Managed IT
A quality managed service provider will have an IT expert who is assigned to oversee your strategy. Learn about what a vCIO can do for you in our video.
Andrew Mancini
Blog Post
7 minute read
Oct 16, 2024
vCIO stands for Virtual Chief Information Officer. As such, the vCIO is a person who provides the same consultation and covers the same responsibilities as an in-house Chief Information Officer would, they just do it virtually.
Because they operate remotely and as a third party, vCIO’s are becoming a popular solution for organizations who want to address cybersecurity more seriously without investing the resources needed to build a full-scale and in-house cybersecurity team.
Much like an in-person CIO, a vCIO oversees their client’s entire IT infrastructure, ensuring everything in a business’ network is running smoothly.
Embracing the digital era is a must for modern businesses looking to remain competitive but it’s not always clear which technologies belong in your processes and operations. Especially when there are seemingly endless options, and everyone claims their solutions are the best solutions.
A vCIO, however, can guide your team through the maze of IT and help you choose a tech stack that’s specifically tailored to your organization’s unique needs.
Implementing modern technology is a must for organizations who are looking to stay relevant and competitive in the digital era. Learn more about integrating tech-based solutions in Impact’s Webinar, How to Identify High-Value Opportunities for Innovation.
It’s important to realize that the role of a vCIO varies significantly between one managed service provider to another. In other words, not all vCIO’s are created equal.
Understanding what a high-quality partnership with a vCIO looks like, and what sort of expectations you should set for your vCIO is vital to making the most out of that relationship. For instance, you don’t want a vCIO whose main priority is to sell as many solutions as they can.
Rather, you’d be better off with a specified set of solutions that are catered to your specific needs. Arriving at a custom solution like that, though, takes a dedication to learning the ins and outs of your operations.
Here are some of the other key advantages of having a high-quality vCIO as part of your organization:
A quality vCIO serves as a reliable point of contact for technological expertise within your organization.
“Digital leaders are creating much more shareholder value than laggards. Between 2018 and 2022, digital leaders achieved average annual total shareholder returns of 8.1% vs. 4.9% for laggards. Leaders also had significantly better return on pre-tax tangible equity (ROTE), growing it from 15.5% in 2018 to 19.3% in 2022, vs. a more modest growth from 13.6% to 15.3% for laggards.”
In order to avoid disparate technology initiatives or failed integrations, the relationship between the decision maker and the vCIO should be strong, productive, and personal.
Establishing a regular schedule with your vCIO for check-ins, updates, and solution-engineering is a good way to build trust between decision makers, stakeholders, and the vCIO. By embracing a vCIO as a core member of your team, you can fold them into your operations and develop a truly proactive relationship where everyone’s work is aligned toward the same goal.
Technical reporting is a major aspect of the vCIO’s role, and is a good time to assess, reflect, and take action on the changing goals of your organization. This type of reporting and reflecting typically takes place on a quarterly basis.
These reports mean you are able to assess a number of important areas:
The vCIO acts as the bridge between your business and the technology teams powering your digital transformation. This makes it even more important to have frequent and comprehensive reports on the progress of your infrastructure and to have actionable data available to determine your future goals.
Planning for your organization’s technological future is an essential part of what makes a vCIO such a valuable part of your business’ digital transformation moving forward.
The consultation provided by the vCIO helps determine the direction and perspective implementations for your organization in the long-term. This can help guide decision makers into more informed choices that better suit the needs of the organization.
This means the vCIO should be able to answer questions about your technology suite involving issues such as:
They are able to recommend and maintain vendor relationships for your productivity and line-of-business application suites and verify compatibility between vendors and the existing or planned IT infrastructure.
A good vCIO is proactive and plans proposals for new projects to improve the business’ long-term prospects, and defines these objectives based on your needs and your budget. A high-quality vCIO will also be focused on providing you with a strong recommendation framework which is consistently modified as goals and objectives evolve.
Let’s not forget one of the most important considerations decision makers are taking into account regarding their digital transformation: expenditure.
Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.7 trillion in 2023, an increase of 4.3% from 2022, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
While many IT budgets are expanding this year, not every organization has the spending power to hire a full in-house IT team directed by a CIO. However, the need for modern and high-quality technology is only becoming more and more persistent.
Partnering with a vCIO can be an excellent way for an organization to meet their IT infrastructure and technology objectives without investing the time and resources in a fully staffed in-house IT team.
This is one of the major advantages of partnering with a managed service provider that can provide vCIO services at a predictable monthly cost.
By onboarding a Virtual Chief Information Officer, your team gets all the benefits of having an in-house CIO without the need to build a full in-house IT team that can manage your entire tech stack from top to bottom.
On top of that, vCIO’s will help your business look into the future of business technology and plan for both continual improvement and new tech implementation. If you know your company needs help catching up to the technological standards of the modern consumer, a vCIO might be just the person yo need to bring on.
When you don’t have to worry about the business technology your company relies on, you and your staff can focus on the bringing the big ideas of your organization into reality.
Sometimes the best innovations are hidden just beneath the surface. For help seeing where your organization can improve, check out Impact’s Webinar, How to Identify High-Value Opportunities for Innovation.
Andrew Mancini
Andrew Mancini is a Content Writer for Impact and DOT Security’s in-house marketing team, where he plans content for both the Impact and DOT Security insights hubs, manages the publication schedule, drafts articles, Q&As, interview narratives, case studies, video scripts, and other content with SEO best practices. He is also the main contributor on a monthly cybersecurity news series, The DOT Report, researching stories, writing the script, and delivering the report on camera.
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