Information Technology

IT Governance Framework

Our services will allow your organization to better define, establish and maintain an IT governance framework (leadership, organizational structures and processes) to: ensure alignment with enterprise governance; control the business information and information technology environment through the implementation of good practices; and assure compliance with external requirements. Our capabilities include:

Defining the requirements and objectives for, and drive the establishment of, IT governance in an enterprise, considering values, philosophy, management style, IT awareness, organization, standards and policies.
Ensuring that an IT governance framework exists and is based on a comprehensive and repeatable IT process and control model that is aligned with the enterprise governance framework.
Establishing appropriate management governance structures, such as an enterprise investment committee, IT strategy committee, IT steering committee, technology council, IT architecture review board, business needs committee and IT audit committee.
Ensuring that the enterprise and IT governance frameworks enable the enterprise to achieve optimal value for the enterprise.
Confirming that the IT governance framework ensures compliance with applicable external requirements and ethical statements that are aligned with, and confirm delivery of, the enterprise’s goals, strategies and objectives.
Obtaining independent assurance that IT conforms with relevant external requirements; contractual terms; organizational policies, plans and procedures; generally accepted practices; and the effective and efficient practice of IT.
Applying IT best practices to enable the business to achieve optimal value from implementation of IT services and IT-enabled business solutions.
Ensuring the establishment of a framework for IT governance monitoring (considering cost/benefits analyses of controls, return on investment for continuous monitoring, etc.), an approach to track all IT governance issues and remedial actions to closure, and a lessons-learned process.
Ensuring that appropriate roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are established and enforced for information requirements, data and system ownership, IT processes, and benefits and value realization.
Reporting IT governance status and issues, and effect transparency in reporting.
Establishing a communications plan to continuously market, communicate and reinforce the need and value of IT governance across the enterprise.

Strategic Alignment

Our services will allow your organization to ensure that IT enables and supports the achievement of business objectives through the integration of IT strategic plans with business strategic plans and the alignment of IT services with enterprise operations to optimize business processes. Our capabilities include:

Defining and implementing a strategic planning framework, requiring and facilitating collaborative and integrated business and IT management planning.
Actively supporting/promoting and participating in IT management planning by employing best practice enterprise architecture frameworks.
Ensuring that appropriate policies and procedures are in place, understood and followed to support IT and business strategic alignment.
Identifying and taking action on barriers to strategic alignment.
Ensuring that effective communication and engagement exists between business and IT management regarding shared strategic initiatives and performance.
Ensuring business and IT goals cascade down through the enterprise into clear roles, responsibilities and actions.
Assisting senior management by aligning IT initiatives with business objectives and facilitating prioritization of business strategies that optimally achieve business objectives.
Identifying and monitoring the interdependencies of strategic initiatives and their impact on value delivery and risk.
Ensuring that the strategic planning process is adequately documented, transparent and meets stakeholder needs.
Maintaining and updating the IT management plans, artifacts and standards for the enterprise.
Monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the effectiveness of the alignment of IT and enterprise strategic initiatives.
Monitoring and assessing current and future technologies and provide advice on the costs, risks and opportunities that they bring.

Value Delivery

Our services will allow your organization to ensure that IT and the business fulfill their value management responsibilities: IT-enabled business investments achieve the benefits as promised and deliver measurable business value both individually and collectively, that required capabilities (solutions and services) are delivered on-time and within budget, and that IT services and other IT assets continue to contribute to business value. Our capabilities include:

Ensuring that business takes ownership and accountability for business cases, business transformation, organizational change, business process operation and benefit realization for all IT-enabled business investments.
Ensuring that all IT-enabled investments are managed as a portfolio of investments.
Ensuring that all IT-enabled investments are managed as programs and include the full scope of activities and expenditures that are required to achieve business value.
Ensuring that all IT-enabled investments are managed through their full economic life cycle so that value is optimized.
Recognizing that different categories of investments need to be evaluated and managed differently.
Ensuring that all IT solutions are developed and maintained effectively and efficiently through the development life cycle to deliver the required capabilities.
Ensuring that all IT services are delivered to the business with the right service levels.
Ensuring that IT services enable the business to create the required business value using assets (people, applications, infrastructure and information) to deliver the appropriate capabilities at optimal cost.
Defining and monitoring appropriate metrics for the measurement of solution and service delivery against objectives and for the measurement of benefits realized, and respond to changes and deviations.
Engaging all stakeholders and assign appropriate accountability for delivery of business and IT capabilities and realization of benefits.
Ensuring that IT investments, solutions and services are aligned with the enterprise strategies and architecture.

