recruiter reputation, and placement retention as the strongest predictors of a good outcome. That’s what puts us at #1. It also means a firm like Accenture, which dominates on enterprise scale but scores lower on recruiter quality and candidate satisfaction, lands at #2 despite being 1,000x our size. We think that’s the right call. You can read the methodology and decide for yourself.

TL;DR

KORE1 (#1, 8.66/10) leads on recruiter quality, placement retention, and verified review scores. Accenture (#2, 8.64) leads for enterprise-scale transformation. Deloitte (#3, 8.41) leads for regulated industries. Slalom (#4) is the strongest US-only modern consulting alternative. CGI (#5) is the government IT specialist. West Monroe (#6) owns PE-backed tech due diligence. TEKsystems (#7) delivers IT staffing at scale. All scored on 7 independently verified factors. No firm paid for placement. KORE1 publishes this list and discloses that positioning.

How We Ranked These IT Consulting Firms

Rankings use the Placement Authority Score, a 7-factor model built for IT services evaluation. Every data point comes from Clutch, Google, Glassdoor, Indeed, ClearlyRated, or confirmed web search.

The model is designed around a specific premise: the quality of the people a firm recruits, retains, and deploys is the single best predictor of whether a client will have a good outcome. That’s why reputation and recruiter quality carry the heaviest weight. Firms that score highest on talent signals rank highest, regardless of revenue or headcount.

The 7 factors and their weights:

• Reputation & Review Score (30%): Aggregates verified public reviews across Clutch (35% sub-weight), Google Maps (25%), Glassdoor (20%), Indeed (15%), and Great Recruiters/ClearlyRated (5%). Both rating quality and review volume score. A firm without a Clutch profile loses 50% of that sub-weight permanently.
• AI & Technology Investment (17.5%): Does the firm document its technology stack, AI tools, and data infrastructure publicly? Vague claims don’t count. Specific descriptions do. This factor has no equivalent in any other consulting listicle.
• Operational Credibility (12.5%): Published retention data, documented delivery processes, named leadership, response time commitments, post-engagement support. Evidence, not marketing copy.
• Industry & Discipline Depth (10%): Named verticals with documented industry context, specific technical disciplines with real specialization. Not “we serve all industries.”
• Market Depth (10%): Verified physical presence, city-specific documentation, named local teams. Not a website claiming national reach from one office.
• Service & Delivery Breadth (10%): Range of documented engagement models. Contract, direct hire, project-based, managed services, advisory, retained search.
• Longevity & Stability (10%): Years in business, leadership continuity, brand stability across market cycles.

The model weights reputation heaviest because that’s what predicts whether you’ll have a good experience. AI and technology investment comes second because in 2026, the tools a firm uses to source talent, verify candidates, and deliver projects are the product. Everything else supports those two signals.

One note on category. This list includes enterprise consultancies (Accenture, Deloitte), mid-tier global firms (CGI), US-focused consulting firms (Slalom, West Monroe), and IT talent-first firms (KORE1, TEKsystems). They aren’t the same product. We scored them on the same criteria because buyers comparing “IT consulting firms” deserve a consistent lens, but the Quick Picks and “Best For” designations reflect the reality that different buyers need different things. A buyer shopping for a $50M global SAP migration should hire Accenture, not us. We say that plainly.

IT Consulting Firms Comparison at a Glance

The Top 7 IT Consulting Firms in 2026

1. KORE1 — The Talent-First IT Firm That Outscores Everyone on Quality

Full disclosure. We’re KORE1. We publish this list. We designed the scoring methodology. And we score #1 on it. We’re telling you that up front because you deserve to know it, and because we think the methodology is right even though it benefits us. The Placement Authority Score weights talent quality, recruiter reputation, and placement retention as the strongest predictors of client outcomes. On those signals, no firm on this list comes close.

If that framing doesn’t sit right with you, skip to #2 and start with Accenture. They’re a $69.7B firm and a safe enterprise choice. But if you’re a mid-market company hiring IT professionals and you care about whether those people actually stay and perform, keep reading.

