As businesses continue to grow, it is imperative for them to ensure that all their needs are met. One of the needs that must be taken seriously is that which touches on operational efficiency. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operate in the same space with large and established firms. These large firms have budgets that allow them the luxury of hiring sufficiently qualified staff. Hiring a chief information officer (CIO) might prove to be a costly affair for SMBs— that is why a virtual CIO (vCIO) from an IT services company in Atlanta is a good alternative.
What or Who is a Virtual CIO?
A vCIO is an external contractor or company that offers IT services, IT support, and network management to SMBs.
What Does a vCIO Do?
- Ensuring that your network and data is safe
- Making sure that both your software and hardware work as perfectly as they should
- Setting the IT budget for the client firm and formulating the firm’s IT strategy
- Facilitating tech improvements as well as optimizing various business processes
What are the Benefits of Having a vCIO?
In our experience as an expert IT services provider in Atlanta, we have discovered that the function of a vCIO has many benefits to clients who opt for such a service. Before deciding on whether to hire us to be your vCIO or not, we advise that you go through this list of benefits:
- A vCIO is more affordable compared to a traditional CIO – Hiring a CIO is costly for businesses of any size. Small to medium businesses might not be in a position to pay an expert-level CIO to handle the firm’s IT needs. Some might try to but will end up spending the company’s resources hiring staff that will tie the company’s monies. Outsourcing to an MSP is a better option because you will only pay for what you actually use.
- Hiring a vCIO is not a complicated affair – Yes, hiring a vCIO is much simpler than hiring a CIO. Well, when looking for a CIO, you might have to advertise, select and recruit but when it comes to hiring a vCIO, all you need to do is to go through reviews, seek referrals, and voila! You have your preferred vCIO.
- A vCIO brings in expertise and objectivity – Considering that the vCIO is not a member of your staff, this means that the appointed MSP will be able to operate with little to no interference from you and end up delivering according to the service level agreement signed between you and the MSP. Further, since the MSP is a professional firm with core competencies in IT, you stand to gain from their expertise.
Parting Shot
As seen above, you need not spend all your operational budget paying for an in-house CIO when you can hire one on a need basis. At MIS Solutions, we pride ourselves as being a leading IT services provider in Atlanta. Our specialty services include vCIO, services among other IT solutions. Contact us today to learn more about our offerings.