IT strategy keeps your business safe. It’s essential to have the right people at your IT strategy planning meeting.
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With continued remote work support and increased threats, you should be planning and budgeting for your post-pandemic IT strategy.
Unless you are a major corporation, hiring a full-time CTO or CIO is often beyond your means, as the average salary of a CIO in the U.S. is over $200,000 per year. But going without an IT security expert at your disposal can potentially cost you even more, depending on the severity of the inevitable breach that will occur if your IT security is not up to speed.
A vCIO can Offer You the Best of Both Worlds
A virtual CIO – or vCIO – on the other hand, gives you the C-level expertise you need to operate your business with the best risk management tools available without spending $200,000 or more plus benefits for another C-level executive. Our vCIO service is an integral piece of the managed services we provide our clients, and it comes at a fraction of the cost of hiring your own Chief Information Officer.
vCIO ROI
Having hands-on access to CIO-level expertise, without the cost, means you not only have top-notch cybersecurity protection for your business, but you also have the funds necessary to invest in comprehensive cybersecurity for your organization. From investments in infrastructure to better employee training, you can more effectively manage risk.
What Does a vCIO Do?
We remove the stress from your risk-management efforts by providing support and insight about risk management, remediation efforts, and the general effectiveness of your cybersecurity program. Our virtual CIO role exists so that we can help your organization achieve the proper cybersecurity governance within your organization.
If we’re all honest with each other, a business could go just about anywhere to obtain cloud services or implement IT security. You can click a link and buy services online and never even meet the people who store your valuable data. And many businesses often choose their IT services based on who offers the best price at the time. But smart business leaders see the growing role IT plays in the everyday operation of their organizations and seek something more than break-fix solutions.
– Tom Hastings, thinkCSC President
C-Level Guidance without C-Level Costs
vCIO services level the playing field for small- and medium-sized organizations that can now have access to the same level of expertise as large corporations, without bearing the cost of a full-time CIO. In today’s globally competitive, rapidly transforming environment, small and midsize businesses must find ways to remain as competitive as possible, and when it comes to business IT, the vCIO solution is a great equalizer. At thinkCSC, our vCIO is a free service that is provided as part of our managed services. Your vCIO will:
- Take time to understand your business and industry
- Understand your vision and provide solutions
- Solve problems and ease pain points, proactively seeking solutions that keep your organization ahead of the competition
- Demonstrate business acumen and a commitment to delivering customized solutions that align with your business goals and strategy
- Provide regular, comprehensive reviews of your infrastructure and security and follow up with strategic guidance and solutions
- Partner with you on the implementation of customized tech solutions designed to help your organization more effectively meet business objectives
- Align IT infrastructure, applications, and security to organizational needs
The net results are proactive insights and informed decisions. Uninformed choices often result in irreparable damage. Our team does the legwork and research for you to ensure you make IT decisions that are strategic and cost-effective. We identify IT issues before they cost you time and money, by conducting a network assessment, inventorying your IT systems and licenses, identifying potential risks, and tagging obsolete systems for replacement.
What Can thinkCSC Do for Your Business?
thinkCSC has more than 20 years of experience helping clients exceed their goals. We understand that business and technology are so intertwined that you can’t be strategic about one without the other. We offer customized and bundled outsourced IT services you need to achieve your objectives; increase efficiency, productivity, and agility; cut down on IT costs; and ensure you have a competitive edge. Whether you want to outsource most or all of your infrastructure management, or if you simply want to optimize the systems already in place, thinkCSC provides personalized IT expertise that saves money and provides the manpower that ensures your infrastructure is always an asset – never a liability. We can partner with your Columbus-region organization to develop a unique solution designed to fit your business model. Contact us today to learn more about our managed security and vCIO services.
When it comes to IT infrastructure, managed services, and even IT security, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Every organization – public, private, non-profit, and institutional – has unique needs and agendas, and aligning IT strategy to your business is essential. When developing your IT strategy, that you create solutions that serve your specific organizational needs.
Aligning IT Strategy Means Understanding Your Mission
To develop a strong IT strategy, you need to clearly understand the mission and strategy of your organization – and share that information with your managed services or IT services partner. If you do not treat IT as a valued piece of your business strategy, it creates significant risks, including:
- The inability to meet customer and client needs
- Increased costs for maintenance and upkeep
- The inability to properly compete in the marketplace
- Loss of customers and revenue as a result of downtime
- Loss of competitive advantage or position
- The inability to recruit and retain the best talent
- Lack of innovation
- Inability to maintain compliance
The scope and complexity of IT has increased significantly over the last decade, while at the same time, most organizations are pushed to operate leaner than ever, doing without full-time IT departments or even an internal IT specialist. While businesses rely more and more on technology to compete and thrive in a global environment, budgets often constrain how many personnel they are able to dedicate to the effort.
Developing a Comprehensive IT Strategy
Developing a comprehensive strategy requires an assessment of your current infrastructure. Are you still using legacy systems? Do you know where your essential data is and who has access to it? Are all of your licenses up to date? Is any of your hardware at risk of failing? If you were unable to access your building for an extended period of time, what would you need in order to meet your customers’ needs? Do you have any compliance or reporting requirements to which your organization must adhere?
As you work with your IT partner to answer these questions and others, you can develop a plan to consolidate servers, create security policies and protocols, and address regulatory requirements to ensure your organization is compliant. Layered network security, backup and disaster recovery, and other risk-mitigating efforts should be an integral part of the effort, along with email security, mobile device management, and secure data storage (on site and off).
At thinkCSC, we believe that in order to achieve maximum success, regardless of the size or type of organization, you must make IT an integral part of your overall business strategy and partner with IT professionals who not only understand how to leverage technology to your advantage but who are also committed to understanding your business goals and aligning your IT strategy to them. We pride ourselves on having the best business-savvy technical experts in the industry. If you would like to learn how to create an IT strategy aligned with your organizational goals, contact thinkCSC for more information.
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