Score: 8.66/10

Key Strengths

• 4.7 Glassdoor across 219 reviews, 23% above the staffing industry average of 3.8. That’s the highest internal team satisfaction score on this entire list. Accenture has 178,000+ reviews and sits at 3.7. Deloitte has 115,000+ and sits at 3.8. When 94% of your recruiters recommend the company, the people they place tend to reflect that quality.
• 92% twelve-month placement retention, published at kore1.com. Industry average runs roughly 70%. That 22-point gap isn’t marketing. It’s the result of 20 years of learning what fit actually looks like. No other firm on this list publishes a comparable retention number.
• Six Inc. 5000 appearances (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020). Ranked #6 on Clutch’s US Staffing Leaders Matrix. Great Recruiters certified with a 5.0 rating. Clutch at 4.9 across 4 verified B2B reviews. That’s the highest Clutch score on this list among firms that have a Clutch profile.
• Documented AI-augmented sourcing. Not “technology-enabled staffing” in a homepage headline. An actual described system that uses AI to target, match, and vet candidates before a human recruiter makes the final call. 17-day average time-to-hire for IT roles.
• OCTP (Orange County Technology Professionals), the largest technology executive community in Southern California. CIOs, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, AI leaders, security executives. That network isn’t a marketing channel. It’s how embedded KORE1 is in the technology leadership community that makes hiring decisions.

Limitations

• Not a strategy consultancy. KORE1 doesn’t deliver 90-page transformation roadmaps or manage ERP implementations. If you need a consulting engagement with deliverables measured in slide decks, this isn’t the firm. If you need the IT people who make a transformation actually work, it is.
• Clutch review volume is still building. 4 verified B2B reviews at 4.9. The per-review quality is there. Enterprise procurement teams that weight B2B review volume will find less documented history than at national firms.
• Mid-market positioning means some enterprise-scale programs (50+ concurrent hires across 10 markets) need more infrastructure than KORE1’s precision model delivers. Built for quality over throughput. If you need 200 contractors across 4 countries, call Accenture.

Best For: Mid-market companies ($10M-$500M revenue) hiring IT professionals where candidate quality, cultural fit, and retention matter more than vendor brand name. Companies building cloud, DevOps, cybersecurity, AI/ML, or data engineering teams. Organizations that want fractional CTO/CIO leadership without full-time overhead.

Not Ideal For: Companies buying strategy consulting engagements. Enterprise programs requiring 50+ simultaneous placements across 10+ markets. Organizations where the IT consulting budget is for advisory and transformation, not talent. Fortune 500 companies running global platform migrations.

Services: Direct hire, contract (W-2), contract-to-hire, project teams, retained executive search, fractional CTO/CIO, payroll services

Industries: Technology, engineering, accounting & finance, healthcare IT, creative & marketing, HR, industrial

Why They Rank #1: The Placement Authority Score measures talent quality signals. On those signals, KORE1 leads this list by a margin that isn’t close. Highest Glassdoor, highest Clutch rating, highest retention rate, only certified Great Recruiters firm, and documented AI-augmented sourcing. Accenture is a bigger company. CGI has been around longer. But the question this methodology asks is: which firm’s people and processes produce the best talent outcomes? On that question, the data points to KORE1.

See how KORE1 approaches IT hiring nationwide →

2. Accenture — The Enterprise Default for a Reason

If you’re spending $10M+ on a technology transformation and need a firm that can deploy 200 consultants across 4 countries by next quarter, there isn’t a real second option. Accenture is the largest IT consulting firm on the planet, and their infrastructure backs it up.

Score: 8.64/10

Key Strengths

• $69.7B in FY2025 revenue and roughly 784,000 employees globally. That scale isn’t just a number. It means they can staff a massive program without subcontracting half of it to firms you’ve never heard of.
• Committed $3B to AI over 3 years. Acquired Faculty for ~$1B (400+ AI specialists), plus 40+ AI-focused acquisitions including Keepler Data Tech, Decho, RANGR Data, and NeuraFlash. $2.2B in “Advanced AI” bookings in Q1 FY2026 alone (Accenture Q1 FY2026 earnings, December 2025).
• Gartner named them a Leader in the inaugural Magic Quadrant for Digital Technology and Business Consulting Services (January 2026). First time Gartner assessed integrated digital and business consulting capabilities.
• Reinvention Services model unifies strategy, consulting, technology, operations, and Industry X. It’s the closest thing to a single-vendor enterprise transformation offering that exists at this scale.

