Why a fractional CIO
You're too small to justify a full-time CIO, but too big not to take IT seriously
Too small to need a full-time CIO
- You are still in that high-growth mode and have to allocate capital and resources carefully.
- Your products or service offerings are still evolving and you don't want to get "locked in" to an expensive solution.
- IT is an enabler--not part of your core product or service.
- You use local IT contractors or have just a few IT staffers.
- Adding an experienced Chief Information Officer (CIO) to your team now would take up a good portion of your current IT budget.
Too big to not manage IT
- Your competitors are beating you with their IT solutions.
- You know your systems need replaced, but don't have the time or expertise to select and implement something new.
- Your customers want access to data (your's and their's) and/or are questioning your security controls.
- Your operations group is begging for IT solutions to support growth.
- Your employees are "doing their own thing" and are out of control. · Your IT department is just trying to keep your systems up and running let alone manage moving them forward.
- You have no IT representation on your executive committee to develop IT strategies, planning, budgets and execution.
What are fractional CIOs?
Experienced IT professionals
Real-world experience helping SMB businesses make strategic, budgetary and day-to-day operational decisions.
Aligning IT--business strategies
Planning and industry knowledge to align your IT strategies with your business strategies to achieve your goals.
Scaling/securing infrastructure
Modern strategies for growing desktop, server and IT solutions while tightening controls...ultimately reducing business risk.
Picking the right software
Proven processes organize your business needs and facilitate the software selection to ensure you get the right solution for where your business is going.
Working with your IT team
Translate "executive" speak into "geek" speak and vice versa making your existing employee or subcontracted IT team more effective with higher satisfaction.
Providing on-call CIO advise
There to answer important day-to-day questions in addition to your regular executive update meetings and annual planning sessions.
Start with our 5S assessment
Saleability
- Do your current IT solutions provide market leading functionality?
- Are they delivered where needed (in the plant, in the field, via web, via mobile)?
- Would your users, both employees and customers, say they love your IT solutions?
Scalability
- Can your IT solutions meet the needs of new product or service offerings?
- Will they support your growth into new geographic areas or countries?
- Can your IT solutions handle the transaction volume growth you are projecting?
- Does your current software limit the number of concurrent users?
- Is the user interface intuitive and easy to learn reducing or even eliminating the need for formal training?
Supportability
- Do your IT solutions have strong vendor support?
- Does your organization have good policy-procedure-system alignment?
- Will your IT solutions easily move with your business via configuration rather than customization?
Stability
- Do your IT solutions have high availability...are they there when you need them EVERY TIME?
- Is there strong data integrity within or between your IT solutions...does your data stay synchronized as updates are made?
Security
- Does your organization have IT usage policies and procedures in place to deal with appropriate use and protection of IT resources and data?
- Do you require strong user authentication to prevent unauthorized access?
- Are duties segregated based on IT solution capabilities to minimize risk?
- Is your network, hardware and backups physically and cyber-secured?
- Do you have up-to-date disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place?