Fractional CISO for Swiss SMEs

A CISO who understands your business. More protection. Fewer tools. Lower cost.

Senior security leadership on retainer for companies with 50 to 500 employees. Embedded with your team, fixed-price, vendor-neutral. ODCUS stays until the security program stands.

The gap

Security is no one's job. Until it lands on someone's desk.

Three gaps that show up in almost every SME once you look closely. Compliance is the symptom. Ownership is the problem.

01

No one owns it

IT keeps the lights on. Executives run the business. Audits are handled ad hoc. Security falls into the gap, and onto whoever happens to be standing there.

02

No one knows your business

Stock policies pulled from the internet. Consultants who do not know your supply chain. Frameworks copied through generically. Paper without substance.

03

No one says no to tools

Every audit, every sales pitch ends with another tool to buy. Licenses grow, risk stays. ODCUS starts every engagement with one question: what can go?

Security needs owners. Not inventory.
What happens in the engagement

Four things that run differently from day one

Included in every engagement. Depth and time allocation are set during scoping, but the pattern stays the same.

01

One voice inside and outside

Executive board, board of directors, customer security questionnaires, audit walkthroughs. One point of contact who has all of it covered.

02

Clean up first, invest second

Before new tools come in, the existing security landscape gets reviewed for effectiveness. Duplicate licenses go out.

03

Implementation in the team, not handoff by PDF

Measures are implemented with your IT, not documented across 80 pages. ODCUS stays until the system runs.

04

Reporting in the language of the executive board

Four pages of steering each month. Quarterly report for the board. Risks, actions, trends. Not a 60-slide deck.

Standards as a tool

Frameworks help you. They do not replace you.

Which standard is mandatory and which one genuinely helps depends on the business model. What ODCUS has worked with operationally in recent years:

ISO 27001

International gold standard

Structured ISMS implementation, ready for certification and for demanding customer audits.

NIST CSF

Pragmatic for SMEs

Identify–Protect–Detect–Respond–Recover. Fast path to a picture of where you stand, without certification weight.

SWISS ISG · nDSG

Swiss legal duty

Information Security Act for federal context, revised Data Protection Act for everyone. Enforcement from end 2026.

NIS2

EU supply chain

Anyone supplying EU corporates inherits the requirements through contracts. Preparation beats reaction.

FINMA CIRC 2023/01

Financial services

Operational risk and resilience. Interface to supervision, internal audit and the risk committee.

SOC 2 · TISAX

On request

SOC 2 Type I/II for SaaS providers, TISAX for automotive suppliers. Where customers demand it, we deliver.

Three promises: fixed price instead of hourly billing. Implementation instead of recommendation. Vendor-neutral, no commissions.
How an engagement runs

From scoping to full operation. In clear phases.

An engagement does not reach full operation on contract day. The rhythm that works: see first, then act, then scale.

1
Week 1 – 2

Scoping & contract

Intro call, two-hour scoping, fixed-price offer within five working days. If the setup does not fit, ODCUS says so before you sign.

2
Month 1 · Crawl

Discovery

Stakeholder map (exec board, IT, compliance, audit). Asset and risk register. Review of existing tools, licenses, policies. Top-3 priorities set.

3
Month 2 – 3 · Walk

First actions

Quick wins implemented (often: Conditional Access, MFA gaps, backup coverage, vendor inventory). Steering rhythm in place. First report to executive board.

4
From month 4 · Run

Engagement in full operation

Security program in place. ISMS maintained, audits supported, quarterly board report. Vendor and customer questionnaires handled, continuous improvement.

Packages & pricing

Three packages. Fixed prices. No surprises.

Most engagements start with the Cyber Assessment. Those who already know where they stand jump straight to ISMS Implementation or the Retainer.

Sprint · 2 weeks
Cyber Assessment

No shelf reports. Assessment with a prioritized plan and concrete actions.

CHF4'900one-time · excl. VAT · fully credited toward a follow-on engagement
  • Gap analysis against ISO 27001 and NIST CSF
  • Review of architecture, identities, tools, data flows
  • Risk register with top-10 themes
  • 90-day roadmap with effort and cost
  • Executive readout for board or executive committee
Start a sprint
Most popular
Engagement · monthly
CISO Retainer

Security ownership without a full-time hire. Embedded in the team, facing exec board and the directors.

from CHF4'900per month · excl. VAT · cancellable monthly after 6 months
  • Monthly steering, quarterly report for the board
  • ISMS maintenance, audit support, evidence management
  • Vendor risk and customer security questionnaires
  • Awareness, tabletops, incident readiness
  • Response within 48 hours, Slack or email
Discuss the retainer
Program · 90 days
ISMS Implementation

Information security that actually works day-to-day. Ready for ISO 27001, Swiss ISG or customer audits.

