An independent technology office for Columbus businesses.
SIGNAL gives founders, CEOs, CFOs, and operating leaders across Central Ohio senior technology judgment without the cost of hiring a full-time executive. We bring structure to systems, vendors, contracts, spend, projects, and risk — then turn that visibility into clear priorities and action.
Based in Columbus, Ohio. Best suited for Central Ohio businesses with meaningful technology spend and no full-time senior technology executive.
Columbus is full of companies that outgrew their technology before they could justify a CIO.
Central Ohio has an unusual concentration of exactly the kind of business that runs into this problem. The region's retail and consumer-brand heritage produced a deep bench of merchandising, ecommerce, and direct-to-consumer operators. The logistics corridor around Rickenbacker made distribution and third-party fulfillment a regional specialty. The supplier networks feeding Honda's Marysville operations and the Intel buildout in New Albany added a layer of manufacturers scaling faster than their systems. Layer on multi-location professional services, specialty retail, construction and field service, insurance and healthcare-adjacent firms, and you get a mid-market that is genuinely dependent on technology while still being run by the people who founded it.
Those companies tend to arrive at the same place. Software was purchased department by department, each decision reasonable on its own. The ERP was implemented years ago by a partner who has since moved on. The ecommerce platform, the warehouse system, and the accounting system each hold a version of the truth about inventory. Agencies and vendors accumulated. Contracts renewed on their own. Nobody set out to build a fragmented environment — it assembled itself, one sensible purchase at a time.
What is usually missing is not effort or talent. It is a single person accountable for the technology portfolio as a whole: what the company owns, what it costs, what is at risk, what is worth fixing first, and what to say no to. That role does not fit neatly into any existing seat. The CFO sees the invoices but not the operational dependencies. Department leaders advocate for their own tools. The IT manager or MSP keeps things running but was never given authority over strategy or spend. So the vendors with the most to gain end up shaping the roadmap by default.
Hiring for it is a real commitment. A capable technology executive in this market commands a package that is difficult to justify at $10 million or $40 million in revenue, and the search alone can take months. Meanwhile the local options tend to sit at two extremes. Managed service providers are built to keep infrastructure running — valuable work, but a help desk is not a technology strategy, and an MSP asked to advise on spend is being asked to recommend against its own revenue. Large consultancies bring genuine expertise at an engagement size and pace calibrated to enterprises, which is how a mid-market company ends up with a thorough assessment and no one to execute it.
SIGNAL exists in the space between. The engagement is sized for the mid-market, independent of any vendor or reseller relationship, and built around a maintained operating record rather than a report that goes stale — the registers, renewal calendar, spend baseline, risk register, roadmap, and decision log that let leadership see the environment and act on it. Being based in Columbus means the findings presentation and the leadership meetings that matter can happen across a table, while the analysis happens remotely and you are not paying for travel.
Vendors represent their products. SIGNAL represents your business.
Built for how Central Ohio actually makes money.
Engagements run across Columbus and the surrounding communities — Dublin, Westerville, New Albany, Hilliard, Worthington, Gahanna, Grove City, Delaware, and Marysville among them.
Storefront, ERP, marketing, analytics, and fulfillment systems that have to agree with each other — and an app and agency bill that grew without review.
Warehouse, transportation, parcel, and EDI systems where an integration failure becomes a customer problem the same afternoon.
Companies scaling for larger customers, where quoting, scheduling, quality, and traceability requirements arrive faster than the systems to hold them.
Professional services and specialty retail groups managing consistency, access, and reporting across sites without a central technology owner.
Job costing, scheduling, field mobility, and equipment systems that rarely connect back to the financials cleanly.
Technology diligence, post-acquisition system review, vendor consolidation, and a credible 100-day technology plan.
A working technology operating system, not a slide deck that goes stale.
Everything below is maintained for the life of the engagement and handed over as a record you own.
- Technology register
- Vendor register
- Contract and renewal calendar
- Spend baseline
- Systems and integration map
- Risk register
- Decision log
- Prioritized technology roadmap
- Monthly executive brief
- Action tracker
- Savings and value record
The main Technology Advisor page covers the six service modules, the three plan levels, and the full deliverable detail.
Starting is deliberately small.
Technology Signal Scan
A paid, fixed-scope diagnostic delivered in about 10 business days: current-state inventory, risks, savings opportunities, contract and renewal exposure, and a 90-day priority plan. The executive readout can be delivered in person around Columbus.
DiagnosticOnboarding
If a recurring engagement makes sense, the registers, renewal calendar, spend baseline, systems map, decision log, and initial roadmap are built directly from what the Scan uncovered.
BaselineOperating cadence
A recurring rhythm of decisions and next actions, a monthly executive brief covering spend, risk, and progress, and quarterly portfolio planning. Leadership meetings happen in person around Columbus or remotely, whichever your team prefers.
CadenceStart with a Technology Signal Scan.
In approximately 10 business days, SIGNAL reviews the current environment and delivers a direct executive assessment of technology cost, risk, systems, vendors, and priorities.
- Current-state inventory
- Risk and opportunity findings
- Contract and renewal exposure
- Spend observations
- 90-day action plan
- Executive readout
The Scan is a paid, fixed-scope engagement — not a sales assessment. The fee may be credited in whole or in part toward the first three months of an annual advisory agreement. Recurring engagements start at $2,500 per month; see advisory plans.
Columbus questions
01Is SIGNAL based in Columbus?
Yes. Built By Signal LLC operates from Columbus, Ohio, and works with businesses across Central Ohio as well as remotely nationwide. That means leadership meetings and findings presentations can happen in person when that is useful, without the travel cost of bringing in an out-of-market firm.
02Do you meet in person?
Yes, around the Columbus area. The executive readout at the end of a Technology Signal Scan is usually more valuable in person, and recurring engagements can include on-site leadership meetings. Day-to-day work is done remotely, so you are not paying for unnecessary meetings.
03How is this different from a Columbus MSP or IT support company?
Managed service providers keep devices, networks, and help desks running, and a good one is worth keeping. SIGNAL works a level above that: deciding which systems the business should own, what they should cost, how they fit together, and what leadership should do next. We are not an MSP, we do not run a help desk, and because we do not resell software or hardware, our recommendations are not tied to a vendor line card. SIGNAL frequently works alongside a company's existing MSP.
04What kinds of Central Ohio businesses fit best?
Founder-led and operator-led companies with meaningful technology spend, multiple business systems, and no full-time senior technology executive. In this market that most often means consumer and ecommerce brands, distribution and third-party logistics operations, manufacturers and suppliers, multi-location professional services and specialty retail, construction and field-service companies, and recently acquired or portfolio companies.
05Do you serve businesses outside Columbus?
Yes. The engagement model is remote-first and works nationally; Columbus is simply where SIGNAL is based and where in-person work is easiest. The main Technology Advisor page describes the service without the local framing.
06What does an engagement cost?
Recurring advisory engagements start at $2,500 per month, and final scope depends on system complexity, meeting cadence, execution responsibility, and the number of business units. Every engagement begins with a paid Technology Signal Scan, which is priced separately based on company size and complexity and confirmed before any work starts.
Columbus builds serious companies. They deserve serious technology leadership.
Give leadership an independent view of what the business has, what it costs, what is at risk, and what should happen next.