CIO Service

How Can Impact Group Help?

Our CIO-level consultants work on a part-time, as-needed basis for companies that want IT thought leadership but can’t justify the cost of hiring a fulltime CIO. We utilize industry best practices and our proven high-impact methodologies to help resolve complex IT problems. Our Consultants are independent and vendor agnostic, so we offer unbiased solutions to meet your objectives.

Utilizing one-stop-shop CIO services from a single individual that has a full range of leadership capabilities provides continuity over time vs. staffing on a project-by-project basis. Our high-impact guidance helps maximize IT performance within a reasonable cost structure that makes the most sense for the size of your business. There is no long-term commitment, and you can tailor the amount of service required to fit your needs.

How does it work?

Our CIO-as-a-Service Consultants start by establishing Business Partnerships with key stakeholders throughout your company to understand the specific goals of the overall business and individual departments. From there, we develop an action plan to address your unique needs, which may include the following:

• IT Assessments (focused on People, Process and Technology)
• Strategic technology planning aligned to business objectives
• Requirements Definition and Software package selections
• Business Process Improvement
• Technology due diligence for acquisitions and integration planning
• Security Assessments and Gap Remediation. Includes a complimentary S2SCORE® for new clients (see below)
• Program and project leadership
• Regulatory Compliance
• IT Cost Management
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
• Management of IT staff and vendors
• Evaluation and monitoring of IT processes, metrics, and team members
• IT Governance, Portfolio Management, and Project Prioritization

What are the benefits to me?

• Our Consultants work at your location for a pre-determined number of hours per week to learn your business and interface with your team fist hand, not virtually like other consulting companies; we are also available on-call as needed
• We possess decades of experience in developing and executing IT Strategies
• We understand the small and mid-size market, so we will provide you with solutions that fit your unique needs and budgets
• We deliver the same expertise and capability of a full-time CIO without the associated level of overhead, and we’re local so there are no travel costs for Twin Cities Metro clients
• We mentor your IT team to help develop their leadership skills and enable them to better manage your technology organization so our service will no longer be needed
• Our service covers the entire IT organization, including applications, infrastructure, and personnel

Why should I work with Impact Group?

Impact Group is a Twin Cities-based Management and IT Consulting firm serving Minnesota’s Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) for over 29 years in the following areas: Leadership Consulting & Mentoring, Program / Project Management, Security Consulting, Cloud Solutions, Supply Chain Management, IT Consulting Services, Managed Services, and 24 x 7 x 365 ITIL-based Service Desk.

CIO-AS-A-SERVICE SUCCESS STORIES

• For a Minneapolis-based electronics manufacturer, Impact Group served as Interim CIO and led an IT strategy initiative to define the next generation application and technology portfolio. We led a CRM selection that resulted in NetSuite being selected. We ran an end-to-end Proof Of Concept (POC) and oversaw the “Phase 1 – MVP” implementation of NetSuite’s ERP, CRM (excluding case management), eCommerce, IQity and RFSmart solutions including the integration and implementation of the Autodesk PLM application. We also led the ERP Program Project Steering Committee and oversaw the resolution of the ERP Program’s issues and concerns.
• For a Minnesota-based $500M dairy products manufacturing Co-op, Impact Group served as a CIO Advisor to lead an ERP-focused IT Assessment Program. We reviewed all ERP, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Financial processes and their supporting systems to determine whether to implement a new ERP solution.
• For a worldwide Marketing company, Impact Group worked as a CIO Advisor capacity to lead a team that managed the divestiture of all IT services from their parent company post-sale. This $23 million effort included developing an IT separation model and estimate utilized during due diligence of the acquisition. This team was accountable for developing RFP’s, selecting vendor partners, and executing the physical separation of all IT functions, by putting in place new IT infrastructures including Networks, Telephony systems, Service Management Tools and organization, End User Computing infrastructures, and Managed Hosting Solutions.
• For a rapidly growing Minneapolis-based multi-channel apparel retailer, Impact Group served as a CIO Advisor and ERP transformation Program Manager, overseeing tasks, work plans, and resources assignments for seven workstreams. The results included on-time implementation of SAP Business One, Accellos Warehouse Management System, and Magento eCommerce solutions.
• We mentor your IT team to help develop their leadership skills and enable them to better manage your technology organization so our service will no longer be needed
• View more valued clients of Impact Group Consulting Services.