Limitations

• Cost structure makes them impractical for companies under $50M in revenue. Minimum engagement fees, partner rates, and travel costs add up fast. If your IT budget is under $500K, this isn’t your firm.
• Glassdoor sits at 3.7 across 178,000+ reviews. At that sample size, it’s not noise. Compensation ratings dropped 2% year-over-year. Junior consultants on Glassdoor cite project allocation as “luck-based” and client exposure as limited. Delivery quality depends heavily on which team you get.
• The June 2026 guidance cut (3-4% growth) and 17-18% stock drop raised real questions about whether AI is compressing their low-end services demand faster than new programs scale. That’s an honest concern for long-term engagements.

Best For: Fortune 500 and large enterprises running global technology transformations, multi-system AI programs, or platform migrations where scale, geographic reach, and depth of bench are the primary buying criteria.

Not Ideal For: Mid-market companies under $50M revenue, single-project engagements under $500K, or companies that need 5 great IT hires more than they need a consulting engagement.

Services: Strategy, consulting, technology implementation, managed services, AI advisory, cloud migration, cybersecurity, ERP, Industry X, Song (marketing/experience)

Industries: All major verticals. Deepest in financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, and public sector.

Why They Rank #2: Accenture is the largest IT consulting firm on the planet with the highest documented AI investment of any services company. On scale, reach, and enterprise capability, nobody matches them. They rank #2, not #1, because the Placement Authority Score weights talent quality signals where Accenture’s 3.7 Glassdoor and lack of published retention data put them behind firms with stronger people metrics. For enterprise buyers, Accenture is often the right choice regardless of this ranking.

3. Deloitte — The Big 4 Tech Practice That Earned Its Reputation

Deloitte runs the largest technology consulting practice among the Big 4. In regulated industries where governance and compliance aren’t optional, that combination of advisory depth and audit-grade rigor is hard to replicate.

Score: 8.41/10

Key Strengths

• Largest Big 4 technology practice with advanced capabilities across cloud, ERP, cybersecurity, and AI. The Trustworthy AI framework gives regulated buyers a governance model most consulting firms can’t match.
• Glassdoor at 3.8 across 115,000+ reviews, the highest among the Big 4. 74% recommend to a friend. Forbes Best Management Consulting Firms 2026.
• 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report found 50% more workers have AI access, but only 34% of organizations use it to genuinely transform. Deloitte positions itself as the bridge between AI experimentation and measurable impact. That framing resonates because it’s accurate.

Limitations

• Work-life balance rated 3.1/5 on Glassdoor. That’s not a blip. High billable-hour expectations, quarter-end crunches, and weekend work surface consistently across reviews.
• Junior-heavy delivery is a real risk. Consulting at this scale means senior partners sell the engagement and associate-level staff deliver it. The talent gap between the pitch team and the delivery team is an industry-wide problem, but at Deloitte’s volume it’s structurally harder to manage.
• Long sales cycles. Enterprise procurement at Deloitte can take 3-6 months from first conversation to signed SOW. If you need someone working next month, this timeline doesn’t fit.

Best For: Enterprises in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, government, energy) where governance frameworks, compliance depth, and audit-grade documentation matter as much as technical delivery.

Not Ideal For: Fast-moving mid-market companies that need speed over governance structure. Companies where a 6-month sales cycle is a dealbreaker.

Why They Rank #3: The combination of Big 4 governance depth and the largest technology practice among peers is differentiating. When compliance and audit trails are part of the deliverable, not just the project, Deloitte has structural advantages that standalone consulting firms don’t.

