Management of IT Governance

Management of IT Governance

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Management of IT Governance

Introduction

Our reliance on computers to performance various tasks is ever growing. Therefore, it is fundamental to apply proper IT management. If proper IT oversight is absent, numerous disasters are bound to occur. As such, this essay looks to investigate the role of IT managers in a company’s strategic and support infrastructures. Additionally, it also analyzes the necessity of proper IT governance. The increase in IT governance comes from increased scrutiny from how IT manages human and financial resources. Such an increase in focus is going to prolong for a long time (Huhta, 2011). The basic principle is that IT risk, projects, financial, and personnel issues need to be managed effectively as other business disciplines. The central themes in this case are compliance, portfolio management, and process.

Role of Managers in IT Governance

Primarily, managers in IT are highly involved in support infrastructure because the purpose of IT involves supporting the company’s strategic structure. Therefore, managers are a critical part of the strategic making process because they dictate how the IT system determines the company’s plans. The goals of the manager should be centered on making the company’s support infrastructure in tandem with the strategic infrastructure. In the recent past, technology has improved the method of operation of many companies. The function of information technology in companies has gone beyond the previous support role towards a critical role.

Managers also play the role in strategic alignment. In this role, managers connect IT with the business so they function harmoniously. The key in this role lies with the planning process and efficient alignment occurs when the corporate sector of the company communicates effectively with the line leaders. Such communication entails relevant data such reporting costs and their impact on the company (Kadivar, 2011). Mangers are also expected to ensure that the IT department performs necessary tasks to achieve goals outlined at the start of the investment or project. The most efficient way to handle such matters involves developing an appropriate process to facilitate particular functions when the proposed value grows. Conversely, these functions should be eliminated when the values decreases.

Resource management is a critical consideration in any organization. It is not possible for any organization to achieve its objectives when resources are mismanaged. Resources together with other factors are important to facilitate the normal functioning of an organization. Therefore, resource management is another role managers in IT governance are responsible. In this regard, managers work by organizing staff in prescribed criteria such as by skills rather than by line of business (Musthaler and Musthaler, 2008). As such, this gives the company an opportunity of deploying staff to various business lines on a demand basis.

Risk management is yet another role charged with IT governance managers. All business endeavors are composed of risks even those in IT. It is fundamental to acknowledge all possible risks produced by a decision made in IT. Thereafter, managers are expected to formulate appropriate solutions to mitigate these risks in case they materialize (Huhta, 2011). Moreover, instituting a risk framework that provides severity around how IT manages, accepts, and measures. Additionally, managers play the role of ensuring that such a framework gives reports regarding what IT is managing regarding the risks.

In addition, managers are required to carry out performance measures. Primarily, this involves establishing structure designed to measure performance of the business. Managers normally achieve this by employing an IT balance scorecard. Such a scorecard analyzes the areas where IT contributes in terms of executing business objectives. It applies both quantitative and qualitative methods of acquiring performance data. The basic principle is that IT risk, projects, financial, and personnel issues need to be managed effectively as other business disciplines.

Necessity of IT Governance

Governance in IT necessitates maintained control of a company’s infrastructure. The primary goals of IT governance are centered on assuring that company investments generate business value and mitigate the risks that confront IT. As such, this can be achieved by applying enforcing an organization structure that provides well-defined roles of the business processes, infrastructure, and applications (Kadivar, 2011). Without governance, accountability is compromised hence leading to mistakes. Additionally, governance influences business performance and it helps the business outperform its competition. In this case, IT governance defines the performance of the company. In particular, it stipulates resource performance as well as how to achieve strategic objectives.

IT governance is also necessary to facilitate increased productivity, improved financial and higher quality results. With this governance, the company would experience programmatic waste, reduced financial performance, and diminished morale. The production of goods and services portrays the necessity of IT governance practices. For example, the customers get to know about the business only when they are making requests such as ordering or receiving value of a product or service (Musthaler and Musthaler, 2008). The coordination and efficiency of internal business processes compose such experiences with the customer. This is an element of business performance and therefore should be quantified and improved upon.

