What’s The Secret To Hiring A Director Of IT?
“Director Of IT” is not an easy position to fill – whoever you choose needs a variety of skills, extensive experience, and a diverse base of knowledge. Is it possible to get all that from one person?
So you’re looking for someone to oversee your IT from top to bottom. You may be thinking it’ll be an easy task – they just have to look after a few computers, right?
Wrong – while at it’s most basic level IT management is a matter of making sure technology works the way it is supposed to, when it comes to oversight and direction, it gets a little more complicated.
What Is The Director Of IT Responsible For?
There’s a lot that this position entails – what exactly should you be hiring for? The Director of IT will oversee the following:
- The initial assessment, current maintenance and ongoing continuity of all IT systems
- Development of effective relationships with third-party vendors, as well as non-IT personnel within the business that will rely on IT
- Oversee, plan and execute migrations from legacy systems to new cloud-based solutions, prioritizing factors such as user-experience, resilience, performance, availability, redundancy, and cost-effect
- Develop and follow an IT roadmap and strategy, ensuring hardware and software refreshes are performed regularly and effectively, costs are kept low, expected and within budget, and new opportunities for improvement are taken advantage of
- Oversees the management of the entire IT infrastructure from end to end, including all hardware, software and involved external parties, such as data centers and solution vendors
- Maintains compliance with involved technologies as they may apply to the relevant field of business
As you can see, the Director Of IT is responsible in one way or another for each and every aspect of the IT environment. That means that in addition to understanding the technology in place, they also need to understand the financial, business, and managerial aspects involved as well.
In a nutshell? This isn’t a position you can fill with a technician or engineer, because it requires a more comprehensive business skillset that they have. This is near enough to a c-level executive position as something like Chief Technical Officer.
That means finding the right person for the role (at a salary that you can afford) isn’t a simple undertaking. You could have a job description out for a month, and interview a few dozen applicants, and still not find one single person that meets all these qualifications.
What’s The Secret To Hiring A Director Of IT?
Here’s the secret – don’t just hire one person. Hire an entire team.
But wait – you may be thinking, “Isn’t that more expensive? Hiring multiple people instead of one?” In many cases, yes, but not if you hire your IT team via a Managed IT Services model.
Think about it – for one monthly flat rate, you can hire not just a team, but an entire company to fill the role of your Director Of IT. That way, you get engineers, technicians, IT consultants, and more, each of which can see to a different aspect of the position.
What Will A IT Managed Services Team Do As Your Director Of IT?
Modern models of IT services offer an economy of scale, both in terms of the technology and in person as well. Put simply? Instead of having to pay outright to hire an experienced and expert Director Of IT, you pay a fraction of the cost on a regular basis for access to a full, skilled team whenever you need them.
Weigh these two options right now in your head: find and hire a Director Of IT, or outsource a full team for a monthly fee. The choice should be clear, but if not, just consider what it costs to hire and manage even one person internally:
- Employee Expenses
A Director of IT will cost a lot to have on staff. To be effective, IT service and support requires up-to-date skills and expertise. A worthwhile IT technician will be expensive to hire.
- Benefits, Sick Leave, Vacation Costs
There are additional expenses on top of salary to consider. For example, holidays, and the coverage while the Director of IT is away. When you consider all of this, just one IT staff member can cost you even more than a standard salary.
The math is simple on this one – paying a flat monthly rate for all the IT support work you need is much easier to budget.
IT Expertise
The right technology combined with true expertise can achieve ideal results. Properly implemented IT will help you streamline operations, increase communication, encourage collaboration, and boost efficiency, resulting in new levels of productivity. However, without sound, professional knowledge, and experience in technology, many organizations miss out on these opportunities to improve their business.
Many Managed IT Services teams can deliver expert consulting services to help you get the most out of a given investment in IT. Implementing new technology is a good start, but by educating you on how to best use those tools and the role they play in your company, we can provide you with the understanding necessary to better utilize those solutions and maximize the return.
Get More Bang For Your Buck
The logic – and the math – is simple: why go through the trouble and expense of finding and hiring a qualified Director Of IT, when you can simply outsource it? The KalioTek team has the skills, experience, and capability to be your Director of IT and more. We’ll oversee your IT from end-to-end, providing both long-term strategy and daily support.
Like this blog? Check out Interim CFO Chooses KalioTek For Managed IT Services, Tips to Keep IT Managers on Top of Their Work, or A Silicon Valley Real Estate Association Chooses KalioTek to learn more.