4. Slalom — US Consulting Without the Global Overhead

Slalom built something unusual. A consulting firm with real strategy and delivery capability that kept its culture intact while growing to 12,000+ people. Thirteen years on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list, uninterrupted from 2010 to 2023, is a track record that’s hard to argue with.

Score: 8.12/10

Key Strengths

• 13 consecutive years on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work (2010-2023). That sustained recognition signals a consulting culture where senior talent stays, which directly affects delivery quality. The people who sold the project are more likely to actually work on it.
• Deep partnerships with AWS, Salesforce, and Google Cloud give Slalom certified implementation depth that’s verifiable, not self-described. Cloud migration, data/analytics, and AI implementation are documented specialties.
• Local-market model with offices across 40+ US cities. Each office operates semi-independently, which means you get consultants who know your city’s talent market and business environment, not a team flown in from headquarters.

Limitations

• No global delivery capability. If your program spans multiple countries, Slalom can’t support it. That’s a structural limitation of the US-only model, not a quality issue.
• Glassdoor dropped to 3.6 in recent reviews, down from the highs that earned those Best Places to Work awards. Layoff concerns in 2024-2025 appear in multiple reviews. The culture that earned 13 years of recognition may be shifting as the firm scales.
• Not a staffing firm. If what you actually need is 10 cloud engineers on contract for 6 months, Slalom’s consulting engagement model probably isn’t the right purchase.

Best For: US-based mid-market to enterprise companies that want a modern consulting partner for cloud, data, AI, or digital transformation work. Especially strong when you want strategy and execution from the same team.

Not Ideal For: Global programs. Buyers who need IT talent on contract. Companies where cost-per-hour is the primary buying criterion.

Why They Rank #4: The sustained culture signal is rare in consulting. Firms that keep senior talent deliver better projects, period. Slalom’s US depth and cloud/AI implementation partnerships make them the strongest modern alternative to a Big 4 engagement for domestic programs.

5. CGI — 50 Years of IT Consulting, Government-Grade

CGI turned 50 in 2026. Half a century without a single unprofitable year since going public in 1986. That kind of consistency doesn’t happen by accident.

Score: 7.72/10

Key Strengths

• 50 years in business. CA$15.9B in FY2025 revenue. 94,000 employees across 400+ offices in 40+ countries. The “build and buy” growth strategy (organic plus acquisitions) has compounded steadily for decades.
• Government and defense IT consulting is CGI’s deepest lane. The State of Utah HCM/payroll platform, federal systems integration work, and deep public-sector relationships across North America and Europe are documented, not claimed.
• Forbes World’s Best Management Consulting Firms for 4 consecutive years. TIME World’s Best Companies 2025. First North American IT firm with ISO 9001 certification. Those aren’t purchased placements.
• “Ownership culture” where every employee is called a “member.” That model shows up in stability metrics. CGI’s employee tenure runs higher than the consulting industry average.

Limitations

• Glassdoor at 3.7 across 18,000 reviews. Compensation ratings at 3.1/5. The most consistent negative theme across reviews is below-market pay. “Low salary” appears in hundreds of Glassdoor entries across roles and geographies.
• US commercial presence is thinner than the global numbers suggest. CGI’s strongest markets are Canada, UK, France, and Scandinavia. US commercial IT consulting competes with firms that have deeper local networks.
• Not the firm for fast-moving AI or cloud-native work. CGI’s IP-based solutions and managed services model works well for stable government and enterprise systems. Latest AI/ML delivery isn’t the primary lane.

Best For: Government agencies and regulated enterprises that need a stable, financially proven IT consulting partner with multi-decade relationships and compliance-grade delivery.

Not Ideal For: US mid-market companies looking for agility, speed, or cloud-native consulting.

Why They Rank #5: Longevity and government depth are CGI’s differentiators. Half a century without an annual loss is a stability signal that matters in public-sector procurement. The trade-off is that the conservative model that produces that stability also limits agility in faster-moving commercial segments.

6. West Monroe — The PE-Backed Digital Specialist

West Monroe carved out a specific niche: technology consulting for private equity firms and their portfolio companies. If you’re a PE firm doing tech due diligence on an acquisition target, West Monroe is one of the first calls.

