When you think of any C-level position, CIO may be one you think of shortly after CEO and CFO. A CIO, in brief terms, is the person who is tasked with a company’s technology strategy and planning initiatives. Essentially this individual is the one who is the “overseer” and “translator” for everything technology-driven and who reports the condition of said technology back to the executive leadership.
So, think about your business for a moment. What does technology “touch” in your business today? Technology is intertwined into almost every aspect of today’s businesses. From how we communicate with others, access and share information and data, perform our daily tasks, and even gain access to our buildings, technology is the magic that makes that happen. This is where a CIO would come into play. However, most businesses, especially small and medium ones, can’t hire this level of resource. Enter the vCIO or virtual Chief Information Officer.
Most companies have heard of or may already be utilizing a managed services provider for their IT needs. As technology continues to get more complex and the need for further specialization increases, the managed services approach allows a company to employ an entire team of specialized technicians and resources without providing direct individual compensation and benefits or worry about absences caused by PTO, turnover, and HR-related issues. Your managed services provider should already be providing services like helpdesk and deploying a security toolset like antivirus and antispam. But who manages these techs and provides a technology roadmap, strategy, and planning services? This is where the vCIO comes in.
To fully maximize the value and benefit of having a vCIO, you should be including this person in your leadership meetings and sharing with them the factors that affect your business. A vCIO should work with your leadership to listen to your specific issues and develop plans that utilize technology to solve those issues. Planning how and when to update hardware, assisting with new software implementation planning, educating leadership into the latest security concerns, and adapting to the fast-changing world we live in is all in a day’s work for a vCIO.
It’s imperative that vCIOs are integrated within your organization and operate how a CIO would. They should be the driver behind your IT initiatives, big and small, from managing your help desk to developing your technology goals and formulating a budget and plan for achieving them. A vCIO should also handle partnering with additional experts and vendors for your technology needs as well as identifying and mitigating security risks so that your organization is protected from those who wish to harm it.
Think for a minute about how your organization coped with the sudden switch to a remote environment that almost everyone faced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a rocky change for many, and knowing what you do now, I am sure you can see where a vCIO could have been valuable for your business; taking the technology burden of going remote off your shoulders. Now, with most organizations transitioning into a hybrid-work environment, vCIOs are wonderful resources in aiding in that transition, ensuring your organization’s technology can run smoothly whether your workforce is at home or in-office.
At BerganKDV, our managed IT services include a vCIO offering that is tailored to meet the technology needs of your business. To learn more about what our vCIOs can do for you, we encourage you to contact our team with your questions.