Price on requestFixed price after scoping · payable in tranches
  • Scope, context, roles, asset and risk register
  • Policies and processes aligned with IT and business
  • Action plan, implemented with your team
  • Awareness training for the workforce
  • Preparation for external audit or customer assessment
Discuss the program

All prices in CHF, excl. VAT. Fixed prices apply after joint scoping (free, max 2 hours). Minimum retainer term: 6 months.

Operated by ODCUS AG

ODCUS. IT security, right-sized.

Fractional CISO is a service of ODCUS AG. A Swiss boutique for cybersecurity, ISMS and compliance. Focus on SMEs with 50 to 500 employees.

The thesis behind ODCUS: most companies do not have a security problem. They have a sizing problem. Too many tools, too little overview, too much cost for too little actual protection. Every engagement starts with the question of what stays and what goes, before anything new gets added.

The practice: 15 years at the intersection of security, operations and executive leadership. Active CISO mandate for more than two years at an industrial company with 1'600 employees. Led ransomware recovery. M365 security reviews at more than ten companies. Zero-Trust trainer at heise, haufe, golem, ComConsult and isits.

Learn more about ODCUS →

Practitioner, not consultant

Background in design engineering and implementation, not PowerPoint. Stays until it stands.

More protection, fewer tools

Duplicate licenses go before new ones come in. Most engagements lower cost and raise protection at the same time.

Vendor-neutral. Contractual.

No commissions from tool vendors. Recommendations follow fit, not margin. If an existing tool does the job, it stays.

Senior delivery, no handoff

The senior you meet in the conversation is the one who does the work. No junior handoff after signing.

FAQ

What Swiss SMEs most often ask before onboarding

How is a Fractional CISO different from a classic consulting firm?

Consulting firms write recommendations. A Fractional CISO owns the result. On retainer, ODCUS steers the security program like an employed CISO. Defined time allocation, no fixed costs, no junior handoff.

We already pay for many security tools. Will this make it more expensive?

Usually not. First step in every engagement: what do you already have, what works, what can go. In most engagements license costs go down while coverage goes up. Cost optimization is part of the engagement, not an add-on.

We are only 80 employees. Aren't we too small for a CISO?

For a full-time CISO, often yes. For a fractional one, that is exactly the target audience. ODCUS works with companies from 50 employees, typically 1 to 4 days per week, 3 to 12 months.

What if we already have an IT lead or security officer?

Common case, good setup. ODCUS complements the line function with methodology and reporting and takes the interface to executive board and audits. Your team keeps day-to-day responsibility but gains time and depth.

What if we already have an ISMS that nobody actually follows?

The most frequent case. ODCUS does not produce new paper but reactivates what exists: what is still current, what must go, where processes are missing, who owns what. Documentation often shrinks by half and the rest becomes workable.

Which frameworks and regulations do you cover?

ISO 27001, NIST CSF, CIS Controls, Swiss ISG, Swiss nDSG, NIS2, DORA, FINMA Circular 2023/01. SOC 2 and TISAX on request.

How quickly can you start?

Intro call within one week. Scoping plus fixed-price offer within five more working days. Kickoff within two weeks of contract signing, depending on scope.

Do you recommend compliance or ISMS tools?

When size and maturity fit, yes. ODCUS works vendor-neutral and does not accept commissions from vendors. The tool that gets recommended depends on context, not on a margin. If an existing tool does the job, it stays.

What is the minimum term? What if it does not fit?

The retainer is cancellable monthly after 6 months. Cyber Assessment and ISMS Implementation are fixed-price projects with defined endpoints. If after the first month it becomes clear the setup does not work, ODCUS says so and ends cleanly.

Next step

Ready to give security an owner?

30 minutes on the phone. You describe the situation. ODCUS says honestly whether the engagement fits. If not, you get a referral. Free, no sales slides.

info@odcus.com · +41 41 562 76 41 · Switzerland