What is a Virtual CIO (vCIO) and why your business should have one

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are vital to companies, regardless of the company’s market niche. With technology and information accounting for most assets of every business, there’s the need for deliberate effort, as well as effective strategic leadership to manage such information and technology across a business.

However, not every business has the financial power to enlist the service of a CIO, especially the small- and medium-sized companies. This is where the service of a managed IT provider becomes essential to the growth of a business organization.

Managed IT service providers (keyword for outsourced IT companies) help businesses build their IT capabilities without the need to spend extra amounts on staffing for the IT department. One of the important services offered by managed IT providers is the Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO).

Here are 4 key benefits a vCIO can add to your business:

1. Manage IT Infrastructure

 The responsibility of the vCIO is to ensure that all IT resources and infrastructure are appropriately channeled across the company. The vCIO is tasked with overseeing a company’s IT infrastructure. The vCIO oversees the big picture regarding IT infrastructure, gaining input from other team members at the Managed IT Provider. The vCIO can also make recommendations about where technology priorities/projects are for the organization.

 2. Track IT Budgets

Another great benefit of hiring a vCIO is to help develop and track a client’s IT budget, which will ultimately make IT expenses predictable and cost-effective. The vCIO ensures that the cost of maintaining an IT infrastructure is considerably lower.

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3. Productivity

This is a massive benefit to businesses because the vCIOs will recommend new technologies that are in line with big picture short and long-term business goals while enabling higher productivity and collaboration across functions. As such, businesses can keep operating while they know their IT infrastructures and resources are taken care of.

4. Securing IT Infrastructure

Another benefit of having a vCIO is that he or she ensures that every business process and every IT aspect is secure. This is a financial benefit to businesses. The vCIO will put a layered system in place that will protect the company’s assets from malicious cyber violations, such as unpatched software, poorly managed network appliances (e.g. firewalls), bad password and data management practices, and phishing.

These cyber threats can potentially wipe out an organization’s corporate account. The job of the vCIO is to mitigate the associated risks.

What Separates a Good vCIO From the Pack?

• Profound ability to connect IT systems to business goals and objectives
• Pace and Flexibility: ability to move with the fast business and IT world while changing the course when needed.
• A deep knowledge of technology trends that can have a real influence on the target customer/market
• Evaluated experience in the budgeting process of a company’s IT department
• A full grasp of project planning and management, especially related to IT

Conclusion

As detailed above, enlisting the service of a Managed IT Provider gives a business the benefit of operating as though it has a fully staffed in-house IT department. When you couple that with the added value that can be remotely added by a  Virtual CIO, a business can save a lot of money while operating at full capacity with no hindrance.

If your organization is ready and eager to work with a Virtual CIO that helps drive Proactive IT management practices across your organization and make technology work like a well-oiled machine, all you need to do is schedule a call with a member of our team

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