An Idea to Manage IT Risk – Your Part-Time CFO
Your business does not have full-time IT support or full-time financial support. The right part-time CFO can help with IT risk management and your finances.
What do you get with a part-time (fractional CFO)? The services typically provided are:
Those results are difficult to quantify until you have gained confidence in that resource – just because someone has been a CFO doesn’t mean that person is the right fit for you. Owners looking to get to the next level are now focusing on a more well-rounded executive who can bring financial and business acumen. It’s a chance to engage with someone who, over time, can become a trusted advisor – a sounding board.
That trust is earned by helping you make better decisions.
What Else Should You Expect?
A CFO is an executive position, someone who can quickly interpret financial information regardless of the time spent - one day per week or one day per month. A fractional CFO must live in two worlds – the world of today (making sure the financial records are right) and tomorrow (helping guide the company with financial advice). You should also expect risk management support – someone to help identify potential risks and take steps to mitigate the risk.
One crucial area of risk to consider is your IT risk.
Information Technology Management
Your greatest IT fear was a server crash; today, the threats have multiplied. You have threats to your business that were not imagined ten years ago – social media exposure, ransomware, data integrity, and the list goes on and on.
You can define IT risk as:
Risk = Threat * Vulnerability * Asset
There are enough known threats to keep you up at night, and the vulnerability may never be eliminated but can be managed. The “asset” can be data, hardware, software, or devices connected to your systems.
The right outsourced CFO helps define the risk and ensure protection; the CFO can help you account for the risk, work with your outsourced IT expert, and negotiate with your insurance provider on the right coverage.
Sometimes, the most valuable role that an outsourced CFO can play in IT is to ensure procedures are in place and followed. Many errors are the result of humans not protecting the information from the outside.
Risk management is a process of balancing the operational and economic costs of protection. An outsourced CFO can bring experience from other businesses to help you offset the risk and the cost.
