How we work
One method, sized to your business.
We do not sell open-ended discovery. You can start with a part-time CIO on a monthly agreement, or with a review priced in advance that ends in a written plan you own. We manage that process. Daily support remains with your team or with the IT provider we help you select.
We manage the technology process. Daily support remains with your team or with the IT provider we help you select.
The method
How technology management works, from the first review to a live dashboard.
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The review
AI Use Policy and AI security assessment
We start with what you run today. We write your AI Use Policy, the rules for who may use which AI tools on what work. We also find every AI tool already in use, approved or not, and rank what to fix first. Your leadership adopts the rules. Nothing gets connected before the policy exists.
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The inventory
List the applications. Mark what connects.
We list every application you run and mark which ones can feed the dashboard. We also find the reporting worth retiring: the aging exports and hand-built spreadsheets the dashboard will replace.
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The dashboard
The standard dashboard, in your own Microsoft cloud account.
Every client gets the same base dashboard with the same core set of reports. It runs in your own Microsoft cloud account, pulls data from the systems marked in the inventory, and shows your IT spend each month. Your Azure and security subscriptions are bought from Third Shift and arrive on one monthly bill. Our own work is billed as a set monthly fee or by the hour.
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Ongoing · The watch
Maintain, watch, automate.
Monthly dashboard maintenance keeps the numbers honest. The AI security subscription keeps the rules enforced. From there the conversation moves to removing manual work, one automated step at a time, inside the platform you already own.
Why the method is fixed
The method is fixed, and the plan is yours.
Custom AI projects fail in predictable ways: months of discovery, a prototype no one owns, and no policy behind any of it. We removed the open-ended billing, not the judgment.
Because the method and the base dashboard are the same for every client, the work is proven before it reaches you and the costs are itemized from the first month. What changes is what the review finds: which systems are worth connecting, which gaps come first, and what your plan should tackle next. That part we do not template.
And because the dashboard lives in your own Microsoft cloud account, standard never means locked in. The setup is yours. We manage it.
What you hold
A policy, a dashboard, and a plan.
The policy and the dashboard are yours outright. So is the plan, whether or not you ask us to carry it out.
- ✓A written AI Use Policy, adopted by leadership
- ✓An AI security assessment with a ranked list of fixes
- ✓A full list of your applications and which ones connect
- ✓The base dashboard live in your own Microsoft cloud account, with IT spend on it
- ✓One monthly bill for subscriptions; our work billed monthly or by the hour
Questions
Questions about how the method runs
Do we have to do this in your order?
No, you do not have to follow our order. The review comes first because connecting systems before the rules exist creates the very problem we are usually hired to fix. From there, the order follows your plan and your priorities, not ours. Some clients stop after the review, and that is a fine outcome.
Who owns the plan?
You own the plan. Every review Third Shift does ends in a written recommendation with the work, the order, and the cost. You can carry it out with your IT firm, with your own staff, or with us. Nothing in the plan requires you to hire Third Shift for the next step.
Can we hire you for advice only?
Yes, you can hire Third Shift for advice only. vCIO Solutions is a set monthly fee for a part-time CIO who owns the plan, the vendors, the budget, and the AI work. It carries no obligation to buy the dashboard, the automation, or anything else. Many companies start there and decide later whether they want us to build anything.
Why does the policy come before connection?
The AI Use Policy comes before any system is connected because what gets connected depends on it. The review measures what you run against the policy, the dashboard only connects to what the policy allows, and any automation stays inside its limits. Connect first and write the rules later, and you usually end up rebuilding both.
The first meeting
The first meeting is a working session, not a pitch.
Bring us the current state of AI in your company. You receive a written assessment and a recommendation for what to do first, even if that work is not ours.