The role of virtual CIO is becomming much more common place over the past few years.

Large companies can afford to employ specialist roles such as Multi-national Taxation specialists, Security Analysts, Treasury Portfolio Managers and Chief Information Officers.

Many Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often do not have that ability, either to employ or retain that skill set.  So often there is a disjoint between Information Technology (IT) and business requirements.  Much of the time, this is filled with technical people doing their best to band-aid a companies IT systems whilst getting shouted at by frustrated users who cannot understand why their obvious needs are not being addressed – yesterday!

In today’s age we have the technology to connect people across the world.  The questions is how effective is it?  We have all (I am sure) experienced the call centre you phone and some answers who obviously has no clue where Taumaranui is or that you have rebooted your PC three times already and it has not solved the issue!

Having a consultant come in and write a report is not always the answer.  It requires a longer term engagement to build a relationship and gain trust and understanding.  So, there are times where this can work well, if:

• The people involved have experience with the issues being discussed.
• There is a good understanding of business principles with practical experience learned over many years.
• There is a deep knowledge of information systems, technology, security, telecommunications, databases and applications.
• There is real independence from products and suppliers.