Eighty-nine percent of businesses expect to either raise or maintain their IT budgets in 2019. But navigating your business’s IT doesn’t need to be a huge expense. And for smaller businesses, splashing out on IT services and maintenance isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. Fortunately, if you outsource a vCIO, you could potentially slash your IT budget.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the role of the vCIO and how they could ultimately save you money.
What is a vCIO?
To define it simply, a vCIO is a virtual chief information officer. This means they are not office-based, as businesses normally outsource their services. Typically, they help your business by:
- Creating an achievable technology roadmap
- Ensuring watertight security, data protection and disaster recovery policies
- Maintaining your environment and monitor for threats.
- Offering tailored IT expertise and education
- Aligning technology with business strategy
- Managing and optimising IT expenditures
- Providing support from a local destination
How can a vCIO help to slash your IT budget?
Now, that’s a good question. And, fortunately, we have the answers.
Here are three examples of how a vCIO could ultimately help your small business budget better without compromising your IT productivity or security.
1. They’ll save you the cost of hiring
Did you know that it’ll cost your business between one to three percent to get a new hire up to speed? More than that, 20-25 percent of a CIO’s initial first year of salary is actually spent on finding them.
The time and costs of hiring a fulltime CIO can be extremely burdensome for small businesses with tight budgets. Oftentimes, the expense just isn’t worth it.
By onboarding a vCIO, you’ll be able to cut the typical costs of hiring and give more financial attention to your IT efforts.
2. They’ll optimise the costs of your current IT environment
Whether it’s the tools you use, your infrastructure or the number of devices your business owns, your vCIO should take a thorough look at your IT environment and determine where you can cut costs or refactor processes.
It may be as simple as finding different, cheaper software or cancelling subscriptions or as complex as migrating your workloads to a cheaper, flexible cloud environment.
No matter how they decide to save you money, the right vCIO will ensure their IT decisions are centred around your business needs and strategies. They’ll make decisions that will benefit your finances as well as your future.
3. They’ll keep your business secure
A good vCIO will ensure your business follows correct security and data protection practices. They’ll also provide ongoing support and education to help your employees understand and avoid typical cyber security threats.
Ultimately, this will reduce the likelihood of a data breach or security issue. And, in turn, will save your business from the hefty fines and financial burdens of coping with a nasty security incident.
Find the right vCIO for you
When looking for a vCIO, it’s essential you find someone who takes the time to understand your organisation’s goals and needs.
At the end of the day, the right person should work alongside your strategies, help you to save money and strive towards bettering your business’s future.