Managers in every organisation need to understand the status of their own IT systems and know when it`s time to take action. With IT at the core of many businesses today, it is not surprising that executives rank improvement in IT as one of their top priorities. A number of global consultancies have ranked IT alignment with business goals and value delivery as the two most important concerns of IT executives today. They have also noted that relatively few executives are able to define and measure IT performance against business goals.
Many enterprises have successfully implemented quality assurance functions and are able to gather statistics on the underlying services. But correlating IT performance with business goals has remained a challenge. Market conditions and corporate governance concerns now drive the need for this correlation.
The IT Scorecard, developed by Info Sec Africa, is a simple tool that establishes the link between business goals and specific performance metrics. Based on the research efforts of the IT Governance Institute, and drawing on Balanced Scorecard concepts, the IT Scorecard aligns performance metrics with business goals through the 34 IT processes identified by the IT Governance Institute.
The real benefit of the IT scorecard is not in the metrics themselves, but in drawing attention to areas where action plans are required to address specific concerns. Through meaningful metrics for each of the core IT processes, action plans should result in a positive impact on the current outcomes from the investment is information technology.
While a scorecard provides a useful perspective on IT, the actual score is the added value IT provides in the attainment of business goals. Too many metrics create confusion. The objective is to keep it simple and avoid re-inventing wheels. Part of the process is to gather existing information collected on IT performance and use it to develop perspectives on the performance of IT.
A two-stage approach is required. The first stage is a relatively simple process maturity evaluation. Each IT process is assessed against good practice derived from the research efforts of the IT Governance Institute. Following the "80/20 principle", this first stage will identify opportunities for immediate benefits to be derived.
The second stage, the more challenging stage, is the identification of a small set of specific metrics that can be directly linked to the outcomes from IT expected. This is potentially the most difficult challenge. Once completed, these metrics will provide the measurements against which to evaluate the action plans.
The IT Scorecard provides a number of additional benefits. It enables the implementation of a measurement-based management approach to be first aligned with the business goals. It avoids the pitfall of a technology driven performance measurement approach. Most importantly, it is an affordable approach to performance measurement.
Info Sec Africa provides consulting and training throughout SA to a wide range of enterprises. The addition of the IT Scorecard to its services has been well received. It fills a gap that has existed for sometime. Further information can be obtained from Peter Hill on 082 55 88 732.
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