IT Governance and Business/IT Relationships

Information technology is clearly an important part of most organisations and businesses. Nevertheless there are few CEOs who feel that IT in their organisation is an unqualified success story. ISDE has assisted a number of organisations in streamlining and re-positioning the IT function and improving IT/business relationships. Our involvement typically covers the following:

IT organisational structures and IT re-organisation Development and implementation of the roles Business System Architect, Client Relationship Managers, or similar roles responsible for identifying and designing business/IT solutions and managing IT/business relationships Defining and implementing IT management frameworks covering: definition of roles and responsibilities of parties involved in IT management across both the business and the IT organisation service definitions and service level agreements chargeback schemes business case development guidelines and approval processes Outsourcing arrangements and contractual frameworks Project Offices and project management practices IT resource pools, resource allocation and management

In many organisations there is a level of strain and unease associated with the management of IT. Our analysis of the underlying reasons points to long-held beliefs and attitudes about IT, namely, that IT is an 'add-on' to the business. As it has been traditionally positioned, IT is therefore viewed essentially as a corporate overhead and is managed as such.

We believe that this view of IT is no longer appropriate, and especially not in banking, insurance or other service industries. Businesses in the service industries have now become technology based enterprises in that information systems are the basis for business operations. Even in the manufacturing industries or public utilities information technology is now a competitive discriminator.

Organisational models that we have developed reflect the view of IT as an integral part of business operations. We have successfully used this perspective to position IT in organisations more effectively, to tackle IT management issues and to improve IT/business relationships.