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IT Governance
Corporate governance is about controlling investments and mitigating risks. Regulations like Sarbanes Oxley act are created to ensure that all stakeholders that have a direct interest in the company’s financial wellbeing can rely on the company results. But what is IT Governance? And who should take responsibility for it?
To put it simply: IT governance is about controlling IT spending, managing IT as an investment and controlling risks. This calls for
- greater transparency to IT costs and
- a clear understanding of the outcome and value that IT investments bring and
- understanding business risks related to IT.
A good definition on IT Governance can be found in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_Governance) and for more thorough examination you should take a look at CobiT (http://www.isaca.org/) or search internet.
Making IT costs transparent
The key to IT cost transparency is in IT services. Defining the outcome of IT operations as services that can be understood by business is the first important step towards transparency.
I can’t stress this enough: without defining services that IT provides in a language that business understands, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the business to make good decisions regarding current IT operations. If they only see costs related to servers or personnel, it is very difficult to understand if the IT is delivering good return on investment.
Defining IT services is not easy if you haven’t done that before. If you don’t have in-house competence already available, have someone look into the matter and then use outside consultancy.
Read more about managing IT as an investment and risks mitigating >>
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