Who We Are
David Perrett
Founder & Principal Consultant
With over 30 years of technology leadership experience, David has guided organizations through everything from rapid growth to crisis management. He spent 9 years as a key player in a successful Australian startup (efex), serving as virtual CIO for strategic customers while helping build the business.
David brings real-world experience from permanent CIO and IT leadership roles across professional services, healthcare, financial services, and real estate. He's been in your shoes—managing budgets, negotiating with vendors, navigating politics, and making technology decisions when the stakes are high.
Perrett & Associates is a Virtual CIO practice serving Australian SMBs and mid-market organizations. We help business leaders make smarter technology decisions without the vendor agenda.
Our approach is simple: understand the business first, technology second. We focus on outcomes—revenue, efficiency, risk reduction, customer value—not features, buzzwords, or the latest shiny thing.
What Makes Us Different
No vendor conflicts. We don't sell hardware, software, managed services, or implementation. Our recommendations are based purely on what's right for your business.
Business-first thinking. After 30 years, we know technology is never the hard part. The hard part is aligning stakeholders, managing change, and making sure investments drive measurable outcomes.
Pragmatic, not perfectionist. We're not here to rip everything out and start over. We work with what you have, identify quick wins, and build momentum toward longer-term goals.
How We Work
We operate as an extension of your leadership team—think of us as your part-time CIO who's seen it all before.
Project Engagements
Fixed-scope, fixed-fee work like IT strategy development, vendor evaluations, security posture assessments, or M&A technology due diligence. Typical engagements run 4-8 weeks.
Ongoing Advisory
Monthly retainers for continuous guidance. We join your leadership meetings, advise on decisions as they come up, manage vendor relationships, and provide escalation support when things go sideways.
Crisis Support
When something breaks badly—security incident, vendor failure, team implosion—we can step in quickly to stabilize, assess, and roadmap recovery.
Who We Work With
Sweet Spot: Australian businesses with 10-100 employees, typically in professional services, healthcare, financial services, real estate, and similar sectors. Revenue from early stage to $10M+.
Common Situations:
- Growing fast and technology is becoming a constraint
- Stuck with legacy systems or technical debt that's slowing you down
- In crisis mode (security incident, vendor failure, compliance deadline)
- Just need adult supervision to keep IT on track while you focus on the business
Our Partnership with Cyber People
For comprehensive cybersecurity assessments and implementation, we partner with Cyber People—a specialist cybersecurity consultancy we trust completely.
We handle the strategic positioning and governance. They handle the technical depth. Together, we give you complete coverage without either of us stepping outside our lanes.
Our Philosophy
Technology should be boring. When IT is working well, nobody talks about it—they talk about the business results it enables.
We're not here to evangelize the latest trends or make you feel behind. We're here to help you make pragmatic decisions that move the business forward without taking unnecessary risks or wasting money on things that don't matter.
If that sounds like the kind of partner you need, let's talk.