Not all managed service providers (MSP) are created equal. In fact, many are only able to provide base level IT support, what is often referred to as “help desk”. However, many organizations require top tier support, as well as a strategic outlook on their infrastructure in order to flourish. If your organization has a goal to grow, it is vital for your MSP organization to provide more than just help desk support. According to ConnectWise, the definition of managed IT services is, “Services that allow businesses to delegate their IT operations to an expert third-party organization that specializes in handling these responsibilities.” This is a true definition; however, a modern MSP should do more than just IT operations and instead help your business develop IT strategy. For your organization to be able to reap these benefits and be successful in reaching their technology goals, your MSP organization should provide vCIO services.
vCIO Services Explained
A virtual Chief Information Officer is a member of the MSP’s team that works with the client to set strategic technology plans that match the overall business goals. General managed IT services provide help desk support, managed IT, managed security services, and more technology needs for an organization. The vCIO looks at an organization’s current IT services, infrastructure, goals, and workflows to help create an IT strategy that aligns with the organization’s goals. Because vCIO services are an extension of an MSP organization, both the MSP and the vCIO work together to support the organization in the best way possible.
The Role of a vCIO
The role of a vCIO is to help guide an organization through technological developments and advancements. The vCIO’s responsibility is to become intimately familiar with the organization, their infrastructure, and needs by learning how they do business, what challenges they are facing, and participating in larger business planning sessions. The vCIO helps to create an IT strategy that aims to maximize an organization’s current technology, and potentially leverage new IT resources, to enable them to reach their technology goals.
How vCIO Services Will Benefit Your Organization
An MSP organization can ensure your business has complete IT services and help desk support whenever you need it, but vCIO services will provide a more in-depth IT solution for your infrastructure. VCIOs act as business consultants with a technology focus. Many small and mid-sized organizations do not have the IT expertise, knowledge, or budget to have an internal technology leader. vCIO services provide organizations with a skilled technology leader to help guide an organization’s IT. This includes implementing new IT solutions, maximizing technology already in place, IT road mapping to help to reach organizational goals and helping your organization’s leaders make strategic decisions.
“The ability for a vCIO to be able to analyze all of a client’s technology resources is a key benefit. Having a team of technicians and systems engineers providing support to the client makes planning and executing tasks much more efficient. The vCIO is essentially the client’s IT leader with an entire IT department working in unison to help achieve their goals – at a fraction of the cost.” – Drew Rosado, CompuData vCIO
Managed IT services can be extremely beneficial to an organization, but many are unable to give you more than just reactive help desk break/fix support. CompuData’s MSP services not only provide a 3-tiered help desk support model with 86% of the staff being able to work the most advanced technical support, but with our proactive approach and vCIO services we help develop a strategic roadmap for your organization. As your organization grows, your IT infrastructure and the technology used to support it needs to evolve and offer flexibility and scalability.
CompuData has multiple trained IT consultants ready to help level up your organization. To learn more about our MSP and vCIO services as well as how we can help you develop an IT strategy to reach your organizational goals, visit here.
