IT Governance

At AVIO, we understand the key role that governance processes play in the continuing alignment of your IT strategy with your business strategy. We like to say that we’re not the Navy, we’re Navy SEALs: Our team is experienced, well-trained, and more exacting than you’ll find anywhere else. We think big, start small and act fast with a targeted approach to governance practices that values quick wins and constant progress over promises of grand transformation.

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Companies who trust AVIO

Conagra Brands
IQVIA
Landstar
Love's
Salesforce
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Benefits of IT Governance

Enlightened strategies and objectives start with understanding who you are, what you do best, and how to leverage your best to serve your customers and meet your stakeholders’ interests.

AVIO starts with a clear understanding of your organization now, whatever its maturity level, along with a vivid picture of who you are and what you will do in the future as a customer-driven, digitally evolved enterprise.

We’ll help you with whatever you need to power your digital enterprise, whether it’s cloud, mobile, process, management, your IT governance framework, or even comprehensive digital evolution initiatives.

Effective IT governance is an essential component of overall enterprise governance. By following a formal framework, your organization can produce measurable results as you move toward achieving your strategies and goals. A formal program also takes the interests of stakeholders into account, and the needs of staff and the company processes they use.

It’s likely that your business is subject to many regulations regarding the protection of confidential information, financial accountability, data retention, and disaster recovery, among others. Then, there’s the pressure from shareholders, stakeholders, and customers - investment decisions may be influenced by demonstrating good governance of your information systems..

To make sure you meet internal and external requirements, it’s imperative that your organization implement a formal IT governance program that provides an effective and efficient framework for best practices and controls.

There are a number of common things that cause issues in IT projects, but establishing IT governance can mitigate them. They include:

  • Resource allocation: Governance should set resource priorities to help reduce conflicts between employees and aids with decisions to hire consulting firms to augment staff.
  • Scope creep: Well-structured governance should include the correct stakeholders to mitigate unauthorized additions to projects.
  • Poor communication: Communication protocols should be set to make sure that relevant parties are informed and held accountable.
  • Stakeholder management: Define a stakeholder to ensure effective accountability with an oversight group.
  • Inaccurate estimates: Governance should have committees that cross-collaborate with departments in finance, project management, and IT, so estimates include all contributors to the project.
  • No risk management: Governance risk and compliance management must require communication of risk, along with mitigation plans, to all stakeholders.
  • Project culture: A well-built governance model increases commitment to the project and its success.

Steps to Establish Your Governance Plan

A typical IT governance model includes:

  • A steering committee that’s chaired by the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Chief Operations Officer (COO). They will lead strategic planning, investment, organization, and decision-making.
  • A board of directors, chaired by the CFO and CEO to lead oversight and accountability.
  • Advisory committees that include representatives from each department and each committee should have a senior IT staff member. Senior IT members can be on several interrelated committees.
  • Executive sponsors can be the CMO or COO, but whoever is in this role champions the project and is also held accountable for the life of the project.

Although every organization’s governance model is different, there are five essential steps to establish your IT governance plan. These include:

Begin with the Basics

Identify your stakeholders. These might include CMOs, CIOs, or even third-party vendors. Educate members on the basics of corporate governance, as well as employees. Your staff will then understand the what and why behind governance, and this will make the transition easier.

Campaign and Communicate

You’ll want to educate the relevant teams on the processes, committees, and purposes. Set the tone of how governance will be used and accepted in your organization. If senior management isn’t fully invested in IT governance, your staff will sense it, so they should appear enthusiastic and help educate to indicate full buy-in.

IT Governance Takes an Ongoing Commitment

The work of IT governance isn’t over when you’ve established a governance plan. For implementation to be successful you must:

  • Communicate regularly and with intent
  • Create a culture of transparency, trust, and credibility through clear, timely and relevant communication
  • Follow a solid process and structure
  • Keep conveying senior management’s commitment to the plan

Strategize and Prioritize Goals

Your steering committee will take the lead here. Committee members will develop goals based on their areas of expertise and their department. They’ll work together to identify which goal should be the priority and decide what resources and technology will be needed to reach the goal.

 

Process Design

A solid, efficient structure for communication flow will aid your governance success. Your organization can gain a competitive advantage if you put into place the correct system for prioritizing and approvals. This could mean any of a number of project management software solutions.

 

Committee Creation

Assign the right people to the right job. Clear and well-defined roles and expectations will help prevent any confusion when your plan is deployed. Choose committee members from each department and make sure to include an experienced IT staff member. Executive sponsors, along with the project management department, will play a critical role by explaining the benefits of the new governance plan, as well as champion the project.

 

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How AVIO’s Governance Model Aligns with Your Goals

By knowing exactly what you need technology to accomplish enables the creativity that turns raw technological capability into strategic usefulness.

Working in collaboration with your and your IT team, we can brainstorm to design the perfect governance plan for your organization that:

  • Aligns your business with your IT
  • Reduces risk
  • Provides a clear roadmap 
  • Ensures operational alignment with your goals

Don’t go it alone, and don’t wait for something to happen that wouldn’t have if you had a solid governance plan. Let’s talk. We can provide efficiencies that save you both time and money while ensuring your digital evolution for success.

About AVIO

We are fanatically dedicated to knowing you, because the more deeply we understand you, the more concrete and the more accurate our common goal of your digital success becomes. Once we both clearly see where you're going, we work together to settle you into your digital niche and identify strategies for adapting you to it most advantageously. And for seamless continuity from strategy to execution, our strategic helping hand becomes a technical helping hand.

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