A virtual CIO (vCIO) is essentially a bundle of services your managed service provider delivers to cover expertise gaps in your IT staff. These services are especially helpful for small businesses that can’t afford to hire an executive to make big picture IT decisions and leverage technology to drive revenue.

While your IT staff serves as a tactical team—managing daily maintenance tasks and performance enhancements—a vCIO helps you strategically align technology with your business goals. Take a look at these three major benefits:

1. Technology Blueprint

Visualize where you want your business a month, year or decade from now. A vCIO can help you strategically map out your technology for immediate improvements and sustainable growth over time. Together you’ll leverage innovative solutions that meet your short and long-term goals.

2. Disaster Planning

A disaster recovery plan is like insurance—you usually don’t know you need it until you do. A vCIO helps you prepare for the absolute worst with quick response and operational continuity protocols that minimize damage and revenue loss from an outage or natural disaster.

3. Data Migration

You’re probably accumulating more information than you can manage and it’s likely duplicated throughout your systems. A vCIO can help you move and share data effectively, reduce redundancy, establish a storage plan and minimize the risk of data loss.

4. Security Planning

Think you’re dodging a bullet just because you don’t have enterprise-sized data sets? Think again. As a small business, hackers see you as low hanging fruit which means you’re more vulnerable. A vCIO will have the experience and technical knowledge to secure and monitor your mission critical systems and data, so you don’t risk losing your business to cyber crime.

You need more than just a technician who can install printers and troubleshoot network hiccups. A vCIO is a cost-effective alternative to hiring an executive, but will still enable you to prioritize technology planning and leverage customized solutions to get ahead. It’s time to start viewing IT as a strategic asset—contact your managed service provider to learn more about their vCIO services.