What you should expect from a good CIO
​A CIO is a Chief Information Officer. They are responsible for not just the technology, but for enabling the flow of information throughout and across a business. In the modern world, that managing information usually involves technology, either for real-time fast communication, or asynchronous communication and storage of information across days, weeks, months and years. Therefore a good CIO requires a blend of understanding both communication, and technology.
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At IS Online, we lead and coach your IT team - whether internal or outsourced, dedicated to IT or team members who's main role is elsewhere in the business - to manage the Information, Communication and Technology strategy across your team, aligned to delivering your business goals and success. We do this primarily for SMEs with 10 - 250 staff. What SMEs need is broadly the same as a larger business, but with a few differences. An SME doesn't normally need a full time CIO, unless the business is a technology business itself. If the business is a technology startup or established business, there will normally be a CTO, responsible for the operational delivery of the technology to the customer, and they are often ideally placed to be accountable for overall communication and technology.
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For SMEs without a CTO, in the modern world to be successful, as well as a strong Marketing/Sales leader, operations leader and finance & aHR leadership, it's important to have a strategic IT leader, operating at board level, ensuring that all forms of information, communication and technology strategy is aligned to the wider business functions. For an SME, this is normally only needed on a part-time basis - a virtual CIO.
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We believe you should expect the following from a good CIO - whether full time or virtual - and this is what we aim to deliver for each of our clients. ​​​
​What you should expect from a CIO
A good CIO, will usually deliver the following:
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leading and coaching IT staff and developing department goals;
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ensuring IT strategies, architecture, and processes support company-wide goals;
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developing and overseeing the IT budget;
- planning, deploying and maintaining IT systems and operations;
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managing the organisation's software development, effectively documented, if needed;
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developing IT policies, procedures and best practices;
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staying updated on IT trends and emerging technologies;
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developing and enforcing IT best practices across the organisation;
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overseeing relationships with vendors, contractors and service providers; and
- explaining to the board of directors and other executives the benefits and risks of new IT-related projects.​
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able to ask the right questions of staff and vendors to in order to effectively manage those staff and vendors in a way to align to the businesses needs and architecture;
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What we deliver - not the average virtual CIO
We deliver a Virtual CIO service to SMEs with 10 - 250 staff.
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We are not an average virtual CIO. Most virtual CIOs learned their trade by working in IT teams in large organisations, and working their way up to be IT Manager or IT Director at a fairly large business. They know IT and IT strategy very well. But they know it from within the context of how big businesses work. They do not usually have hands on experience of working within Sales & Marketing, of managing company finances. And they very rarely have experience of the mindset of being an owner shareholder or managing director/CEO of an SME.
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Unusually, Dave Abraham's experience has come exclusively from working within SMEs, although often those SMEs have been serving larger customers. As a result, Dave has hands on experience of technology and applying it, including working hands on within sales and marketing teams delivering technology to automate them. Dave has twice been CEO/MD and co-owner in 2 SMEs, with accountability for managing sales and marketing teams, and oversight of the finance function. As a result, we have a unique perspective to be able to shape IT strategy to suit SMEs.
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Therefore as Virtual CIO, we tailor the CIO service to apply the appropriate amount of time, effort and resources across the following areas, depending upon your goals for success, organisational maturity relative to your success goals, always with in mind getting the appropriate balance of efficiency, resilience, and cost, for your business.
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We aim to make the IT simple and clear for other managers, turning complex tech, into simple building blocks that enable business success. And if there is a potential CIO within your team, we'll aim to develop them to be able to take over from us. ​
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Therefore we deliver an appropriate, and prioritised subset of the following, depending upon your goals and your team:
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leading and coaching IT staff and developing department goals;
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ensuring IT strategies, architecture, and processes support company-wide goals;
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developing and overseeing the IT budget;
- planning, deploying and maintaining IT systems and operations;
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managing the organisation's software development, effectively documented, if needed;
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developing IT policies, procedures and best practices;
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staying updated on IT trends and emerging technologies;
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developing and enforcing IT best practices across the organisation;
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overseeing relationships with vendors, contractors and service providers; and
- explaining to the board of directors and other executives the benefits and risks of new IT-related projects.​
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able to ask the right questions of staff and vendors to in order to effectively manage those staff and vendors in a way to align to the businesses needs and architecture;
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How do we do that? Read more about our proven process.​
