vCIO Services | Virtual Chief Information Officer

TechBrain vCIO – Managed IT Services

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) Services

One way TechBrain differentiates itself is through the provision of a Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) to our Managed Service clients at no additional cost.

What is a vCIO?

A vCIO is a third-party (such as a consultant or business) that offers a part-time person as a service to fulfill the role as a conventional CIO also commonly known as a Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) or Information Technology (IT) Director. A vCIO primarily focuses on understanding your strategic objectives and helping you understand the business impact of your technology decisions along with assisting you in the creation of your technology.

For SMEs, the advantages of having a vCIO on hand are significant. Largely, most SMEs don’t have the skill and expertise of an in-house CIO. For companies like these, and those who have evolved with technology, the vCIO serves to support the IT functions and strategy of the business. This unique service provides the business leadership with on tap access to their own private CIO, something that is normally only enjoyed by organisation’s with thousands of employees.

The vCIO primarily focuses on technical alignment – that is to say, aligning our client’s environment with best practice when consideration is given to the current needs of the operation and the broader strategic objectives of the business. Technical alignment flows from our Network Administration service in Perth and goes to the vCIO to assess the business impact. The vCIO will invest the time required to understand our clients’ business and will make recommendations based on feedback from our Network Administration team.

Advantages of a vCIO

Consider the expertise of a vCIO. Here are 10 reasons why getting a vCIO serves your company in good stead. These include:

Lower operating costs
Increased online security
Enhanced productivity
Improved compliance techniques
Easy retrieval of data and disaster recovery

A well-forecasted budget through strategic planning
Lifecycle planning
Awareness and ability to take advantage of the latest trends in technology
Creative solutions to contribute to the company’s bottom line
Consistent reporting, findings and recommendations for future enhancements

How will a TechBrain vCIO add value?

Identify business risk and the impact of technology decisions on those risks
Long-term strategic business goals are enhanced based on the ability of the vCIO to identify technology to assist the business in achieving its objectives
Technology budgeting and proposals
Business relationship based on scheduled strategy meetings to ensure the client is always up-to-date with the latest technology and trends

How could technical misalignments affect our client’s business and what do we recommend?

Technical misalignment reduces functionality, productivity and efficiency as well as increasing frustration as a result of more IT issues that take longer to resolve. Our recommendations may include:.

A project to implement new technology
A simple configuration change
A complex configuration change
A change in how a client utilises technology
A purchase of warranty or service contracts

These recommendations require more than technology knowledge. They require a “C” level technical expert who understands the business impact of technology decisions. Our vCIO will translate the technical conversation into a business conversation. The vCIO is also responsible for developing the long-term technology strategy, then presenting this strategy in clear business terms. This process is our competitive advantage.

How do we create a client technology summary?

We consider the business priorities of the client
Analyse the business impact of the current and proposed environment
Explain why this is important
Deliver recommendations
Create a summary of lower priority items

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) Services

After we review the business impact of technical misalignments, our clients are empowered with two clear options:.

Address the issues, or part thereof, based on our recommendations
Continue as is and change their expectations armed with the knowledge of any risks this may include

This is the difference between the technical and business conversation. We pride ourselves on our ability to demonstrate to clients the impact of their technology decisions.

Keen to find out what a vCIO would look like for your company? Take the hassle out of managing your IT and have an expert take care of your business solutions. Let Techbrain show you how!