Need for Interim CIO

THE SITUATION

The client maintained two business units in a highly regulated industry vertical. The client initially engaged Blue Mensa for interim CIO services, after the resignation of the Chief Information Officer. The engagement expanded to additional services when the client decided to sell one business unit and divest the remaining business unit into a new entity.

• • CIO Services- Interim CIO Service
  • Business Technology Alignment- Consulting services, business sale and divestiture/startup

CIO SERVICES

In addition to assuming the traditional role and responsibilities of CIO, two major information technology initiatives were in progress at the beginning of the engagement:

1. Preparation for an external audit:
   • The client was preparing for a critical external audit for industry-related regulatory compliance. The client utilized SOC 2 guidelines and established the majority of the required policy sets at the time of Blue Mensa’s engagement. In addition to defining the remaining policy sets, the current phase of audit preparation focused on evidence gathering and validation. This included working with executive management, internal staff, support vendors, and suppliers to ensure the organization maintained the proper type and duration of evidence for the associated written policies.
2. Site relocations:
   • The client resided in a combination office and warehouse space (leased) and had recently purchased a building. The organization’s management and office staff were scheduled to relocate to the new building (corporate HQ). The warehouse staff would move to a larger warehouse space (leased). Both new space’s required complete redesign and construction (internal). Blue Mensa provided full oversight for technology and security-related systems and services, which included:
     • Local/wireless and wide area networks, as well as cyber security infrastructure
     • Audio/Visual for conference rooms, including digital signage
     • Physical security
     • Warehouse wireless barcoding system
     • Vendor selection process, contract negotiations for implementation and support services

BUSINESS SALE AND DIVESTITURE

During the engagement, client ownership indicated an offer was made for the business. Blue Mensa was engaged to assist with the due diligence process. This included working with the potential buyer’s team through due diligence activities including the review of:

• • IT related policies and procedures documentation
  • Application and network system architecture documentation
  • IT related vendor/supplier contracts
  • IT equipment inventories

Upon completion of due diligence, the client and purchaser agreed to the sale of one of the two business units. However, the sale would include the company name and majority of business assets, the remaining business unit would be divested and transitioned into a new legal entity. Compass Left provided transition services and turnover to the purchasing entity and was engaged for the divestiture project of the remaining business unit. The new business unit would require nearly a completely new information technology ecosystem

The client was in a highly regulated industry sector. The client’s industry certifications were included in the sale of the business unit. However, both business units required industry certifications, the divested business more so. The new business unit would need to be audit ready in a very short period of time. It was determined designing the new infrastructure in a verifiably secure cloud environment would be the best option.  AWS and Microsoft Azure’s secure offerings were both researched. It was determined that Microsoft was the fit for the client’s needs.

A managed service provider, specializing in supporting secure environments, was engaged to implement and support the new environment.

The client achieved successful outcomes for the various projects within the scope of Blue Mensa CIO Services, as well as the additional Business Technology Alignment services.

• Successful results for the external audit
• Successful buildout and transition to the new corporate headquarters and warehouse space
• Sale and transition of services to the purchasing entity was executed as planned
• Standup of new business information technology environment and transition to new CIO