I’ll spell it out in no small words – your organization needs a Chief Information Officer (CIO). OK you ask – what is that, it sounds expensive, and why do I need it? Fair questions, and let’s not confuse the “role” of CIO with the “function” of CIO.
The long and short of it is this – you have more technology throughout your organization than you realize. Some of us keep better records than others and have a better concept of what they have, but the area of technology is so influential and impactful that there is virtually no area of your organization that is not touched by it. And this trend will only continue. The more you rely on technology to run your organization and store information on it, the more complex it gets and the greater the risk if something goes wrong, either in lost data or lost productivity, or lost learning time if in education.
Stop and think about it for a few minutes. From a data perspective, you have massive amounts of data stored across a wide variety of platforms that may be on your servers or someone else’s (in the cloud). Are all of these platforms secure, do they talk to each other, and who’s managing them? Or consider your infrastructure – it takes concerted efforts to connect all the dots between internet service, firewalls, networking, and devices to make sure they are operating at peak performance. Communications is a critical part of any organization too – how are you harnessing your website, email marketing, and multiple internal communications platforms and apps in a way that is effective for your organization?
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the need for security, privacy, data governance, risk management, backups and redundancy. Having a solid infrastructure and plan for using the technology is great, but having the right tools and plans for protecting your organization from loss is critical too, as well as plans to recover should that firewall go down or a data breach occur. You need to be able to show your employees and constituents that you are doing everything you can to both protect and prepare for the unknown.
This is the role of the CIO – they take on the function of protecting what you have now and planning for the future so that the technology is an asset to your organization, not a stressor or cost center. They collaborate and partner with leaders throughout the organization to make sure that every aspect of technology is addressed and taken into consideration when making plans and decisions. The role is different from your IT staff because it is focused on the organization as a whole while the IT staff are focused on their own area.
Of course, not every organization can afford a CIO or has a need for one on a full-time basis. With salaries alone for this type of role in the six-figure range, it is an expensive investment for sure. IT Consultants like LeadershipOne Technologies can fill that gap and perform the function of the CIO role, where we can serve in a part-time capacity on a monthly basis for you. This saves money for you while providing the benefit of someone who has experience working with multiple other organizations.
Visit our contact page and let’s talk about how we can get you started with a virtual CIO today!