VARs and MSPs often refer to themselves as Trusted Advisors. But increasingly, the term Virtual CIO seems to be entering the conversation as well. The latest example: HEIT, a managed services provider and cloud services provider, has launched a Virtual CIO (vCIO) group for customers in the financial vertical. Is this the start of a larger trend?
The vCIO group is “intended to serve as an extension of the community bank or credit union’s own staff and leadership team,” according to a statement from HEIT. The vCIO team will assist clients in strategic technology planning, providing guidance through audits and exams, and participating in IT Steering Committee meetings, board presentations and budgeting sessions, HEIT added.
The vCIO group is led by Dan Barbattini, a 15-year veteran of IT organizations who was previously CIO for a $1.3 billion bank. HEIT has made additional executive appointments, including Paul Reymann as chief risk officer and Brad Jones as the midwest region’s business development director.
Also of interest: HEIT is starting to play up its cloud expertise more and more, describing itself as a “national provider of Technology and Risk Management and Cloud Services.” HEIT is among a handful of companies that qualified for both the MSPmentor 100 and the Talkin’ Cloud 50, which track the top channel partners in managed services and cloud services, respectively.
But back to the story at hand — branding around virtual CIO services. The virtual CIO theme was loud and clear during the recent TruMethods Schnizzfest conference in Philadelphia, where many MSPs described their services as virtual CIO engagements with SMB customers.
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Posted In: Cloud Computing | Vertical Markets
Tags: Dan Barbattini | HEIT | MSPmentor 100 | Paul Reymann | Talkin' Cloud 50 | vCIO | Virtual CIO | Virtual CIO Services
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Joe P –
Another very timely post and right on in our experience. We started the Virtual CIO program about 2 years ago as a way to differentiate ourselves and also add a “QA” person to our service process. So far it has been very successful and clients love that they have a dedicated vCIO (we include it with every contract as a required offering). They become the trusted advisor that helps drive our client’s technology while at the same time keeping an eye on our service team to make sure they are delivering.
The one part of this offering that can get a little troublesome is when clients soak up “too much” time, doing audits and policy development. We are working to put a good fence around the offering to not allow a client to take advantage of it but without putting a time limit which sort of brings us back the to T&M world.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas about “putting the fence”, would love to hear them. This is a pain point for us.
-Eric
@EricDosal
Eric,
Thanks for the note. As I speak with readers I’ll be sure to pose your “fence” question. Definitely a tricky issue.
-jp