Virtual CIO: Carve a technical edge for your business

Irrespective of size, businesses are increasingly realizing their need for a competitive edge through their IT strategies for success. But having a full-time, C-level strategic planner on board can be prohibitively expensive or simply not necessary. A virtual CIO (vCIO) can be a great alternative in such cases.

Essentially, a virtual CIO (vCIO) acts as a dedicated resource (Chief Information Officer) for your business but works on the basis of a flexible package and charges only for the hours that s/he’s actively engaged in working for you. A vCIO is engaged in formulating strategic IT goals that are aligned with your business goals. It’s also up to this individual to manage your overall IT strategy and budget that work to realize those goals. Most companies engage vCIO services with the help of a local, reliable IT consulting service firm. Virtual CIO Services in Redding can be a great place to start your search.

Technology is evolving faster than ever and it can be hard to keep up with those changes as every iteration/ new technical investment involves considerable outlay from the business. Most SMBs are too busy addressing their core business challenges to focus on efficient technology management. Small IT teams struggle even harder to keep things running, functional and secure to pay attention to overall IT strategies. Costs and lack of time can often hinder companies, especially SMBs, from paying attention to strategic planning until lack of direction in IT planning and glaring vulnerabilities start to actually impede their progress. Lack of integration of IT function in core business planning can also blindside companies from building on strategic competencies and reaching desired business outcomes.

An effective vCIO focuses on building a strategic IT relationship based on client strategy. This takes into account the missing link of the business impact of technology. The vCIO forms the critical link between technical and business relationships around client strategy and understand company goals, challenges, and risks that affect business impact. This is what makes the role critical to building long-term strategic priorities and key initiatives for IT; identify opportunities for return on investment (ROI) for technology and help prioritize key initiatives.

A vCIO can provide you with the tools to drive better business outcomes and drive organizational change. The virtual CIO can act as an objective outsider with a fresh perspective on your way of doing business. They can gauge the actual efficiencies of your current processes and procedures. They have the neutral stance necessary to keep what’s effective and recommend gradual implementation of new technological capacities and processes to increase your overall productivity and efficiency without disrupting your business processes. Managed IT Services in Redding has more resources in driving operational change.

A virtual CIO inputs on regulatory and compliance matters can be of very high value in ensuring not just compliance but avoiding potential legal complications. With increased scrutiny and tightening regulations for technology and data globally, your company needs to stay five steps ahead of this evolving scenario. A vCIO has the requisite expertise to unravel often-vague legalese and regulations to keep your business compliant and secure.

A virtual CIO inputs on regulatory and compliance matters can be of very high value in ensuring not just compliance but avoiding potential legal complications. With increased scrutiny and tightening regulations for technology and data globally, your company needs to stay five steps ahead of this evolving scenario. A vCIO has the requisite expertise to unravel often-vague legalese and regulations to keep your business compliant and secure. Contact Virtual CIO managed services in Redding today to ensure your business stays compliant.

A vCIO helps your overall business development through building a long-term strategic roadmap for your IT capabilities. This helps you get a bird’s eye view of your current technical capacities and how they can be modified/ augmented to reach your technology and business goals. No matter how demanding your business vision may be, a vCIO will never let your business outgrow your IT infrastructure.

A vCIO supports and augments strategic vendor relationships to get you the best deal possible – every time. vCIO can help you navigate tricky vendor relationships and help you get the most value from any vendor investment. In fact, your choice of vCIO should also be reliant on the strength of vendor management and connections the service offers in your area of business.

Any organization using the same cybersecurity strategy as they did six months back is now inviting danger to their doorstep. A vCIO’s role ensures that s/he is there to make your management take cybersecurity seriously and proactively mitigate risk with a multilayered security plan. Virtual CIO consulting services in Redding can help you get started today.

Full-time, high experience, high talent employee capable of effectively filling in the role of CIO or CISO never comes cheap. You need to ask yourself if the cost is justified when employees can always leave or be unavailable at critical moments. In contrast, a virtual CIO is always available on-demand, has proven wide gamut of business and technical expertise, and has a vested interest in watching your business succeed.

A Virtual CIO is always significantly more cost-effective given the amount the value they drive to your business. Plus, you only get charged for the hours s/he works as compared to the costs of finding, training, hiring, and retaining a C-level executive on board. Plus, a vCIO brings in a much-needed fresh perspective that’s required to call the hard shots with your IT budget and competencies to make them work better for you. You get all the benefits of an experienced IT executive who can help you identify and implement IT efficiencies, and mitigate inefficiencies and risk – at a predictable cost.

Keep your business secure – most SMBs underestimate the cost of a data breach

Working with a vCIO gives you an unprecedented level of peace of mind in ensuring the security and business continuity of your company. From a comprehensive risk assessment to developing and implementing a foolproof strategic security plan across your organization – a vCIO or vCISO will take care of every facet of security including security policies, training programs, business continuity planning, disaster recovery, reporting and regulatory compliance, and more.

A Virtual CIO can deliver much more than strategic direction and IT asset management for your company. Contact IT Consulting in Redding to start driving better value from your technology investments today and build a more secure and productive infrastructure base for your business.