Infracore provides CIO-level support for a leading medical device company to transform IT division and drive business growth

As a marketplace leader with a new breakout product, a medical device company was anticipating significant headcount growth and geographical expansion. To support this growth, the company required a stronger IT foundation and rapid scaling of the IT division's capabilities to enable the successful implementation of growth initiatives.

Business Needs and Challenges:

This client originally asked Infracore to solve their most pressing challenges:

• Assess IT Governance and identify gaps in policies and procedures
• Assess IT Infrastructure standards and IT compliance to best practices
• Assess current IT roadmap and assist with prioritization

Soon after being the engagement began, the VP of Information Technology departed the organization for another opportunity, prompting a shift in priorities and the introduction of new needs that required immediate attention:

• Immediately step in temporarily as executive-level IT leadership
• Oversee the IT team of 20+ FTEs
• Get several stalled or delayed projects back on track
• Manage the impact caused by COVID-19
• Help identify a new, permanent IT leader to fill the VP of IT function

Solution:

• • Infracore vCIO – IT division review
    • Under the guidance of our vCIO, Infracore engineers were brought in to review the current state of key infrastructure components, such as the Microsoft 365 and financial software platforms. Our vCIO and engineering team quickly gained a deep understanding of the current state of the infrastructure and status of existing projects. The vCIO began prioritizing efforts, and developed an IT roadmap for approval by the client’s executive team and board.
    • Team cultural issues were quickly identified by our vCIO. The IT division was grappling with cultural issues that created a vicious cycle of overwork and unfulfilled expectations. Team members felt obligated to say "yes" to every request, even if they were already stretched thin. This led to a perception of IT as a bottleneck and a lack of trust in its ability to deliver. To break this cycle, Infracore worked with the team to establish clearer communication channels and expectations, and to prioritize tasks based on their business impact and feasibility.
    • Our vCIO met with each IT team member individually to assess their commitments and capacity while collaborating with them to prioritize their assigned tasks. During this process, certain tasks were able to be delegated, while others were renegotiated, deprioritized or removed completely.
    • Before Infracore’s involvement, project deliverables had been consistently failing, which resulted in a lack of trust between IT and business leadership. Infracore facilitated better communication between both groups to clarify requirements and expectations, resulting in a significant improvement in their relationship. By reducing the number of commitments and focusing on high-priority tasks, overall team productivity increased, resulting in job satisfaction of the IT staff.

• • Technical project execution
    • Infracore provided additional technical resources as needed for specific projects when the client’s IT team lacked required expertise or capacity to meet critical deadlines.
    • Infracore's vCIO and project engineering teams had to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit soon after work began with the client. Adapting to the new remote work reality required an urgent reprioritization of initiatives and an all-hands-on-deck approach, with Infracore resources working seamlessly with the client's IT staff to ensure their growth plans remained on track.

• vCIO – Senior IT leader identification and onboarding
  • Infracore helped the client’s executive team clarify the responsibilities and key performance indicators for the new VP of IT. Our vCIO assisted in the screening and interview process, and was involved in the final hiring decision of both the VP of IT and the Director of Cybersecurity roles.
  • Once hired, Infracore developed a comprehensive onboarding plan to ensure a smooth transfer of departmental oversight to these new team leaders.

End Results:

Infracore’s VCIO stepped in at a pivotal moment for the company to navigate a significant period of growth and overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 while leading a large IT team in the absence of IT leadership.

We also helped the client address dysfunction and broken trust within the IT team and between the IT team and leadership, which led to improved team performance and the successful completion of stalled projects with assistance of our engineers.

We played a key role in identifying individuals to fill the permanent VP of IT and Director of Cybersecurity roles and managed their onboarding, both of whom were very satisfied with the process and felt that Infracore's effort had set up them for success.