MANAGED IT SERVICES

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO)

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Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO)

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) is outsourced to help with strategic business growth through innovative IT solutions. The vCIO deploys a value-driven, strategic approach to streamline the business IT infrastructure and respond accordingly to shifts in the market and consumer behavior. The virtual chief information officer has industry expertise, acumen, and passion for helping your business successfully design and applying Edafio strategies and mission.

Why would you need Edafio solutions?

According to research, business IT leaders grapple with three sets of challenges:

Changing Technology: Technology is changing at an exponential pace. The vCIO helps the business to adapt to this rapid shift in technological change.
Spending wisely: IT budgeting is quite a critical challenge for IT leaders looking forward to cost-effective, value-based solutions. The vCIO manages discrete areas of spending by streamlining IT budgeting and making investment decisions.
Optimizing customer experience: The virtual chief information officer oversees the development of the customer service platforms. S/he is at the center of customer relationship management.

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However, what factors fuel the changing role of a chief information officer? Well, the role of a CIO has changed extensively over the last decade due to an uptake of IT solutions by small and medium-sized enterprises, and high demand for security solutions to avert cybercrime. Most businesses eying CIO functions are looking forward to creating value through technology and ensuring their tech systems lead to meaningful business outcomes. So, why precisely must you hire a virtual CIO or a Chief Information Security Officer?

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) with hands crossed and consulting

Why hire a virtual chief information office (VCIO)?

Strategic IT Roadmaps and Planning

High-performing enterprises rethink IT strategies. They constantly pursue data-driven solutions to save time, add value, and respond to consumer trends. Successful enterprises deploy strategic planning and design IT roadmaps that address shifting business priorities.
A vCIO is uniquely positioned to transform your enterprise through strategic planning. The services of an outsourced vCIO will help you develop a roadmap that is goal-driven, customer-centric, and sustainable for changing business dynamics. Through strategic IT roadmaps and planning, businesses scale as operations become streamlined, and responses automated.

Vendor Management

Edafio’s Virtual CIO professionals are an extension of your executive team. As such, they take responsibility for managing your vendor relationships for IT needs to whatever degree you wish. In the most successful engagements, vCIO’s manage vendor contracts, negotiate updated agreements, and inform your budgeting process with the necessary information for timing of renewals and licensing. This allows you to centralize your IT leadership and develop economies of scope through the management of IT vendors with a professional that is accustomed to the needs of your business and the process of IT vendor management.
The future of IT is changing from an organization-centered to an outsourced function. This means that vendor management will become quite a central part of contemporary micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Essentially, vendor management assists businesses to move third-party vendor negotiations from passive transactions to active collaborations.

By leveraging vCIO services from trusted partners and providers, businesses can scrutinize their vendor negotiations, and make informed business decisions. The vCIO approves vendor relationships by overseeing negotiations, enabling enterprises to make decisions that are fitting and appropriate to their core activities.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Businesses that use the cloud overlook the critical requirements of having a Disaster Recovery Plan for their production environments. The Disaster Recovery Plan essentially migrates production traffic from one cloud to another in the event of catastrophes in the primary cloud region. The virtual CIO designs and implements a disaster recovery plan to ensure processes and systems are safe from unforeseen vulnerabilities. This way, a vCIO ensures business continuity in the face of glaring disasters in business IT-based infrastructures.

IT Budget Planning and Reviews

An effective IT leadership not only sets the course but also charts progress. However, most businesses find IT budgeting as a strenuous process that ranges from painful annual budgeting to the actualization of a carefully crafted roadmap strategy. The role of a vCIO is to manage overlapping areas of budgeting by offering direction and oversight on IT investment and expenditure. Reviewing progress with the executive team and with vendors is a necessary step to be sure you are making headway toward your goals. As part of that planning, our vCIO professionals are accustomed to developing and reviewing IT budgets that conform both to your goals and your financial means. Finding the right balance of investment and progress on your IT roadmap is an essential function of IT leadership and one that we perform on a daily basis.

Additional Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Executive

Even with these advantages, you may want to consider the additional benefits of hiring a vCIO. Here is why vCIO spending is worth the investment.

Manage IT and develop team personnel – The vCIO is responsible for designing a value-driven and proactive IT infrastructure. He is also responsible for team development to manage the business IT infrastructure.
Information Risk Management – The vCIO patches the business IT infrastructure, and deploys relevant InfoSec security strategies.
Development of customer service platforms – The vCIO develops customer service platforms to ensure businesses respond to changing customer needs through digital platforms.
Creating business value through technology – The vCIO scrutinizes opportunities to generate value through well-thought-out IT strategies and operations.
Approving IT architecture and vendor negotiations – The virtual chief information officer discusses and approves vendor negotiations. He approves IT infrastructures to afford fresh solutions for underpinning business challenges.