Case studies
What it looks like when the executive shows up.
Two engagements, told the way we would tell them to a prospective client: the situation, what ForEffect actually did, and what changed. Client wording confirmed before publication.
Church · Mill Creek, WA
Gold Creek Community Church
Fractional CIO/CISO retainer · Rock RMS · UniFi network · governed AI communications
A growing church with a Rock RMS church-management system, a Sunday livestream that cannot fail, a mostly volunteer technology bench, and staff beginning to use AI tools around member data. No single owner for technology risk.
Learned how the church actually operates before touching anything. Established a fractional CIO/CISO cadence, weekly pre-service network readiness checks and a monthly deep sweep on the UniFi environment, AI-use guidelines for staff and volunteers, and a governed platform layer so member follow-up does not fall through the cracks.
Leadership has a named technology executive, a standing steering rhythm, and a documented network and security posture. Communications workflows now run with human approval and an audit trail. The church is featured in Rock’s Built with Rock showcase.
“What stood out about working with Mike and ForEffect was that they took the time to understand how our church actually operates before writing a line of code.”
Early-stage software company
Code Lexica
Fractional CISO retainer · enterprise security questionnaires · policy set
An early-stage company selling into enterprises. Procurement and security teams at prospective customers were asking hard questions — policies, controls, incident plans — that a founding team cannot answer credibly without a security executive, and cannot afford to hire one for.
Stepped in as the company’s fractional CISO: a right-sized policy set, a control baseline mapped to what enterprise buyers ask for, questionnaire responses written by someone who has sat on the buyer’s side of that table, and a named executive customers can talk to.
Security stopped being a reason a deal stalled. The company can answer enterprise diligence with a straight face, at a monthly cost that fits a startup — and has a path to formal attestation when a customer requires it.
“As an early-stage company, we couldn’t justify a full-time security hire, but we still had enterprise customers asking hard questions.”
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