If you’re a business leader at a growing startup, there’s a lot of work that requires your attention. It’s likely you’d benefit from a little less on your plate.
Many aspects of running a company do not require you to be physically present but still need to get done in order for your business to be successful– such as accounting, legal services, human resources management, logistics, and marketing. Add in tasks like IT support and infrastructure management, and it quickly becomes too much for one person or even a small team to handle.
Outsourcing to a virtual CIO is a great idea for startups and other small businesses that need maximum team productivity. Read on to learn what a vCIO is and how they can help your business streamline IT for your company.
What is a Virtual CIO?
A virtual CIO (Chief Information Officer) is an experienced IT professional who works remotely and provides technology management, strategic analysis, and planning services to clients. These experts can handle everything from network administration to cloud infrastructure and security audits to disaster recovery planning without requiring you to bring them on as full-time employees.
Sounds great—so what benefits can you expect from engaging a vCIO?
Benefits of Outsourced IT
There are many reasons why outsourcing IT support can benefit your business:
- Risk Management: vCIO services can help you identify and mitigate the risks associated with your organization’s use of technology. They can also help you understand how to best use your current equipment and resources in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. They are able to do this because they are not just IT specialists—they are also business experts who understand how technology affects organizational performance.
- Strategic Guidance: You get access to strategic guidance from an experienced IT professional, ensuring best practices and peace of mind.
- Focus: It allows you to focus on what matters most: growing your company! You’ll have an expert managing your technology needs so that they won’t get in the way of your core operations.
So how do you know if vCIO is right for your company? Keep reading to find out.
Does Your Company Need a vCIO?
If you’re looking to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and get more out of your technology, virtual CIO services may be the solution for you.
It’s time to consider a vCIO if:
- Your employees need access to technology.
- You have limited resources for IT support on-staff.
- Your business is growing rapidly, and you need daily IT support.
- Your team is spread out across multiple time zones.
- Your customers expect that your business complies with specific IT security standards.
- You work with multiple vendors for different aspects of your tech—web hosting, application development, data storage, etc.
You may be wondering, just how much does vCIO cost? Good question!
Cost of vCIO Services
VCIO services typically cost between $100 and $200 a month per employee. When contemplating the cost of outsourcing your IT services, it’s important to assess the price of not outsourcing them.
A few thoughts to consider:
- If your entire company is unable to work due to a network outage, what is the loss for your business?
- What could mistakes cost when you have someone who isn’t specialized in IT tasked with handling it?
Before You Hire a vCIO
In order to fully benefit from vCIO services, it’s important to have a plan and determine exactly what you expect from the services. Company management will need to carve out time to engage with the IT personnel– leaving IT tasks out of sight and out of mind once you have someone in charge of it will not yield the best outcomes.
Management and other company leaders should consider the following:
- Ways IT currently benefits your company goals
- How improved IT could further benefit your company goals
- How your current technology compares to your competitors
- The current state of your IT health and security
When contemplating what you expect from vCIO services, here are some key points to consider:
- Length of time: are you looking for short-term help or long-term strategy?
- Strategy or mentor: will the vCIO be training a member of your current team or running the show?
- Are you looking to maintain your current operations or improve systems and use IT to grow your business?
With these questions in mind, your vCIO will be better equipped with your team’s expectations, and they’ll have a starting point from which to make recommendations that align with your leadership’s mission and vision for the company.
Choosing a vCIO Service
When you choose vCIO services, you’ll have access to a team of experts with experience in a variety of industries and types of technology. Outsourcing to experts will free up your team to focus on the things they do best–rather than playing IT backup.
Network Right offers scalable services according to the needs of your company. Contact us to learn how we can help relieve your team of IT tasks, improve your technology processes, and prevent IT disasters.
