vCIO Services: Why should a vCIO head my quarterly business review?

Your quarterly business review is an excellent time to evaluate your organization’s technology goals, watch to learn how a vCIO can help your organization with a roadmap, and plan for future growth.

WHY SHOULD A vCIO LEAD YOUR QBR?

A vCIO will generally have the experience and the knowledge of having been a technician or engineer in the past, and at the same time, they will have a lot of business knowledge and understanding. Having a unique perspective, and a wide berth of experience in both business and IT gives vCIOs the ability to better understand how technology fits within your business. 

PLANNING A QBR

Whenever I talk or engage with one of my customers about setting a date and planning for a QBR, I like to set the tone of the meeting by letting them know that we will be talking about the technology that is within their organization. I establish that I will be working with them to implement new and different strategies that will help them reach their goals and the goals expressed in the QBR.

WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT DURING A QBR?

PERFORMANCE

I begin by discussing the work that’s been performed over the last quarter, this includes:

• Tickets that have been opened and closed
• Virus reports
• Backup reports

I then go through the work discussed and see if there are any points that need to be readdressed, or if there have been any reoccurring issues. Any issues found will be analyzed to determine if they were caused by technology or training.

SECURITY

I then follow up by talking about your organization’s security - where you stand right now, and where you may want to be in the future. We will go through new products or services that your organization may want to implement in order to help protect your organization.

BUDGET

Your budget will come up next. We will discuss what your organization’s budget for the next 90 days, and later 12 months will look like. We will talk about things like: 
• Upcoming computer refreshes
• Servers that need replacing 
• Office moves within the next year or two 

As a vCIO, I lead QBRs with the intention of helping you plan for the future and helping you create projects and tickets so that you can proceed towards your goals in an organized manner, and there is no scramble when it comes to implementing initiatives.

A Good vCIO will have all the information above prepared for you and will be able to deliver it clearly and effectively so that your QBR is meaningful and valuable to your organization.