Regional wholesale distributor · ~90 staff
The company had a capable IT firm, but no one was directing its work.
The company had ninety staff and an outside IT firm that did good work, but leadership met the firm once a quarter, and every meeting started with whatever had broken. Three AI tools had been bought by different departments, and the ERP renewal was eighteen months away with no plan for it.
Representative profile. The tier sets how often we meet; the work is scoped for each company.
The work
What we did, and why
The company had ninety staff and a competent outside IT firm, but no one inside was responsible for deciding what that firm should work on. The IT firm did what it was asked, and no one set its priorities. The AI tools showed the same pattern on a smaller scale: three had been bought by different departments, none had been reviewed, and each renewed on its own date.
The AI Use Policy and the assessment came first, followed by the dashboard. The ERP, the CRM, and accounting were connected in the company's own Microsoft cloud account, and license, vendor, and subscription spend sat next to the operating numbers. Leadership had never seen those costs in one place before. The discussion moved from a general sense that IT was expensive to three specific contracts with renewal dates.
The vCIO Program tier began the following month. Each leadership meeting now works from the dashboard and covers what changed, what it cost, and which decision is due. The IT firm has a written priority list and a scorecard, and problems now come to the vCIO instead of the owner's inbox. Dashboard maintenance and the AI security subscription run on the same monthly schedule. The maintenance note opens each meeting and lists the connections checked, any change fixed, and the state of the payroll export. The automation plan is agreed with leadership, and reorder alerts were built first because the dashboard showed how often stock was replenished late.
The result
Where the company stands now
The IT firm has written priorities and a scorecard, and renewals are negotiated from a calendar instead of a reminder email. Two automations from the plan are live, and the third was scoped from what the dashboard showed.
For leadership
What changed for the people running it
The owner is no longer the first call for every vendor problem. Each month the owner reads one page covering what changed, what it cost, and which decision is due.
This is a representative profile, drawn from the kinds of companies we work with. Figures are illustrative. We publish named results only with a client's written permission.
More profiles
How does a part-time CIO work with an existing IT firm?
The IT firm keeps doing the work. The part-time CIO gives it written priorities and a monthly scorecard, and problems come to the vCIO instead of the owner.
What went into the automation plan?
Leadership agreed one feature per quarter. Two automations from that plan are live, and the third was scoped from what the dashboard showed.
Next step
Your company would start with a written assessment.
Every engagement on this site began by writing down what the company already ran. You keep the assessment whether or not you hire us for the work that follows.