Businesses must walk a fine line with regards to deciding where IT resources ought to be allocated. The limited amount of resources companies have to work with for technology initiatives makes it essential to have a well-established IT governance plan.
With numerous departments competing for IT investment, technology integration in any company can become highly complicated, as various departments in a company work independently to produce and innovate within their areas of focus.
To satisfy the demands of various parties within a company, IT leaders must think about everyone’s needs, and differentiate which investments will have the best returns while still operating within a viable framework for their organization.
The following are just a few keys to IT governance in 2019.
A user-first mentality
A typical company’s employees, customers and clients are a diverse group, with various ages, skills, interests and experiences. Companies manage various policies in reaction to myriad factors: the shifting needs of stakeholders, emerging technologies, demographic changes and surfacing workforce trends.
In order to ensure as many interests and factors as possible are considered, IT governance decisions should be informed by conversations involving stakeholders that represent management, IT, employee and customers/ client interests.
Share any details behind the decision-making process for deciding where technology resources are utilized. This transparency helps to produce a feeling of ownership over new technology integrations and make IT governance be seen as everyone’s responsibility. Stakeholders should see IT governance as not only ‘another IT project’, but rather is a team effort by those working to do what is best for the company.
Keep purpose in mind
A good IT governance policy ought to be founded on systems and services that are effective, have purpose and are at least current, if not innovative. The policy itself and all of its factors should also be seen as a positive contributor to the company’s profitability.
That said, any company’s governance plan will be based on the user community it is serving.
IT administrators should study factors within their organization to gain insight into what a governance structure should achieve moving forward. Extensive studies should include findings of earlier research studies, worker surveys and a review of existing IT governance policy.
IT administrators should then get in touch with other IT leaders in their network to find out what other organizations have successfully used in their governance plans. By collecting data first, IT leaders can generate a particular set of values for their governance framework.
Thorough study is essential to the primary phases of developing an IT governance policy and designing integral operations during framework development, as opposed to waiting until the framework is released.
Finally, it is important to establish benchmarks and assess progress relative to agreed-upon metrics. Online dashboards that reflect business objectives can be used to follow progress on stated goals. Offering worker bonuses to help offset negative facets of the policy can help to boost worker buy-in.
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