To achieve a positive impact on business performance, the IT governance process allows the management to have visibility and focus on the business process through which customers interact with the business. As such, IT governance addresses the needs of the customer and satisfies other policies, standards, and regulations altogether. Additionally, IT governance is necessary as it allows the management to implement regulations on business processes that in turn influence the customer experience. In this aspect, IT governance addresses the all end-to-end processes of the businesses. Moreover, it allows coordination of activities across organizational boundaries over time.

Risk of Ignoring IT Governance

Conversely, organizations that lack IT governance are bound to experience low performance. Such performance is manifested in aspects such as low production or low returns from sale of products or services. Additionally, these organizations are exposes to heightened risk exposure. With little concern given to risks facing the organization, strategic and support infrastructures are left compromised and thus set objectives cannot be achieved. Moreover, the allocation of resources in such organizations becomes arbitrary or inappropriate. In general, IT governance should be considered a fundamental factor necessary for the efficient performance of an organization or business (SlideShare, 2009).

Notwithstanding the costly consequences highlighted above, there is evidence that many organizations fail to apply proper IT governance. Certain scenarios illustrate how failure to apply risk programs and IT governance can cause catastrophic outcomes in business results. Effective response to compliance, risk management and imperative IT governance requires management support and necessary resources. Therefore, ignoring IT governance causes the organization to face manifold compliance requirements. For example, a healthcare organization would be exposed scrutiny by healthcare authorities and possible closure due to corruption or fraud.

Additionally, ignorance of IT governance makes a company lack visibility into user systems and activity. In certain cases, running these enterprises becomes too costly thus creating loopholes that thwart visibility into the organization form a compliance point of view. Without this visibility, customers, mergers or potential partners cannot get a clear picture of the organization. Therefore, further development of the company is hampered.

The emergence of technologies and consumerization of IT implies that most of an organization’s information is not stored in the enterprise wall. Managing policies, plans, and frameworks therefore becomes difficult for companies that ignore IT governance (Musthaler and Musthaler, 2008). This is because the organization is exposed to an increased number of risks. Ultimately, proper IT governance enables an organization to structure its information risk properly. Furthermore, the organization is able to safeguard information and technology functions from both external disruptions and internal misuse.

Conclusion

Primarily, IT governance defines how an organization delivers value, protects against risk, and manages demand. Numerous technologies, process, and people are responsible for running IT functions. IT governance is broad and therefore gives managers a daunting task in understanding where efforts should be focused to achieve the greatest effect. For this reason, IT managers are responsible for overseeing various roles for the efficient running of IT functions (Kadivar, 2011). In this regard, applying proper methods of governing IT presents an organization with numerous benefits. Even though many, the information technology governance is based on two major objectives. The first involves giving an assurance that investments create value and that risks associated with IT are mitigated. Even with such benefits outlined, certain organizations fail to carry out this task. As such, these organizations suffer from heightened risk exposure, low performance, and resource distribution that seem arbitrary or inappropriate.

Reference

Huhta, S. (2011). IT architecture for small & mid-sized organizations. Business Forum Journal. Retrieved from http://www.bizforum.org/Journal/www_journalSH002.htm

Kadivar, S. (2011). Green memories accelerate ROI for data centers. CIO. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/665167/Green_Memories_Accelerate_ROI_for_Data_Centers?taxonomyId=3028

Musthaler, L., & Musthaler, B. (2008). IT governance best practices are critical for business success. NetworkWorld. Retrieved from http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/2008/052608techexec1.html?page=1

Schwartz, K. D. (2007). IT governance definitions and solutions. CIO. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/111700/IT_Governance_Definition_and_Solutions

SlideShare. (2009). IT infrastructure (Part I). [Power Point slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/soetam/1-mis-it-infrastructure-part-i