.st0{fill:#FFFFFF;}

Defining the vCIO & 3 Reasons You Need One 

Defining the vCIO

Small businesses today understand that digital transformation is necessary to remain competitive. Everything is becoming online and remote-first. But sufficient IT infrastructure can come with a heavy price tag. Couple that with evolving customer expectations, a worldwide pandemic, the global political climate, a rapidly changing workforce, and multiple other shifting paradigms … the pressure is enough to keep business leaders up at night.

This is where vCIOs can step in to lighten the load. A vCIO can be your effective yet affordable resource for researching, planning, implementing, and maintaining the best IT solutions for your small business.

A vCIO (Virtual Chief Information Officer) takes the place of or acts as a supplement to your in-house technology officer/s. They consult with you on your long-term technology strategy, make recommendations based on their expertise and what’s best for your specific business, oversee your IT infrastructure, and/or keep your network running smoothly and take care of general maintenance.

3 Reasons You Might Need a vCIO

1. You Need a Dedicated Technology Liaison at an Affordable Price Point:

Technology is mandatory. But it’s evolving rapidly, while becoming increasingly complicated and expensive. It can be difficult to keep up with as a small business owner with other priorities to focus on; especially if you don’t have the expertise or the income to support a full, in-house IT department. A quality vCIO can provide the technological expertise you need to fill that gap, supplement and support your IT leadership, and help you discover ways to lower your risks and costs.

2. You Need Someone Who Understands Your Business Objectives and Can Plan Your Technology Roadmap Accordingly:

A vCIO can provide expert consultation to help you organize and plan for technology implementations both in the short and long-term. This includes considering the needs of your specific business regarding intellectual property protection, disaster recovery, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity and data protection, employee onboarding, and short vs. long-term projects. A vCIO can even recommend and maintain your vendor relationships and/or your existing or planned for IT infrastructure.

Your Guide to Small Office IT Success

This guide to creating an awesome and secure IT experience for your small business will help you learn how to manage issues such as WFH data security, social distancing in hybrid offices, cybersecurity, and more!

3. You Need Technical Reporting You Can Understand:

The right vCIO will regularly assess, reflect, and act on the changing goals of your business in relation to your short and long-term IT projects and expenses. They will provide you with support, metrics, project status, the current state of your infrastructure, and have actionable data available in a way that you can understand so you know what steps you need to take next.

How We Work

It’s important to note that the role of vCIO can vary from vendor to vendor. You should ascertain ahead of time that your vCIO of choice provides exactly the features your business needs.

At CNP Technologies, we approach the role of your vCIO a bit differently than others might. We aren’t here to replace or outsource the key IT leadership in your organization. Rather, our focus is providing you with technical expertise and strategic business insights that will supplement and support your IT leadership.

We serve as a decision support point for your senior IT members, offering our extensive knowledge and helping you develop and execute IT plans and roadmaps so you can find the right solutions to complement your core mission. We help you discover ways to lower costs, risks, and the complexities of overcoming modern IT challenges. Most of the time, this is done working with and beside your existing staff and IT leadership.

CNP has a team of senior IT and telecommunications leaders with deep technology and IT business backgrounds. We get up to speed with your business quickly with a four-pronged approach to delivering IT leadership and support where you need it most:

  • Initial Inspection and Evaluation
  • Strategic Planning and Execution
  • Decision Support and Validation
  • Recommendations and Management

If you’re like many businesses right now – trying to play catchup after the pandemic and massive workforce shift, trying to implement makeshift technology solutions, trying to recover lost ground – perhaps we can be of some help. Let’s have a conversation and see how we can help ensure your IT infrastructure is in good shape for the future, whatever may come. You can call us at (888) 973-3737.