A vCIO should always be forward-looking, focusing on a strategic roadmap built around three core objectives: reducing risk, increasing productivity, and optimizing costs.
Every recommendation, project, and conversation should connect back to these pillars. Let’s break them down:
1. Reduce Risk
Cybersecurity threats, non-compliance, data loss, and downtime aren’t just IT problems; they are business threats. One of the vCIO’s top priorities is helping clients mitigate these risks before they become costly incidents.
What this looks like in the roadmap:
- Implementing backup and disaster recovery strategies with clear recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO/RPO)
- Increasing cybersecurity
- Building a more redundant and resilient IT environment to minimize the impact of outages or failures
2. Increase Productivity
Technology should enable users to be more efficient and productive. That’s the whole point.
As a vCIO, one of your key responsibilities is to identify where productivity is being lost and align technology to address these issues.
What this looks like in the roadmap:
- Ensuring every user has the right device, accessories, and apps to do their job effectively
- Implementing and training users on Microsoft 365 best practices to fully leverage tools like Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Loop, etc
- Helping users integrate AI into their daily tasks
- Automating repetitive tasks
- Standardizing the user experience across devices and locations to reduce friction and downtime
3. Optimize Cost
Cost optimization isn’t just about cutting expenses; it’s about spending smarter. A skilled vCIO helps clients get more value out of their IT investments while avoiding unnecessary spending.
What this looks like in the roadmap:
- Reviewing vendor contracts and licensing for efficiency
- Evaluating cloud vs. on-prem vs. hybrid models
- Planning hardware refresh cycles strategically
A vCIO must keep these three objectives top of mind.
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Simon is the President of S3 Technologies, a leading Canadian MSP he co-founded in 2003. He built and scaled the vCIO team which eventually lead to him co-founding Propel Your MSP in 2018 to help MSPs with their vCIO services.
