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IT governance/COBIT training paying dividends


Johannesburg, 30 Sep 2004

Performance management firm Analytix is making major inroads in COBIT IT governance training, through its distinct approach of bringing it in-house.

Johan Botha, Managing Director of performance management company, Analytix, says his company has trained more than 400 IT professionals in over 70 organisations in COBIT in the past three years - with a clear indication that organisations increasingly favour in-house IT governance workshops.

They include a number of blue-chip companies, among them Eskom, Theba Bank Bank, Unisys, arivia.kom, Liberty Life, Old Mutual, Sasol, Anglo American and others, as well as a growing list of parastatals such as the SABC, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Correctional Services.

Botha explains why providing customised, in-house training in the system, rather than adopting a "one size fits all" approach, works best when it comes to COBIT.

"One of the main impediments to the adoption of a framework like COBIT is that, while the documentation provided is highly thorough and comprehensive, organisations are often at a loss as to where to begin due to the magnitude and scope of the challenge.

"Standard, public COBIT courses tend not to deliver on expectations when it comes to getting COBIT projects off the ground, because they are not practically oriented," he says.

Analytix offers a two-day, in-house course that is typically attended by eight to twelve people including directors, managers and process owners. With the help of software, Analytix then develops a model of the IT governance assessment.

"It is a practical, structured approach that puts all course participants on the same roadmap, so they can quickly implement and start energising their COBIT projects. The outcome of the hands-on workshop enables participants to practically apply the newly learned skills, by following a structured and proven approach to IT maturity assessment and improvement, including the following steps:

"Understanding the CobiT framework, apply the COBIT principles in practice, scoping a COBIT Review, assessing IT process maturity, defining and assessing critical success factors, defining and assessing key IT performance indicators, develop and prioritise a program to achieve target IT process maturity levels, analyse, follow-up and manage your IT assessments and project deliverables.

"This leads to an agreed upon COBIT project plan, with buy-in from IT process owners, with clearly defined project deliverables and timeframes."

According to Botha, the company consistently receives highly positive reviews from its courses. "But the best tribute comes from seeing how COBIT takes off within organisations after the course, and how rapidly they start seeing results."

The company`s success in COBIT training has been recognised, among others, by Unisys, which has entered into a partnership with Analytix to provide training to its customers.

The high level of content and effective learning outcomes has resulted in Analytix COBIT courses being accredited with the Services SETA (Sector Education Training Authority).

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Analytix

Analytix is a South African consulting and training firm specialising in the measurement and improvement of organisational and individual performance.

Specialising in performance management solutions, Analytix assists organisations to translate, implement and manage strategy, by linking objectives, initiatives and measures to an organisation`s strategy. Analytix facilitates the review of business processes and internal workflows that focus key employees on a common strategy to assist the organisation to become innovative and strategically focused.

Analytix supports the widely acknowledged balanced scorecard approach. The balanced scorecard provides a well-proven framework for measuring organisational effectiveness and performance in both profit and non-profit organisations.

Analytix is also SA`s most successful practical IT governance and COBIT training provider, with more than 400 IT managers and process owners from over 70 companies having attended its training and facilitation programmes since 2001.

Analytix furthermore assists companies in getting started with their COBIT implementations. This is done through a facilitation process applying COBIT principles and using a tool to select key COBIT objectives, assess IT process maturity, develop projects with corrective actions/activities and report to IT and corporate management in clear business terms, free of IT jargon.

These courses are SETA accredited which means that organisations trained by Analytix will receive considerable tax benefits as well as a portion of what they contribute towards skills development levies.

COBIT

Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), first published by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) in 1996, now in its third edition, is fast becoming the most popular and internationally accepted set of guidance materials for IT governance. COBIT, with its strong business orientation, is designed to be an IT governance aid to management, provides clear policy and good practice for IT governance and creates the linkages and necessary alignment between business objectives and IT management tasks

COBIT benefits:

* Guides and assists management in deciding the level of IT risk to accept.
* Provides appropriate control practices for IT, and define IT process best practice.
* Allows IT to conduct a maturity assessment for corporate review.
* Provides a path to follow for continuous improvement of the IT processes.

Visit us on: www.analytix.co.za

Editorial contacts

Johan Botha
Analytix
(011) 771 5580