The Best Governance?
What are the criteria for being good at IT Governance?
On 12 October 2005, news articles reported that Telstra had scored top marks for corporate governance in the Horwath 2005 Corporate Governance Report, which rates the corporate governance practices of Australia's top 250 companies by market capitalisation. Does this make sense? Haven't we been hearing recently that Telstra has made some major errors with investment in its infrastructure? Are these outcomes compatible with good corporate governance?
Horwath's methodology is based on examination of the organisation's annual report. It refers to best practice guidelines from diverse sources, and includes several Australian sources.
It is very interesting to note that a number of organisations in the top 25 of the Horwath rankings have experienced difficulty with IT of some type in recent times. For example, the Crane Group, which shares equal top ranking with Telstra, AMP and the Commonwealth Bank was the subject of several announcements arising from a difficult IT project.
We think that these results underpin the view that boards are frequently poorly equipped to objectively evaluate the IT situation for their organisations. And they are unable to determine, with any confidence, whether the management practices that have been adopted for the control of IT and IT enabled business change are effective.
How can boards become more effective in their assessment of IT? There are numerous options. Infonomics provides key services in this area, to build understanding, and to provide insight regarding the organisation's situation.
To encourage organisations to act promptly, and make sure that their IT activities will not put them in the same situation as Crane, or Fox Meyer Drug Company, or Australian Customs, Infonomics is continuing its promotional offer for engagements signed-up by November 30th.
IT Governance Assessments are cheaper than you might imagine
There are compelling messages that organisations must improve their top level governance of IT. The payback is intuitively obvious – reduced risk and improved business performance, with no adverse publicity – all of which contribute to higher profits and better share prices. The benefits are not hypothetical – there is solid academic research by leading researchers such as Peter Weill and Raymond Young that demonstrate conclusively – investment in good ICT Governance creates economic value.
Have most organisations already got good IT Governance? Many would like to think so, but the frequency of significant problems in both operations and projects says that few have it working well. Infonomics hands-on experience of organisations we have assessed indicates that there are substantial opportunities for improvement, and that the major improvements are not actually all that difficult to put in place.
Checking that your IT Governance is working need not be expensive. If you call in a major advisory firm, they might charge you a six digit sum to have a look and tell you what they should do next. A specialist like Infonomics will charge you much less, and tell you what YOU should do next. Our premier product – the AS8015 Alignment Diagnostic is unlikely to cost more than $50,000 for even major listed organisations.
To promote higher performance in Australian organisations, and success in the way that they use IT, Infonomics is reducing the prices by 10%, for work that is booked 10 October to 30 November 2005. These reduced prices are only available to readers of “The IT Governance Letter” and must be claimed when the engagement is booked.
The AS8015 Alignment Diagnostic gives you an 84 point assessment of the performance and effectiveness of your IT Governance model, and informs your senior people about what is important. A typical IT Governance Assessment with input from 20 senior people and perusal of key planning and control documents would normally cost $40,250. The special price is just $36,225.
The ICT Investment Business Case Assessment helps you check that your proposed investments in ICT make sense. A typical ICT Investment Business Case Assessment with input from 12 senior people and perusal of key business case documents would normally cost $32,800. The special price is just $29,520.
The ICT Investment Project Assessment helps you confirm that projects remain on track, with good prospects of delivering business value. A typical assessment takes input from 12 stakeholders, and peruses a wide range of project outputs. This service would typically cost $36,000. The special price is only $32,400.
The day long IT Governance seminar helps your senior business and IT people develop shared understanding of what is important in making sure that the use of ICT supports the business and delivers value with appropriate levels of risk. Past participants have applauded the way the seminar takes the mystery out of IT for business managers, and gives them a new framework for their engagement in the IT process. Normally $8,800, the seminar is now offered for just $7,920, for up to 15 participants.
To qualify for our special offer, participating organisations will need to provide a firm order by close of business on 30 November 2005, with the engagement to be completed by 30 June 2006. This offer is open to all readers of “The Infonomics IT Governance Letter”, including those who are reading forwarded copies. Final pricing is dependent on the exact dimensions of the engagement, and will be calculated using our pricing schedule which is available on request.