Tech News & Deals

“A good CIO will focus on the business processes and the people well before discussing specific technologies.”

I recently visited one of my first Quik! customers. She is a successful financial planner who has a team of five people, two of whom are financial planners. I have known her for over eight years now and there are several operational things she does well: parcels out work to various team members, continually improves her company’s operations, focuses on her company’s core competencies and invests in technology.

While reviewing her overall needs and challenges it immediately became apparent to me that for all the great technology investments she has made, her team is lacking one very important investment: a Chief Information Officer (CIO). Of course hiring a CIO is not cheap and a fulltime person really is not appropriate for a small non-technology company, but having someone on your team that you can call upon for strategic technology decisions is imperative if you want to create efficiency and to grow.

There are two types of technology people a small company needs:

a) a general Information Technology (IT) person who can setup, configure and maintain the computers, servers, network, software, etc, and 

b) a strategic IT person who can plan the architecture of your technology needs with a focus on process and people first.

If your firm has grown beyond two people then it is probably safe to assume you’ve already begun addressing the hardware and software issues you face, perhaps with help from your hardware manufacturer and home-office team.

Addressing the strategic issues are a little more challenging because unless you are an IT professional you probably don’t know what questions to ask or who to hire (just like finding a good car mechanic). But like bringing your car-expert friend to the mechanic, you should also be bringing a qualified CIO to the table when you discuss technology needs and plans, especially with technology vendors.

Here’s the good news: a CIO is a business person with technology expertise (not the other way around). A good CIO will focus on the business processes and the people well before discussing specific technologies. Technology, after all, is only a tool designed to perform specific steps in a process; it is not a magic silver bullet.

Hiring a part-time CIO is possible and ideal for smaller firms. Start by asking around for recommendations. Then look for people who run consulting firms that can address small-business strategic technology issues. Finally, ask your prospective CIO-for-hire about their background. Preferably they have a strong strategic planning background with expertise in technology decisions and can show you how they helped other companies become more efficient, more effective and more cost-effective.

Of course you can always ask me for additional guidance, opinions and recommendations of people I may know in your area. Send me an email (rwalker@efficientceo.com).

Thanks for reading,

Richard Walker

(Blog: www.EfficientCEO.com)

(Website: www.Quikforms.com)