Risk Management

Our services will allow your organization to ensure that appropriate frameworks exist and are aligned with relevant standards to identify, assess, mitigate, manage, communicate and monitor IT-related business risks as an integral part of an enterprise’s governance environment. Our capabilities include:

Ensuring that IT risk identification, assessment, mitigation, management, communication and monitoring strategies are integrated into business strategic and tactical planning processes.

Aligning the IT risk management processes with the enterprise business risk management framework (where this exists).

Ensuring a consistent application of the risk management framework across the enterprise IT environment.
Ensuring that risk assessment and management is included throughout the information life cycle.
Defining risk management strategies and prioritize responses to identified risks to maintain risk levels within the appetite of the enterprise.
Ensuring that risk management strategies are adopted to mitigate risk and to manage to acceptable residual risk levels.
Implementing timely reporting on risk events and responses to appropriate levels of management (including the use of key risk indicators, as appropriate).
Establishing monitoring processes and practices to ensure the completeness and effectiveness of established risk management processes.

Resource Management

Our services will allow your organization to ensure that IT has sufficient, competent and capable resources to execute current and future strategic objectives and keep up with business demands by optimizing the investment, use and allocation of IT assets. Our capabilities include:

Ensuring that the requirements for trained resources with the requisite skill sets are understood and are assessed appropriately.
Ensuring the existence of appropriate policies for the training and development of all staff to help meet enterprise requirements and personal/professional growth.
Developing and facilitating the maintenance of systems to record the resources available and potentially available to the enterprise.
Undertaking gap analyses to determine shortfalls against requirements to ensure that the business and IT resources (people, application, information, and infrastructure) are able to meet strategic objectives.
Effectively and efficiently ensuring clear, consistent and enforceable human resource allocation to investment programs and services.
Ensuring that sourcing strategies are based on the effective use of existing resources and the identification of those that need to be acquired.
Ensuring that people, hardware, software and infrastructure procurement policies exist to effectively and efficiently fulfill resource requirements.
Through periodic assessment of the training requirements for human resources, ensuring that sufficient, competent and capable human resources are available to execute the current and future strategic objectives and that they are kept up to date with constantly evolving technology.
Ensuring integration of resource identification, classification, allocation and periodic evaluation processes into the business’s strategic and tactical planning and operations.
Ensuring that the IT infrastructure is standardized; economies of scale are achieved, wherever possible; and interoperability exists, where required, to support the agility needs of the enterprise.
Ensuring that IT assets are managed and protected through their economic life cycle and are aligned with current and long-term business operations requirements to support cost-effective achievement of business objectives.

Performance Measurement

Our services will allow your organization to ensure that business-supporting IT goals/objectives and measures are established in collaboration with key stakeholders and that measurable targets are set, monitored and evaluated. Our capabilities include:

Establishing the enterprise’s strategic IT objectives, with the board of directors and executive leadership team, categorized into four areas: financial (business contribution), customer (user orientation), internal process (operational excellence), learning and growth (future orientation), or whatever areas are appropriate for the enterprise.
Establishing outcome and performance measures, supported by metrics and targets that assess progress toward the achievement of enterprise and IT objectives and the business strategy.
Evaluating IT process performance, track IT investment portfolio performance, and measure IT service delivery through the use of outcome measures and performance drivers.
Using maturity models and other assessment techniques to evaluate and report on the health of the enterprise’s performance level.
Using continuous performance measurement to identify, prioritize, initiate and manage improvement initiatives and/or appropriate management action.
Reporting relevant portfolio, program and IT performance to relevant stakeholders in an appropriate, timely and accurate manner.