vCIO roadmap template: what to include, with a data asset row for every system

What does a vCIO roadmap include, and where do data assets fit?

A vCIO roadmap lists the client's business goals, current systems, planned changes, budget and risks across 12 to 36 months. This template adds a data asset row for every system: how long its history runs, when it will be retired and who owns the decision. That row makes a retirement trigger an owner conversation, and a SourceX assessment can be part of it before anything is switched off.

The row costs you almost nothing to maintain because a vCIO already tracks lifecycle dates. What changes is that a long history in a retiring system is flagged as an asset, not just as a migration risk.

The roadmap template, section by section

How do you build the data asset register?

The register is one row per system, filled from facts you can see without opening content.

If nobody can export a system, record that plainly. It is a red flag for licensing and the legacy system export guide shows how to find out what is realistic.

The retirement trigger rule

Use the hold-and-ask rule: when a system with five or more years of readable history reaches a retirement date within 12 months, the vCIO asks the owner for a hold decision before the decommission ticket is opened.

1. Flag the row in the register at the next review.
2. Put "records hold decision" on the next meeting agenda as an owner item.
3. Ask the owner whether they want to hear from SourceX before the system goes dark.
4. If yes, introduce them using your referral link. If no, log the answer and the date.
5. If a hold is agreed, add the new retirement date to the roadmap and move the dependent project.

The hold is the owner's decision and has a cost, since extended licenses and hosting are not free. Your job is to show the cost of waiting beside the possibility of licensing, not to push either way.

Which systems usually deserve a flag?

Systems that tend to have long, outcome-rich histories are the ones to check first.

• CRM: years of deals, stages and outcomes. If a replacement is planned, see Salesforce data archiving for what history to keep before a purge.
• ERP and accounting: transaction history that often gets trimmed in a move. The QuickBooks to NetSuite migration guide covers which history is commonly left behind.
• Ticketing and engineering tools: problem, fix and outcome chains, including project trackers such as Jira. The Jira inventory template lists only metadata, so no content is exposed.
• Email and chat archives: often the deepest set, and the first to be cleaned up when licenses are trimmed.

What do you say when you present the row?

Present all three options with equal weight. The owner may well choose to delete, and that is a valid result.

How does the introduction work?

1. The owner says yes at the roadmap review; the decision log records it.
2. You submit the referral with headcount, years in operation and system count only.
3. SourceX screens the business and, if it fits, runs the inventory with the company's sponsor. You take no part.
4. The company agrees price and terms before anything is binding.
5. The reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee.

Partners never export, upload or describe confidential records. The reward is 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects, capped at $100,000 cumulative per referred company, and no reward is guaranteed. Rewards are a share of SourceX's fee, not a deduction from what the company receives. Review the ERP referral fee comparison if you already take implementation referral fees and want to see how this differs.

Which clients should you add the row for?

Add it for every client, but only raise an introduction where the baseline is met: a US company with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), several years of documented operations, rights to license the data and an authorized sponsor. See who qualifies for details. Companies that are operating, acquired or already wound down can qualify if the data still exists.

When not to use this

Do not flag systems that mostly hold other parties' data without consent, such as an outsourcer's client files, or systems made up mainly of consumer personal data with no licensing basis. Skip clients under a court-appointed trustee until the trustee is involved. If the data is already licensed for AI training, there is nothing to introduce.

Next step

Copy the table into your next roadmap, fill the data asset register for your five largest clients, and register as a partner so a referral link is ready when an owner says yes. Venture platform teams and others who advise on portfolio systems can see the same logic in referral opportunities for venture platform teams, and the network opportunity finder helps you rank your client list.