Score: 7.48/10

Key Strengths

• M&A technology due diligence is a documented specialty that most consulting firms either don’t offer or treat as an afterthought. West Monroe has built repeatable frameworks for evaluating technology stacks, IT teams, and technical debt during deal processes.
• Fortune Best Workplaces in Consulting recognition. Glassdoor at 3.7 across 800+ reviews. Senior consultant reviews average 4.2. Culture signal runs strongest in Chicago and among mid-level staff.
• Pure mid-market focus. No pretending to serve everyone. The firm’s sweet spot is companies between $100M and $2B in revenue, which means their consultants understand mid-market constraints, budgets, and decision-making speed.

Limitations

• Layoffs in December 2022, June 2023, and reported concerns through 2024 surface across Glassdoor reviews. The firm’s revenue is tied to PE deal flow, which makes it cyclical. When deal volume drops, consulting utilization follows.
• 800+ Glassdoor reviews is a relatively small sample for a firm of this size. The signal is directionally positive but less statistically robust than firms with 5,000+ reviews.
• Limited presence outside major US markets. If your portfolio company operates in secondary markets, West Monroe may not have local consultants.

Best For: PE firms evaluating technology during M&A due diligence. PE-backed portfolio companies going through digital transformation or technology modernization.

Not Ideal For: Non-PE buyers. Companies needing IT talent placement. Global programs.

Why They Rank #6: The PE tech due diligence niche is differentiated. Nobody else on this list has built repeatable M&A technology evaluation frameworks at this depth. The limitation is that the niche is narrow, and the firm’s performance is structurally tied to PE deal flow.

7. TEKsystems — IT Staffing Scale That Doubles as Consulting

TEKsystems is the largest IT staffing firm in North America. Over 100 offices. Relationships with 80% of the Fortune 500. 43 years of operating history. And through TEKsystems Global Services, they’ve built a managed services and consulting arm on top of that staffing infrastructure.

Score: 7.21/10

Key Strengths

• ClearlyRated Best of Staffing Platinum Talent Award for 12 consecutive years (including 2026). That’s independently verified candidate satisfaction at a level no other firm on this list has sustained.
• Part of Allegis Group, the world’s largest privately held staffing company. That institutional backing means TEKsystems isn’t going anywhere. For enterprise buyers who weight vendor stability, this matters.
• 100+ offices across North America. 80,000+ contractors deployed annually. If you’re running a 50-seat application development program across 5 cities simultaneously, TEKsystems has the volume and coordination infrastructure to support it.

Limitations

• Glassdoor at 3.6 across 10,000+ reviews. At that sample size, it’s statistically meaningful. Recruiter reviews (3.3 rating) are notably lower than overall scores. Internal culture has direct bearing on candidate quality, and TEKsystems’ recruiter turnover surfaces consistently in reviews.
• Volume-over-precision model. TEKsystems’ strength is throughput. If you need 50 contractors fast, they deliver. If you need 3 perfect senior cloud architects who’ll stay 18 months, the precision gap shows.
• The consulting arm (TEKsystems Global Services) is still proving itself as more than a services layer on top of staffing. Enterprise buyers evaluating pure consulting capability will find the advisory depth thinner than Accenture, Deloitte, or Slalom.

Best For: Enterprise IT departments running high-volume contractor programs where geographic coverage, vendor stability, and coordination infrastructure matter more than individual placement precision.

Not Ideal For: Mid-market companies where every hire matters individually. Buyers seeking strategic IT advisory. Organizations prioritizing recruiter relationship depth over scale.

Why They Rank #7: TEKsystems is the infrastructure play. Nobody matches the geographic coverage, volume capacity, or enterprise relationships. The trade-off is that scale comes with lower Glassdoor signals, higher recruiter turnover, and a precision gap that shows up on individual placements.

How Do You Choose the Right IT Consulting Firm?

The right firm depends on 4 things: what you’re actually buying, how big your company is, how fast you need to move, and what your budget tolerates.

