As we all continue to deal with the wide-scale transition to online business, more and more roles are naturally going remote or being virtualized entirely, from virtual assistants to virtual customer service representatives.
But while it’s relatively simple to virtualize a low-level role in an organization, the same can’t be said for a company’s CIO, which is a highly specialized position.
Traditionally, CIOs have played an essential role in businesses, especially for companies struggling to grow and keep up with relevant technological advances. A seasoned CIO can come with the experience and expertise to address any pitfalls to avoid and give a fresh perspective on solving deeply technical problems and strategizing future actions.
However, most SMBs simply don’t have the budget to take on a full-time, well-seasoned CIO, which is why virtual CIOs are a great option. Virtual CIOs can play a serious role in helping businesses such as yours make the transition to online as smooth as possible, and in a way that makes sense for an organization of your scale.
What is a Virtual CIO (vCIO)?
A vCIO serves as a Chief Information Officer, but rather than being a full member of the staff and thus coming with an expensive salary/benefits package; they work with your company on a flexible basis that is convenient for both parties.
One of the primary benefits of hiring a vCIO over a traditional CIO is that the vCIO’s are fitter to leverage cross-company experience.
Having someone on your team with more diverse experience means that you can utilize what they’ve learned and the different perspectives they’ve gained from working across multiple industries and companies.
A vCIO who’s working with multiple companies is also going to be at the forefront of current best practices across different sectors, so they’re more likely to be aware of what outside developments might impact your organization.
On the other hand, A traditional CIO may only have worked at a handful of companies in the same industry throughout their entire career.
Paying attention to what’s going on outside of the business might be part of their job, but their focus is going to be much more narrow.
A traditional CIO will also be more likely to struggle to view the business from an outside perspective. For a vCIO, this comes naturally to them because they will be used to handling a lot more projects simultaneously.
The primary function of a vCIO is to help your company create strategic IT goals, manage those developed strategies, and implement larger IT projects.
Virtual CIOs are hired through IT consulting service firms or offered through managed service providers like Commprise.
What do virtual CIOs do?
A virtual CIO will work to understand your business’s core processes so that they can properly develop a strategic blueprint for your business. The strategy they develop should emphasize the security of your company.
With all the work that goes into simply running your business, it’s easy to overlook important things such as IT audits, compliance issues, and keeping up to date with the latest tech so that your company can avoid or get past any technological gaps.
A vCIO would take these tasks off your hands in an efficient way that aligns your technological needs with your core business goals.
Despite having a flexible schedule, the vCIO will also be available to provide your company with advice and insights regarding your business’s technological infrastructure and needs.
They will also be able to dive into any current IT projects that are underway and suggest ways to upgrade or restructure them for greater performance.
One of the other benefits of going with a vCIO contracted through an MSP is that they’ll be able to not only create the strategies your business needs to succeed, they’ll also have the resources of the MSP behind them so that your business can implement the projects they come up with.
It’s important to note that while a vCIO typically comes as a single individual, what you’re really paying for is the thought processes and services that they provide. And you can get those things from an MSP as well.
A vCIO for Your Unique Business Needs
The way your company manages its technology can make or break your business. On the one hand, technology helps you scale and can increase productivity in a myriad of ways, but if your IT systems encounter a disruptive event or your team struggles to adapt to the constant change, it can grind things to a halt.
Avoid the downsides of technological risk at a cost that makes sense for your business by contacting Commprise about our vCIO services that come as part of our Managed IT services.
Unlike other MSPs that give you pre-packaged services that might not fit your particular business needs, we use our cross-market knowledge to create original solutions that give your business the edge it needs to stay ahead of the game.