CodeBlue appointment
launches ‘Virtual CIO’ service

New Zealand-owned IT services company CodeBlue has appointed Lee Madden to the newly-created position of CIO, responsible for providing CIO services to CodeBlue customers as well as CodeBlue itself.

Lee Madden joins CodeBlue from Dimension Data, where he was Technical Lead for Dimension Data’s Project Service team at Air New Zealand.

CodeBlue General Manager Ian Funnell says Lee Madden’s appointment signals the launch of a new ‘Virtual CIO’ service by CodeBlue.

"The Virtual CIO’ is an initiative to deliver to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) the considerable cost savings and business advantages that dedicated CIOs bring to very large companies,” says Ian Funnell.

“Big companies are still spending 40 percent less ‘per seat’ on IT than smaller companies do, because big companies have the systems and processes to manage their IT in an organised way.”

CodeBlue’s new ‘Virtual CIO’ service levels the playing field, Ian Funnell says. It brings to mid-sized customers all of the cost savings and business advantages that a smart, dedicated CIO can deliver. 

“That is a unique and potent proposition – we can typically shave 30 to 40 percent off the cost of running a fleet of PCs.  Lee Madden has the right technical and management skills to lead the provisioning of this new service, and is an experienced provider of enterprise-class services. We’re delighted to make an appointment of this calibre to lead the new service.”

Lee Madden says the Virtual CIO will be responsible for strategic decisions and recommendations, as opposed to day-to-day deliverables. 

“Smaller businesses often can’t justify hiring a full time CIO. They struggle with IT strategy, and they lack a senior IT expert who is consistently optimising all of the different technology layers, from software applications to server environments to security,” he says.

“As part of a services contract with customers the Virtual CIO will develop a technology roadmap, and update it on a quarterly basis. The Virtual CIO will help customers extract maximum value from their IT investment by delivering the most cost-effective IT infrastructure: one which is tightly managed through each phase of the IT infrastructure lifecycle. This includes strategy, procurement, implementation, service and replacement.”