How A vCIO Solution Can Help MSPs Become A More Strategic Partner
By Gary Pica, TruMethods, a Kaseya company
In the wake of the pandemic, many organizations are turning to MSPs and IT service providers to advance digital transformation and mitigate the security risks created by a hybrid workforce.
While some IT professionals misunderstand the function of a virtual CIO (vCIO) as a role rather than a solution, an MSP with vCIO services can provide the remote expertise and strategic mindset needed to streamline business operations.
With a vCIO solution, MSPs can elevate their client relationships by introducing security, flexibility, and a more diverse technical skillset into their clients’ IT environments.
The Misconceptions About A vCIO
There are several common misconceptions about a vCIO and what they can do for an organization. For example, many IT professionals believe vCIOs solely guide everyday details that keep the organization running, like advising on technology updates. Functions like ticket reports, patches, and hardware renewals are not usually a vCIO’s responsibility.
Instead, vCIOs focus on driving long-term growth and strategic initiatives for organizations. MSPs can no longer think of the vCIO as simply a role, but rather a solution that transforms client relationships from the technical to strategic.
With a mature vCIO solution in place, MSPs can analyze a client’s technical environment, establish standards, generate business recommendations, track feedback, and create customized strategic roadmaps tailored specifically to the organization. This approach enables MSPs to help their clients maintain a competitive edge, optimize spend and ensure compliance.
The Main Components And Benefits Of A vCio Solution
A comprehensive vCIO solution includes two main components: technology alignment and knowledge of the business. Alignment reviews are the building blocks of a vCIO solution. Each customer’s technical environment needs to be continually aligned against the MSP’s established technical standards in a centralized platform to ensure nothing is out of order.
An understanding of the client’s organization, paired with technology alignment, results in meaningful recommendations and a strategic roadmap. With this comprehensive roadmap in place, a vCIO platform can help clients track projects, budgets, and timelines, and enable them to gain a full understanding of their overall technology needs.
An internal IT team only has a narrow view of their organization’s technical environment. But MSPs work with multiple clients, so vCIO services offer a broader perspective with improved visibility. An MSP’s diverse technical and management experience can be used to tackle clients’ IT challenges, implement new key objectives, and yield reliable results. The strategic recommendations created by a vCIO solution help the organization boost its security measures, streamline operations, and optimize and better manage its IT infrastructure.
A True And Trusted Partnership
It’s time for a shift in how vCIOs are viewed across industries. A vCIO platform is a great opportunity for MSPs to become true partners to their clients rather than just an advisor on everyday IT issues. By investing in a vCIO solution, clients can ensure business continuity and resiliency in the face of the complications brought on by a hybrid workforce.
About The Author
Gary Pica is a pioneer in the managed services field. He is one of ChannelPro's 20 industry visionaries and MSP Mentor's most influential leaders. He has already built two top-performing MSPs. Today, Gary is the President of TruMethods, a Kaseya company – a training, peer, and accountability firm aimed at helping IT solutions providers reach their full potential as MSPs and cloud providers. Gary shares the key ingredients that transformed his business and his life through his training process. Today, hundreds of IT providers around the world utilize the TruMethods business transformation framework.