This can save you both time and money, trust us.

You might think of the virtual Chief Information Officer role as strictly an IT strategy and data management role, but one of the most valuable contributions a vCIO can make to your business is managing the costs of your technology. And we’re not just talking about the costs of your infrastructure. Your technology impacts business costs in more ways than you think.

Your IT Strategy is Everything

How many different software programs and services does your company use? Do they play well together or are you constantly troubleshooting or updating information manually? Is your line of business application holding you back from serving your clients as well as you’d like? Are you open to cyber attacks or compromised data because of your choices? 

One of, if not, the most important decisions you will make as a business owner is the business applications and software services you will build your business upon. These tools can make or break your business. The time and money spent vetting these programs and then implementing them effectively is well spent and a CIO can provide valuable insight and strategy in the process.

As your team develops and grows to serve your clients, they are going to require more of your software and line of business applications to be effective. The last thing you want is an employee updating data manually or waiting five minutes for a program to load every time or losing an hour’s worth of work because a software glitches.  A well-built IT strategy will allow your business to handle growth effectively and manage the costs associated with it. And then when it does come time to migrate to a new tool, a CIO evaluates and manages that migration with an eye to the future. If done poorly, you can end up losing invaluable company data, crippling your employees’ productivity, and stunting your business growth.

Your Old IT Equipment is Costing You Money

Your IT infrastructure fundamentally maintains the IT strategy of your business. Ideally, your equipment is the absolute newest and greatest technology and performs perfectly. But we all know that’s never how it works. Your infrastructure operates within the confines of budget, time, and resources. In most cases, equipment is arbitrarily chosen and there’s little consistency within the technologies being utilized throughout the workplace. This causes complications with communication and data management, and of course, declines in efficiency, costing you dollars. Standardized equipment throughout a company’s IT infrastructure, however, has been shown to produce spikes in productivity and inverse drops in downtime. This relationship is facilitated by a standard set of technologies, meaning the use of identical hardware, operating systems, and applications, establishing a norm across the workplace.

Uniformity in technology boosts correspondence throughout the company. This builds competence among employees, and therefore, boosts company profits. Additionally, standards allow upgrades and maintenance to be efficient to minimize downtime and save costs

Your Technology Vendors Are Ripping You Off

Internet and Cloud providers, software and tech stack programs, even telephone and VOIP service providers often push users to buy more services and additional features, especially when that user isn’t well-versed in these technologies and isn’t sure what services they can do without. These providers intentionally make their service offerings unclear and confusing to further box you into paying for more than what you need.

It is important to make sure that your business is managing its vendors more than they are managing you, because that allows them to practice bad strategy and your business will be the one paying for it – literally and figuratively. Think of a bad vendor as a bad employee. But in this case, a bad vendor will end up costing your business much more than a single employee could ever.  As Forbes states, “track the facts.” Take a step back to analyze your vendor and ask yourself a few questions.

1. Communication is key to any successful partnership. How effective is the communication between you and your vendor?
2. How often do they follow up to vet your hardware, software, or other applications?
3. Do you believe you are their primary focus, or do they have a hidden agenda?

If you’re stuck on these questions, you may have a problem on your hands. Integris makes sure that the companies we work with are always taken care of and all of their needs are met. Make sure that you’re not wasting your time with a sub-par MSP. Contact us below for more information and an overview of what we can offer your business.

Want more from your IT provider? We know change is hard.

A conversation is a great place to start. Contact us to set up a call.

Download this post for your personal resources