Wednesday 9 November 2011

What's a Virtual CTO and why do you need one?

Most business people have come across the concept of a virtual finance director at some point. The idea is that as you grow your business, you begin to need someone on your board who understands finance to ensure you are making the right decisions for the future - you need more input than just bookkeeping and creating annual accounts. But at this stage you probably don't need (or have the budget for) a full time person, so you employ a 'virtual' FD for as much time as you need him or her.

The same is true of technology. This is more and more the case as businesses become more dependent on IT for their operations, and customers expect you to make innovative use of the internet and mobile applications to differentiate yourself.

For example, if you are a training provider, you might already take bookings online but what is your strategy for complimenting your offerings with e-learning? If you provide commercial cleaning services, how do you complete timesheets and holiday requests with the minimum of fuss? For a field service company, how do you manage the parts your engineers carry in stock?

Technology impacts every business, and if you don't have technical skills in your company it's very easy to get either left behind or sold something that doesn't really fix the problem and costs a lot more than you should be paying.

This is where a virtual chief technology officer, or virtual CTO comes in. Without needing the budget or commitment for a full time resource, you can bring in an experienced technologist with an understanding of how technology can benefit your business and a knowledge of the latest market trends, and only pay for the amount of time you need.

For more information, please visit www.nuvola.co.uk/Virtual-CTO.