Virtual Chief Information Officer
Common Questions
What does a Chief Information Officer do?
- Keeps resources focused on top strategic projects.
- Ensures data, infrastructure and practices are secure.
- Partners with Finance to manage expenditures.
- Leads the technology organization and manages delivery.
- Helps senior management choose compatible technology.
- Takes steps to remediate inefficient processes.
- Keeps technologies current with business needs.
- Helps the business measure the impact of decisions.
- Partners with HR to integrate technology policies.
- Facilitates integrated software and hardware architectures.
What does a Virtual Chief Information Officer do?
Many companies don’t need a full-time CIO to fill the gap between executive management and Information Technology. A Virtual CIO helps you choose which CIO competencies your company needs now — helping with overall Information Technology direction, governance, and planning to support strategic business initiatives. Meeting with management and staff on a weekly basis, a Virtual CIO brings deep Information Technology experience to bear, demystifying complex technology, adding clarity to projects, and helping management make prudent decisions. A Virtual CIO frees owners, CEO's and CFO's from splitting their time between running the business and managing Information Technology issues.
Why can't our IT manager do this?
Effective IT management is crucial for the day-to-day functions of any company. Today's IT management is presented with managing complicated systems, and nearly 100% of their time is devoted to operational concerns. This leaves almost no time for long-term strategic planning, application architecture direction, integration planning, package software selection and more (see The Wheel of CIO Competencies). This presents a gap between senior management and Information Technology. An analogy might go something like this: the IT manager controls the rudder on the boat to keep it going in a set direction. That's fine until that manager has to navigate around something he or she can't see yet. What's needed is someone with a map, astrolabe and charts, and the knowledge to guide the boat to its destination while avoiding hazards. And, not unlike running your boat aground, hazards in an IT organization can spell disaster.
Our CFO controls the IT budget, so why would we need a CIO?
In a recent Gartner and Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) study, 42% of the organizations surveyed revealed that IT reported to the CFO. Why? Because Information Technology typically accounts for significant cost in the average organization. We find that having CIO's and CFO's work together is a powerful combination, because both share in some of the same root concepts of procedure and governance; and both can be operationally focused. However, the CIO adds deep Information Technology background, implementation experience and an understanding of architecture, data security, and technical strategic planning to the equation. We don't think it makes sense to ask a CIO to produce the company's financials anymore than we think it makes sense for the CFO to plan the virtualization and migration of a server farm.
How will a CIO help our business?
Through employing many, if not all of the competencies shown above, a CIO has to address two overarching issues: what people are doing, and who is doing the work. Aligning IT with the business is essential for managing delivery of services. Ensuring that the proper resources are dedicated to delivering those services keeps costs in check and projects on plan.
Why couldn't we hire a project manager to do this?
This sounds like the answer, but it is only part of the equation. While it is true a project manager keeps track of projects and manages resource allocations during the course of a given project, a project manager does not address the overall alignment of IT-to-business strategy nor does the project manager set policy, select architecture, enforce enterprise-wide security standards or directly address the other competencies of a CIO. Conversely, the CIO is not a project manager. Rather, the CIO manages the overall portfolio of projects for the organization to ensure they remain in alignment with business strategy.
We can't afford a full-time CIO. What options do we have?
The most cost-effective solution we have found is to use the services of a Virtual CIO. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today to learn how The Arrington Group can help.
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