vCIO role

Definition

The advisory seat that plans a client's technology budget and decides what the contract renews into.

Why It Matters

In most small managed-service shops the owner is the vCIO, and that seat is where renewals, upgrades and price increases are agreed. A buyer who acquires the contracts without the relationship inherits an agreement anybody can shop at its next renewal. Ask who sits in the quarterly reviews for the top ten clients and whether anyone besides the seller has ever run one. If the answer is nobody, the transition plan needs those meetings handed over in person before the seller leaves, not after.