Governance at its essence is about decision-making and communications. The need for good governance stems from the need of organizations to make good decisions and communicate them effectively. Often, when faced with poor outcomes, the organization needs to review how the decisions were made and put in place structures which support better decisions going forward. These decisions can be large, such as whether to invest in a new initiative or approve an annual report; or the decision can be routine, such as whether to provide access to sensitive data or include software code in a release.
In a study of over 300 enterprises around the world, not one was identified as having the single best formula for governing Information Technology (IT). However, one thing was evident: effective IT governance does not happen by accident as top performing enterprises carefully design governance. Managers throughout the enterprise must make daily decisions putting that design into practice. Implementing an IT Governance strategy is a tactical way organizations can keep their initiatives aligned with business objectives and create value for the business. By using a full stack IT Governance solution, you can gain top-down alignment through:
If your organization is like most, you’ve invested substantially in building IT architectures that are designed to support business objectives. However, as new projects continuously arise, you get caught up in more immediate goals and tasks. And when new projects lead to new applications which also need to be managed and maintained, you can quickly lose sight of goals altogether and focus on the next thing that comes in instead of high value initiatives that drive business value. Before you know it, you’ve forgotten why you began those initiatives in the first place.
Here is where you find yourself in a “reactive” state where you can only accomplish what is right in front of you and it’s not until the next yearly planning session that you realize how far off track you really are. It’s time to get back to business and focus on the projects which drive business forward and contribute to the bottom line. Of course, you will still have maintenance projects that keep things going, but you will need to extend within your model to include those initiatives that advance your organization.
The reactive state is a slippery slope for IT organizations, as request demand is only increasing, new technology begins to crowd on top of legacy systems, and IT executives are struggling to stay ahead of the trends. Digital innovation is playing a major role in how businesses are fighting to achieve competitive dominance in their markets. However, it’s important to slow down, prioritize, and consider what you are building, why you are building it, and how you can most efficiently and effectively manage it all.
We are positioned to provide IT Governance support services for your core mission. We will provide all Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision and other items and non-personal services as necessary to perform the services with a focus on:
Additional focus areas include: web content management, web and SharePoint site and maintenance support, database systems support, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) development and performance reporting and analysis. Our SMEs will define the metrics program characteristics to ensure that service providers meet performance objectives according to the Service Level Agreements (SLAs), as well as make overall recommendations for improvement opportunities which are based on the analysis of quantitative data/information.
