Recently I have been thinking more about
business value. Through some reading I find that I keep coming across COBIT,
more specifically COBIT 5 which is the latest release. While this was not the
first time I had reviewed it I began to look at it with more emphasis on the
value proposition and strategy of IT.
If you’re not aware, COBIT 5 is an ISACA
framework which helps enterprise achieve their objectives for the management
and governance of IT.
How does
it do this?
In one way or another IT has a direct impact on
your business performance. Think about organizations which are leaders in their
fields, it is highly likely that their IT teams enable their businesses to
outperform their competition as a result of being more innovative. These IT
teams are more likely collaborating with their businesses as well. These two
traits, while they sound like simple and obvious strategies, are not the “same
old” support model typical organizations will employ. This is where the great
companies rise above the good ones.
Take your organization for example, you might
be quite good at supporting your business objectives in an operational capacity
but to be able to compete you really need to work with your business in a
strategic way.
One of the important facets of COBIT ensures
that we are also looking at what risks could present themselves to our
organization. Much like the ever changing landscape of technology, we also need
to keep our heads above water with regards to evaluating risk. This is done
through leveraging good practices and process which is driven by COBIT at its
core.
As many of you know the underlying reason we
have process aside from being able to produce consistent results is to protect
our business as it might pertain to any regulations which we need to adhere to.
Depending on what area of the world your organization resides, or trades
financially, you may be subject to some level of regulatory auditing. COBIT is
set up in a way which allows your auditors to easily see how you have
structured your process.
My suggestions is to check this out for
yourselves at ISACA
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Labels: COBIT, Continual Service Improvement, IT Governance, Service Management