Outsourcing your company’s IT management to a virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) can bring substantial benefits, especially for small businesses. Your CIO is your most valuable team member when it comes to keeping your business running. A vCIO can bring even greater value to your business while also saving you time and money.
A CIO isn’t tech support; they are an executive who oversees your entire network, makes big-picture decisions about your IT resources, and anticipates your company’s technology needs. In fact, 84% of top CIOs take responsibility for areas of the business outside of IT. Your business can only run as smoothly as your technology allows it to, and the best CIOs are plugged into key measurements in all areas of your business.
The most obvious benefit of a vCIO is, of course, cost. An individual consultant or third-party business offering vCIO services will charge significantly less than it would cost to provide executive-level salary and benefits to a full-time CIO. That doesn’t make a vCIO the “discount option.” On the contrary, with a vCIO, you get unique benefits at a great value.
More Than Just a Problem Solver
As an IT provider, Digital Agent has made a business out of solving people’s technology problems. A standard benefit of our vCIO service is the evaluation of your current network, which we use to recommend solutions to your existing pain points. But a vCIO does so much more than troubleshoot your existing problems.
A vCIO always has your future in mind. They want to hear all about your goals so they can anticipate how your technology needs may change. The best vCIOs will become experts in all areas of your business operations. While your vCIO does a good deal of technical work, in this role, they are first and foremost a business partner.
Local Market Knowledge and Specialized Expertise
Good vCIOs will take the time to get to know your company just as well as full-time CIOs do, with the added advantage of knowing what is going on elsewhere in the local market. With a finger on the pulse of many local businesses like yours, your vCIO will be the first to know what technology you need to keep up with the competition. If you want to be at the forefront of new business IT solutions, a vCIO is just the expert you want on your team.
Furthermore, technology is all that a full-service IT provider like Digital Agent does. That gives us the infrastructure to offer cloud-based solutions like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), which help companies save significantly on the establishment and maintenance of their own networks and software suites. In addition to our vCIO consulting services, we are highly specialized in small business solutions and can adapt those solutions to suit the needs of a wide variety of industries.
A Window to the Future
Just as a vCIO always has your future goals in mind, they are also anticipating your future costs. With their IT expertise and thorough knowledge of your business, they can map out when you’ll need to upgrade your hardware and software and how much that will likely cost over the next year, or even over the next five years. This helps you better plan for the future and avoid being blindsided by unexpected expenses.
The technology that keeps your business running, from phone and internet to computers and servers, is an investment. Your vCIO is there to make sure that it is a smart investment. Learn exactly what your business needs to stay connected and work efficiently by contacting your Digital Agent.
Kate Lewis
Marketing & Sales Coordinator
Digital Agent
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