Corporate IT Governance

Corporate IT Governance

Are your IT teams struggling to define standards and best practices for corporate governance? Here are five key topics you will need to address to aid future business planning.

Organizations often rely on technology to drive business success. Is your IT department following the recommended frameworks to provide the secure and reliable infrastructure your company needs? Speeding up customer service, measuring risk, improving resource and cost management are all possible outcomes of corporate IT governance implemented with a highly structured framework. One specific framework that is widely used across industries is COBIT: Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies. While this framework does not have the scope to resolve all potential IT situations, it is often useful for organizations striving to enhance their IT governance and management.

Security, Risk Management and Governance

COBIT, initially developed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), is currently in a new iteration: COBIT 19. This global framework is widely accepted as the standard for optimizing enterprise IT governance, allowing IT professionals as a way to create value, reduce risk, and help optimize resource utilization. The COBIT framework was designed to simplify governance and has been actively used since 1996, with the latest iteration expanding on the topics of data security, cybersecurity, and privacy, projects, and compliance. Plus, you’ll find comprehensive links to relevant guidelines, regulations, and standards gathered from around the IT governance world.

Creating a Flexible, Extensible Model for Governance

One key update is to make the COBIT framework more flexible, allowing organizations to implement around specific projects as well as on an enterprise-wide basis. The COBIT 19 modules include:

• Framework. Linking business requirements to IT processes and domains helps organize the critical objectives in IT governance.
• Process Descriptions. Creating a common language across the organization allows a more consistent view on planning, building, running, and monitoring IT processes.
• Control Objectives. Defined by management, these requirements are considered essential components of effective IT business control.
• Maturity Models. Define the current state of readiness and capability of specific processes, while addressing areas that require remediation.
• Management Guidelines. Improved performance measurement and the definition of common objectives help bring the organization together around processes.

While COBIT 5.0 is sometimes considered the “gold standard” that provided a more collaborative approach to governance, the new COBIT 19 framework is built to allow for additional modules to be included in the future. As information technology takes an ever-greater role in the success of an organization, it’s crucial to have a firm foundation for governance that supports secure growth and consistency across projects and business units.

360 Smart Networks: Corporate IT Governance Consulting In Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tampa

Creating an IT governance model doesn’t happen overnight, and shouldn’t be defined in a vacuum. Pulling together business, technology, and leadership professionals allows you to fully define the requirements that will help bridge the gap between departments and create synergies for the future. It’s often valuable to bring these groups together with outside project management or IT consulting professionals with deep experience implementing the COBIT framework at other organizations. When you’re ready to get started, contact the experts at 360 Smart Networks at (770) 518-7087 to see how we can help refocus IT efforts on creating a sustainable, extensible, and secure infrastructure for your company.