4 Benefits Of Hiring A vCIO For Your Small-To-Medium Sized Business

If you’re running a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB), you may be in a tricky situation when it comes to IT planning. If your business is growing, you’re probably going to need to do quite a bit of strategic technology planning to ensure that your IT infrastructure keeps up. But here’s the problem – you’re not an IT expert. Maybe you have done a bit of work with your company’s IT systems, but you have no idea where to begin when it comes to devising a long-term technological plan.

Not only that, you don’t have the budget to hire a CIO or any other senior IT staff member who could help you out. What should you do? Hire a vCIO (virtual CIO), of course! Most modern Vancouver IT service firms offer vCIO services. A vCIO is essentially an experienced consultant who can help you plan for the future of your business and your IT infrastructure.

For a flat hourly or monthly fee, you can benefit from the insights and advice of a seasoned IT professional – and ensure that you have a strong strategic technology plan. Still not sure if you need to hire a vCIO? Here are 4 of the benefits of hiring a vCIO for your business.

1. Avoid The Hiring Process – Save Money, Time, And Energy

Even if you have the budget to hire your own CIO, the process of doing so can be long, complex, and expensive. The interview process can drag on for weeks – and that’s time that you could be spending growing your business.

If you choose a vCIO partner, you’re guaranteed to be matched with a consultant or consulting team that’s deeply experienced and specializes in serving SMBs with smart, expert advising. You don’t have to bother hiring a full-time CIO, which saves you both time and money.

2. A More Predictable Technology Budget – Both Now, And In The Future

Do you actually have a plan for how you’re going to spend your IT budget this year? If not, you could be wasting quite a bit of money.

A vCIO helps you have a proactive approach to IT spending, rather than a reactive approach. By creating a reasonable budget and creating a technology roadmap, a vCIO can help you invest your money where it will do the most good for your company.

In addition, a vCIO can help you track the performance of your IT systems, recommend the mothballing of outdated servers, and provide comprehensive reports about the performance of your IT infrastructure.

All of these factors combine to help you reduce overall business IT expenses, while still maximizing productivity and efficiency.

3. Better Security, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity Planning

If you run an SMB, chances are that you could use some help locking down your important data, and creating a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. vCIOs can help identify weak points in your company’s IT infrastructure, and protect your valuable business data.

In addition, vCIOs can help devise and implement an IT Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). A DRP is essential for determining how you should back up your data and servers. In addition, it outlines the steps that you need to take to maintain business continuity in case of a natural disaster, data breach, or another unexpected disaster.

4. Create A Comprehensive Strategic Technology Plan

A strategic technology plan is a very important piece of documentation. This document outlines both your current IT infrastructure and your future IT goals.

In essence, a strategic technology plan is a roadmap that provides you with a step-by-step guide that will help you operate more effectively today – and ensure that you’re making the proper IT investments to be competitive in the future.

Developing a strategic technology plan is a complex and difficult task, which is why using a vCIO to do so is such a great idea. vCIOs specialize in long-term planning.

By taking a deep look at your current systems and understanding your future business goals, a vCIO can devise a robust, long-term strategic technology plan.

Get Your Business On Track – With vCIO Services!

Don’t let your IT budget swell out of control. With vCIO services from an IT services provider in Canada, you can take control of your IT budget and create a long-term plan for technological success – even if you can’t afford to hire a full-time CIO!