Slow IT governance implementation

By Damaria Senne for Analytix

Johannesburg, 28 Jul 2006

There has been no dramatic change in the implementation of IT governance initiatives within South African organisations compared to last year, the IT Governance 2006 survey shows.

The results of the survey were presented yesterday at ITWeb`s IT Governance 2006 conference in Midrand.

Johan Botha, MD of Analytix, which conducted the research in partnership with ITWeb, said 90% of survey respondents perceived IT to be critical to achieve their organisations` objectives.

However, only 55% of the respondents said their organisations formally implemented IT governance initiatives, he said. A large number of IT governance initiatives are still in the early stages, with a minority of respondents stating they had no plans to implement governance initiatives, he said.

The survey, which was conducted for the second year running, aims to establish the extent to which IT governance is addressed within local organisations.

It also aims to determine what progress was made by organisations in the past year and to gauge the perception of the effectiveness of IT governance initiatives.

CIO roles, priorities

The survey shows CIOs are taking their rightful strategic place within organisations, with most CIOs reporting to the CEO or MD, Botha said.

The whole notion of aligning IT and business strategy is taking hold, he said. However, people were not confident of the board`s ability to manage IT performance and risk, he said.

Source: IT Governance SA 2006, ITWeb/Analytix

Botha noted respondents listed risk management, information security, as well as standards and frameworks as the top three primary good IT governance practices.

In terms of implementation priorities, the majority said they were implementing IT resource budgets and management, and IT service management strategies, he said. More than 75% also indicated they were implementing information security initiatives.