It’s an obvious question, but one which is challenging for consulting firms like Innovation Vista to answer prior to some discussion. The real answer to this question is: IT DEPENDS.
There are many variables in the equation for the cost of IT Advisory, Interim CIO & Virtual CIO services, including the size & complexity of the IT platform, the volume of change being implemented in parallel, and whether there are unique platform speciality skills needed for success. Clients are often surprised by how much we can tailor their proposal to fit their budget by tuning these knobs and dials.
Jeff Roberts, CEO Innovation Vista
A Few Key Decisions Enable us to Estimate a Budget Range fairly quickly
There are a few key determinants of the overall cost structure which can typically be decided fairly early in our discussions with clients, enabling us to give them a budget range for the monthly cost of our services. A few concepts which help in this sizing:
- The full range of monthly costs for our services ranges from $4,000 to $50,000 – an extremely wide range over an order of magnitude in breadth. There truly is that much variability in the cost of our various service offerings.
- Advisory services are more affordable than Virtual CTO or Interim CIO services, and offer the highest “leverage on expertise”, but this type of engagement requires that the organization has trusted IT leader(s) and/or IT vendor(s) who can not only oversee the ongoing tech operations & platform, but also successfully lead any uplift/enhancement projects underway.
- Virtual CIO services are more affordable than project oversight or interim CTO engagements, due to the differences in time requirements involved. In these engagements, our consultants take on more responsibilities – often focused on platform, organization, and process improvements. This kind of arrangement typically requires that the organization does have an IT leader or vendor to oversee the daily tech operations and platform.
- The size of the organization often relates to the complexity of the IT platform, and therefore drives significant differences in the workload required for any of these services.
The Best Way to Get a Firm Estimate? Let’s Talk
Of course, the very best way to get a firm estimate for the costs of one of our expert consultants is to reach out and contact us for an introductory call. We’re happy to discuss your situation with you at no cost or obligation, to explore whether our services would be a good fit for your organization, and if so, what those costs would look like.
