Updated on November 14, 2022.
Many small businesses benefit nowadays from working closely with a virtual chief information officer (vCIO), and for good reasons. Both vCIO and chief information officers oversee a company’s global IT efforts to ensure they align with core business goals. The main difference is that hiring a vCIO is a much more cost-effective option because you still have the expertise of a c-suite professional at a much more affordable price.
What virtual CIO services can do for your business
Virtual CIOs are IT professionals who can help you secure your business, optimize your procedures, and assist your efforts to achieve your organization’s goals. Outsourcing these activities to a virtual CIO can lead to significant savings on labor costs, while also providing you with expert knowledge and resources.
Your virtual CIO will identify and handle holes in your IT processes in a strategic manner. Small and midsized organizations that can’t afford to engage a CIO to make big-picture IT choices and harness technology to increase revenue may benefit from these services.
Even businesses that already have a CIO on their headcount can be favoured with the perspective of an external CIO. Companies that are implementing complex projects like adopting modern technologies can take advantage of the external, unbiased opinion of a vCIO.
Working with a virtual CIO gives you access to an expert who can look at your organization from an objective perspective and make technological recommendations to help you improve and achieve your goals. Using a virtual CIO is often more beneficial because they are independent of your company and may provide you with a fresh perspective.
Apart from being an excellent cost-effective solution, vCIOs offer you other benefits that can help your company in the long run:
Top 3 Reasons to Hire a vCIO
Making sure IT and business goals are aligned
Your vCIO will act as a technology adviser, guiding you on all you need to know about your IT environment, security measures, market trends, and how to better align your technology with your business goals. When hiring a virtual CIO, make sure they have a diverse background that allows them to understand your company’s needs.
Ensuring you stay ahead of the curve
Technology evolves at light speed. Business owners are already busy enough with their tight agendas and multiple responsibilities to also try to keep up with emerging technologies. In contrast, a vCIO comes from a technical background and is familiar with a broad range of IT platforms and technologies, so he or she will provide guidance and direction through best-practice solutions to facilitate improved business results.
Business continuity
Even with outstanding preventative measures in place, nothing, including technology, works perfectly 100 percent of the time. The way your company reacts, when things go wrong, can have a significant impact on the outcome of an emergency. You may save your company a lot of time and money if you have a solid contingency plan in place. Without technical expertise, preparing for the unexpected might be difficult. A vCIO’s role is to anticipate worst-case events and know how to prepare for them. vCIO services may help your company in developing plans for disaster recovery, information security, and other plans to ensure that issues are resolved swiftly and efficiently with minimal business impact.
How Can a vCIO Help Your Business?
Any business that chooses to go virtual can benefit greatly from doing so. For example, Wingman Solutions is a Managed IT Services company in Mississauga that uses our experience to help steer your IT in the right direction. We serve as your guide, helping your company in making knowledgeable choices that harmonize IT with business goals. As an IT consulting firm, we can help you in the following ways:
Enhance IT: Knowing the capabilities of your IT environment is the first step in making it better. By doing an analysis, we can clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of your infrastructure. We may then put those answers into action to make those shortcomings become strengths.
Make future plans: One of the most crucial responsibilities for a vCIO’s is keeping up with trends to ensure that your company’s technology is future-proof. We make a lot of effort to remain on top of trends to anticipate how future changes in the technology landscape may affect your company.
Enhance Productivity: Wingman Solutions can help your staff members use the technology they have access to more effectively as your virtual chief information officer.
What you need to know
Not all businesses need their own CIO and instead of employing someone, an MSP or contractor can often take on the role. MSPs (Managed Services Providers) can be trained on their service or products and are often not well prepared to deal with the business challenges CIOs face every day. VCIO managers can increase efficiency by managing technical environments and achieving better vCIO results.
Keeping your network secure with a vCISO
Security plays an integral role in companies. Virtual CIOs are now referred to as cyber security officers or cyber security chiefs. It has become an enormous need, as cyber threats have become a top concern among executives. The sophisticated nature and technology of an attack and the regulatory changes that are being created to combat it are evolving quickly and it becomes extremely difficult to keep the pace of change.
Who Usually Hires vCIOs?
There’s a good reason to use an MSP for virtual CIO services. Some companies use MSPs as CIOs. Many companies are using MSPs as their main technological support system. For a generally large group of customers with specialized support consider using VCOs. Besides responsibilities, the client often consults with vCIOs in preparing strategic technologies strategy. The vCIO can make SMBs proactive. If the client is small, then the vCIO services are included in a bundle.
Investing in vCIO Expertise
It’s difficult to develop a technology strategy, but many people have little experience to do it well. A veteran vCIO will see hundreds of similar businesses struggling and will successfully identify the best technology solutions. Beyond technical skills, vCIOs should also know business management principles.
How do you price vCIO services?
Virtual CIO charges are based on hourly or yearly fees. In general, consultants’ rates vary depending on how much they expect to perform every month. This is then included in monthly bills. So simple.
In short
Counting on technicians that know how to install printers and set up computers is good but is not enough to drive all your business IT needs. A vCIO is a cost-effective alternative to hiring an in-house c-suite executive and still getting the same benefits.
Interested in hiring our vCIO services? Contact us to get you the professional help you need.
