vCIO / Strategy without a full-time salary
A technology plan your accountant can read.
Small offices make big IT decisions under pressure: a server dies, a vendor raises prices, an insurer sends a questionnaire. A virtual CIO turns those surprises into a calendar. We keep a roadmap, a budget and a risk list for your office, and we review them with you every quarter.
What you get
Deliverables, not just meetings
| Deliverable | What it contains | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Technology roadmap | Projects for the next 12 to 24 months with rough timing and reason | Updated quarterly |
| Hardware lifecycle | Every laptop, server and network device with age, warranty and replacement year | Updated quarterly |
| IT budget forecast | Recurring licenses, planned projects and hardware replacements by quarter | Yearly, revised quarterly |
| Risk register | Open security and continuity risks, owner, decision and date | Reviewed quarterly |
| Vendor and renewal list | Contracts, renewal dates, notice periods, who to call | Kept current |
| Policy set | Acceptable use, access, backup and incident response policies in plain language | Reviewed yearly |
Quarterly review
What a quarterly business review covers
- What happened: tickets, incidents and patterns since the last review.
- Where you stand: security controls, backup tests and compliance tasks, measured against the plan.
- What is coming: renewals, end-of-support dates, staff changes and projects.
- Decisions: a short list of things we need the owner to approve, with costs and options.
Every review ends with a written summary and an updated roadmap. If a meeting does not produce a decision or a document, we change the format.
Typical decisions
The questions a vCIO helps answer
Replace or extend?
Whether to replace aging laptops this year or next, given Windows support dates and warranty status.
Which platform?
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, UniFi or Meraki, cloud server or on site, with a cost comparison.
What do we owe our insurer?
Which controls a cyber insurance renewal will ask for and whether you can honestly say yes.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is a vCIO included in managed IT?
Quarterly planning is part of our managed plans. Standalone vCIO engagements are available for offices that have their own technical staff but want outside planning help.
How is a vCIO different from a vCISO?
A vCIO plans technology for the business: budget, roadmap, vendors. A vCISO focuses on security governance and compliance. For small offices we cover the security planning that a vCIO review needs and can bring in deeper security governance when a regulator or client requires it.
Who attends the review?
Usually the owner or managing partner and the office manager. It takes about an hour and works well over video.
Can you help with budgets for grants or lenders?
Yes. We produce IT budget forecasts with line items that a board, grant funder or lender can follow.
How we package it
See the plans and how onboarding works
Essentials, Secure Office, Regulated Office and Co-Managed, compared side by side. Plans are priced per user, and we quote after a short assessment.
Related services
Where this fits in the rest of your IT
Cybersecurity and Endpoint Protection
Layered protection for laptops, servers and accounts, monitored through Ares RMM.
Network Management (UniFi and Meraki)
Firewalls, switches and Wi-Fi configured, patched and watched.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Tenant administration, licensing and security baselines.
Next step
Start with a planning session
Tell us what decisions are coming up for your office. We reply within one business day.