Service · CIO Services
CIO services for Hampton Roads service businesses.
CIO services are the function you'd hire if you could justify the $220K all-in. You can't, yet. We sit in the seat on a retainer, score your operations every quarter, and run the calls a full-time CIO would otherwise sit in: across software, networking, AI, and compliance.
CIO services is the cross-cutting tier that spans every Helix Stax capability. It is not a single capability. It is the senior IT brain that coordinates all of them. The retainer carries strategy, vendor management, governance, and roadmap ownership. The score moves, the retainer renews. The score does not move, the conversation gets honest.
Key service areas
What the work looks like.
- Run monthly or bi-weekly working sessions with you and your leadership team
- Re-score your CTGA every quarter and write down what moved, what didn't, and why
- Sit in on vendor pitches before you sign anything, and read every SOW first
- Audit one system per quarter against what your team opens day to day
- Stand in for the CIO seat at leadership and board meetings on a monthly cadence
- Coordinate your MSSP, your MSP, and any outside IT contractor so nobody points at the other
- Write the 12-month roadmap your CFO can defend to a sponsor or a board
- Run interference when a vendor pushes a re-platform you don't need
How we engage
Three tiers. The score picks one.
All three tiers run on the CTGA framework. The differences are seat depth, cadence, and how embedded we are in the leadership conversation.
-
Helix Pulse Retainer
Monthly working session, quarterly re-score, one system audit per quarter, async sanity-checks. The "steady hand" tier.
-
Helix Engagement
Bi-weekly sessions, monthly re-score, vendor selection support, quarterly executive briefing, one implementation oversight per quarter. The standard CIO-services seat.
-
Helix Operate
Weekly sessions, standing seat at monthly leadership meetings, monthly board-ready CTGA slide, multiple concurrent oversight projects, M&A diligence included.
What you walk out with
Concrete deliverables.
- Quarterly CTGA score, written in plain English with the delta from last quarter
- Monthly working-session notes plus a one-page action memo (three ranked decisions)
- A 12-month IT roadmap document your CFO can hand to a board
- A vendor decision write-up before any contract over $25K gets signed
- Annual executive summary the owner can read in one sitting
Honest scope
What we do not do.
We do not run your IT. We coordinate the people who do. If you need someone closing tickets or patching servers, you need an MSP, and we'll help you pick the right one.
Industries we apply this to
Where this service shows up most.
- Legal Practice management, a document portal, and the spreadsheet your senior partner will not give up.
- Distribution A WMS that only talks to the ERP through a nightly export that breaks every other Friday.
- Hospitality POS, online ordering, a loyalty app, and a scheduling tool the kitchen never opens. The assistant GM is the integration layer.
- Government Contracting The flow-down email wants your CMMC posture by the next option year. The audit floor is closer than you think.
You can have the number by Friday.
The Pulse is free, sixty minutes, and the only thing you walk out with is your CTGA score and the three gaps that cost you the most. If we are not the right fit, you keep the score and we both move on.