IT Governance
Since its initial stages, Information Technology (IT) has played the role of technology provider by supporting companies to perform their services more efficiently and effectively. Over the years, IT has become the backbone of companies, without it today it would be impossible for most companies to move forward (less than ever to be successful). As a result of its growing weight in the company, the IT function is transforming itself from a simple technology supplier to becoming a strategic partner.
In this evolutionary process, IT organizations generally follow a three-step approach in which each stage builds on the previous one, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Evolution of the IT Function within organizations
IT Infrastructure Management (ITIM)
During this phase, IT organizations focus on improving the management of corporate infrastructure. Effective infrastructure management means maximizing the performance of IT resources and taking control of the infrastructure, the devices it contains and the data it generates.
IT service management (ITSM)
The next stage sees IT organizations actively identify the services that customers need and focus on planning, provisioning and service levels to meet availability, performance and security requirements and achieve quality goals at agreed costs.
IT Governance (ITGOV)
In the more mature phase, IT organizations evolve into IT value management, transforming themselves into real business partners who support the company in the development of new business opportunities. In this phase, IT processes are fully integrated into the business processes life cycle, improving service quality and business agility.
Through these changes, IT as a component necessary for survival becomes a success factor, an opportunity to differentiate and obtain a competitive advantage.
Table 1 illustrates the different perception that the Business Divisions have of the IT contribution, in the process of transformation from Service Provider to Strategic Partner:
Table 1: (N. Venkatraman – CSC) IT as Service Provider or as Strategic Partner
The differences between the concepts of IT Management and IT Governance can be summarized as follows:
“The domain of IT Management focuses on the offer of efficient and effective IT services and products and on the IT operations management”
“IT Governance addresses the dual need to support present operational needs and business performance and transform and position IT to meet future business challenges.”
Figure 2 suggests the positioning of IT Management and IT Governance on two dimensions: Business orientation and Temporal orientation.
Figure 2: (R. Peterson – Idea Group Publishing, 2003) IT Governance and IT Management
From a conceptual point of view, the relationship between IT Governance and IT Management can be modeled as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Relational Model between IT Governance, ITSM and IT operations and services
Our professionals work daily on the design of corporate information architectures. on the revision and implementation of IT Governance processes of large multinational companies in the main market sectors (Telecommunications, Gas & Energy, pharmaceutical industries, Banks ), helping their IT contribute actively achieving corporate strategic objectives such as “Digital Transformation” and “Business” Innovation “
In addition to many years of experience, acquired on highly complex realities, our professionals also have knowledge of best practices and specific standards, such as: COBIT®, ITIL®, TOGAF®, ISO / IEC 20000 and ISO / IEC 27001.