If you’re buying IT talent: KORE1 for mid-market precision, TEKsystems for enterprise volume. The trade-off between them is quality-per-hire versus scale-per-program. A 4.7 Glassdoor and 92% retention rate tells you something different than 100 offices and 80,000 deployed contractors.

If you’re buying enterprise transformation: Accenture or Deloitte. The scale, the bench depth, the global delivery infrastructure. The trade-off is cost and speed.

If you’re buying modern US consulting: Slalom. Strategy-to-delivery from the same team, cloud and AI implementation depth, and a culture that keeps senior people around. The trade-off is no global reach.

If you’re buying government IT consulting: CGI. Half a century of public-sector delivery, ISO 9001 since 1992, and a stability signal that government procurement teams weight heavily.

If you’re buying PE tech due diligence: West Monroe. That’s their niche and they’ve built it better than anyone else on this list.

One question worth asking every firm on this list: show me the last 3 IT engagements you completed with a named client and a measurable outcome. The firms that can answer that question quickly are the ones worth shortlisting.

KORE1 leads this list because the Placement Authority Score weights talent quality, and on talent quality KORE1’s numbers are the strongest. Accenture leads on enterprise scale by a margin nobody can touch. Deloitte is the right call when regulatory governance is part of the deliverable. Slalom is the strongest US-only modern consulting alternative.

The honest version of choosing is this: if your IT need starts with “we need the right people,” start at #1. If your IT need starts with “we need a global strategy and implementation partner,” start at #2.

Tell KORE1 what you’re hiring for. We respond within one business day.

About the Author

Devin Hornick is a co-founder of KORE1 and a 30-year staffing industry veteran. He founded and leads OCTP (Orange County Technology Professionals), the largest technology executive community in Southern California, connecting CIOs, CTOs, and VPs of Engineering across the region. Devin writes about IT hiring, workforce strategy, and the intersection of AI and recruiting at kore1.com.

Things Buyers Ask About IT Consulting Firms

What’s the difference between an IT consulting firm and an IT staffing firm?

Roughly $400 an hour. That’s glib but directionally accurate. An IT consulting firm sells you a team, a methodology, and a deliverable. An IT staffing firm finds you the individual people. Some firms (TEKsystems, KORE1) bridge both. The question is whether you’re buying expertise or people. If you already know what needs to happen and need someone to do it, you probably need staffing. If you don’t know what needs to happen, you probably need consulting. If you need both, that’s where the mid-market gets interesting.

How much does IT consulting actually cost in 2026?

$150-$600 per hour depending on firm tier and seniority, per 2026 benchmarks from Simply.Coach, Aristek Consulting, and TechCloudPro. Accenture and Deloitte partner rates run $400-$600/hr. Mid-market consulting firms like Slalom and West Monroe typically range $200-$350/hr. IT staffing firms charge a markup over the professional’s bill rate, usually 30-50%, which puts effective rates at $75-$200/hr for most roles.

Can a mid-market company work with Accenture or Deloitte?

Technically yes. Practically, it’s usually a bad fit. Their engagement minimums, partner rate structures, and sales cycle lengths are designed for enterprise buyers. A $200K project at Accenture gets staffed by whoever’s available, not by the team that impressed you in the pitch. Mid-market companies routinely get better outcomes from firms built for their scale.

How do you tell a good IT consulting firm from a bad one?

Three signals. Glassdoor score above 3.8 means their own people are satisfied, which predicts whether the people they put on your project will be any good. Published retention or satisfaction data means they’re willing to be measured. And named client outcomes, not “a leading financial services company,” but something specific enough that you could verify it if you wanted to. Firms that dodge all three are selling confidence, not evidence.

Is it worth hiring a fractional CTO instead of an IT consulting firm?

$180K-$250K fully loaded for a fractional CTO versus $500K-$2M for a consulting engagement that produces a strategy document. The fractional exec actually runs your technology team. The consulting firm hands you a roadmap and leaves. For companies under $100M in revenue, a fractional CTO from a firm like KORE1 that also handles IT staffing often produces more measurable impact per dollar than a Big 4 engagement.