What is a virtual CIO (vCIO)?
A Virtual Chief Information Officer (VCIO) is a part-time IT leader who offers on-demand strategic IT leadership tailored to the unique challenges of the construction industry. Our Strategic guidance vCIO service ensures that your technology investments enhance customer satisfaction and streamline business operations. Without the cost and time of finding a full-time CIO. a vCIO’s expert guidance will help your business goals by aligning technology strategy. It’s the perfect solution for growing construction businesses who need a better technological leadership team.
The Benefits of a Virtual CIO for Construction Firms
A Virtual CIO can help your construction business, whether you’re involved in new construction, residential, commercial, electrical, or other services, to really get to grips with technology.
If your leadership team doesn’t have much IT experience, a fractional IT director can add a huge amount of value very quickly.
The Benefits of Virtual CIO Services in Construction – Cut Costs and Increase Growth
Traditionally, the construction industry has underspent on IT. It’s very much a “set it up and forget it” mindset. However, with the increasing cybersecurity risks—which, by the way, can exceed six figures if you suffer a breach—along with advancements in artificial intelligence, digital twins, and IoT devices such as smart building controls and smart lighting, all areas of construction are starting to embrace technology. It’s important to have someone in your business who understands enough about IT to help you make good decisions.
We break this down into four key areas:
- Strategy: What are you doing with IT? What’s your plan over the next few years? What can we do right away to cut costs, make your team more efficient, or otherwise add value? Align IT with your business objectives.
- Risk: Cybersecurity remains by far the biggest risk to your business. It needs to be treated in the same way as health and safety—as a core part of how you manage, train, and support your team. Gone are the days where installing some antivirus software and running a few updates is sufficient. You need a strategic approach to manage cyber risk, along with other risks in your business. You’re probably aware that increased compliance means you need tools to manage this process.
- Architecture: Your systems—both software and hardware—should be optimised to bring the most business benefit. If you have obsolete or out-of-date systems, if your systems are not integrated and working together, if you’re still running Microsoft Exchange or paper-based systems for some of your business processes, then you’re not making use of technologies like BIM to manage the whole construction lifecycle. If you don’t have a CRM or ERP, we can help you understand what they are, what you need, and what your choices are.
- Service: Does your IT team deliver what the business actually needs? We look to augment your IT and management team with better leadership, our independence means we work with your management, MSP and internal team to get results fast.
We have decades of experience helping businesses just like yours get to grips with technology.
Our systems will allow you to understand how your budget is aligned to the business goals
Struggling to get value from IT?
we can help you get there, whether you’re technophobic or have good IT knowledge. We have experience managing hundreds of different IT systems for various construction clients and helping them budget effectively and make the most of the tools available to them.
Real-World Impact
We’ve worked with a number of construction companies, architects, double glazing firms, and green energy companies. Often, we find that because the IT is “working,” no attempt is made to make it more effective for the team. People in the field need software they can access securely and reliably on their mobiles. They need to share information and ensure they have the correct, up-to-date versions of documents they’re working on. There’s nothing more frustrating than constructing something from an old set of plans or ordering parts that don’t fit because they were incorrectly recorded.
Case Studies
Case Study 1: We recently worked with a glazing company whose systems were all paper-based. We’ve moved them to an ERP solution, improved their cybersecurity to meet Cyber Essentials requirements, and streamlined their workflow, eliminating unnecessary steps. Our goal is to reduce admin in their business by 70-80%, enabling the management team and sales staff to sell more and make more profit.
Case Study 2: We are working with another construction client whose system is very outdated regarding cybersecurity. They were unaware of the risks because everything seemed to be working fine. We’ve taken them through Cyber Essentials and now intend to take them through ISO 27001. We’re also starting to look at the BIM process from quotations all the way through to the handover of the finished job. In the future, it’s unacceptable to leave customers in limbo. With smart devices in homes, these need updating and managing, which is very difficult without adequate documentation of what was installed where and by whom.
Leadership for business growth
Family businesses and rapidly expanding firms both struggle with IT leadership.
If you’re struggling with IT leadership, it’s vastly quicker, easier, and more productive to have us work with you than to hire a full-time IT director or struggle on without IT leadership. Simply book a discovery call, and you’ll leave with at least one actionable item to implement right away.
Our vCIO Management Process
We manage our four pillars—strategy, risk, infrastructure, and service—through our framework, which enables us to:
- Strategic Alignment: Show you a plan from a business, financial, and leadership perspective that aligns your technology with your business goals.
- Performance Benchmarking: Compare your performance over time and against similar businesses to ensure you’re on the right track.
If that sounds valuable, book a discovery call. We’d love to have a chat & I promise to leave you with something you can do right now that will have a meaningful impact on your business success.