Johannesburg, 07 Oct 2019
IT governance is not getting easier. Organisation, technology and data complexity has grown exponentially, and an adequate and effective IT governance system requires constant tracking and managing. Organisations are in a constant state of flux and change, and IT is in no way immune to this change. As the organisation evolves, the underlying IT infrastructure is in a constant need to be stitched up and monitored. This leaves IT risk, compliance and security an important component of an overall comprehensive and broader business strategy. A seemingly simple IT risk can soon transform into a serious operational threat, which in turn can have serious financial and compliance implications.
The importance of having a comprehensive and coherent IT governance infrastructure is necessary in allowing organisations to manage IT risks efficiently and effectively. A proper IT governance system will provide a holistic view and understanding of IT risk and compliance across the entire organisation in the context of both IT and organisational objectives. Current IT governance programmes in modern organisations manage their IT risk as an isolated system and architecture that lacks the adequate agility to deal with IT risk at the rapid pace that is necessary and removes it from the context of the business and strategy.
An organisation cannot just strive to monitor and manage IT governance continuously, however, and will fail to do so effectively unless this monitorisation and management is a part of an agile, integrated strategy that approaches IT governance from a holistic business and organisational lens. The full scale of risks, controls, vulnerabilities and requirements that weigh down IT governance must be addressed in a standardised and well-established GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) architecture. This will enable the organisation to manage IT governance and risk with agility and align with the business.
The primary directive of a mature IT governance and integrated enterprise GRC programme is to deliver effectiveness, efficiency and agility to the business in managing the breadth of IT governance in the context of risk and compliance, and to have the IT strategy informed by and aligned to the enterprise GRC processes within the organisation. This will ensure IT governance and IT management activities are fine-tuned and focused to support the overall business strategy and meet the overall business objectives. In the end, IT governance is more than compliance and more than risk, it is ensuring that IT is aligned and supporting the business.
Advancing Your organisation’s IT governance maturity
Mature IT governance is a seamless part of operations. It demands a top-down view of IT governance, where IT governance and risk management are part of the fabric of business – instead of an unattached layer of oversight. RUBiQ has developed the IT Governance Maturity Assessment to help articulate levels of maturity in IT governance processes and provide organisations with the necessary knowledge to get them started on their IT governance maturity journey.
With high IT governance maturity levels, organisations centralise IT governance to create consistent programmes with a common process, information and technology architecture. These organisations benefit from process efficiencies such as: greater agility to understand and report on IT risk and compliance and greater effectiveness through the ability to report and analyse IT risk and compliance data in the context of the organisation. The primary difference between a mature and immature IT governance framework is the integration of IT governance in the context of objectives and strategy aligned with the organisation.
A mature approach is where most organisations will find the greatest balance in IT governance and oversight. It focuses on a common governance model and technology architecture that various groups throughout the organisation can utilise. This increases the ability to understand, analyse, and monitor IT systems and underlying patterns of performance, risk and compliance across IT governance.
Click here if you would like to participate in a free comprehensive enterprise or IT Governance Maturity Assessment. The assessment has been compiled by leading GRC and information security, cyber risk and information privacy governance advisory experts. It's quick, it's simple and you will receive an expert and detailed report as an outcome of having done the assessment for your organisation. A series of reports that can be confidently used to bring the leadership of your organisation rapidly up to speed on the real exposures faced by your business!
The steps are simple:
