Business IT standards basis for continuous business improvement

30th January 2015

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Information technology (IT) systems are critical business systems and integrating IT and business development using a framework of business sustainability standards enable processes to be improved con- tinuously, says service manage- ment specialist provider and con- sultancy Marval Africa executive director Edward Carbutt.

International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards capture best practices and reinforce one another to provide a holistic and easy-to-implement business control and continuity framework. These standards also serve as effective ways to improve the quality of business services and deliver more value with fewer disruptions.

These standards are designed to ensure continuity and reduce the risk of IT governance being scuppered by the loss of key strategic resources.

Processes are role-based; there- fore, one person can fulfil multiple roles, for example, in smaller companies, while multiple people can perform single-role functions or multirole functions, depending on their capabilities in large organisations. Roles and responsibility matrices form part of the simple IT governance implementation framework.

The ISO standards have detailed implementation guidelines that all companies can follow, as well as benchmark control systems, to integrate the role of IT into a business’s operations and enforce control over this portion of business-critical systems.

In addition, standards are effective ways of demonstrating to stakeholders that effective business sustainability measures are in place for IT to reduce foreseeable and unforeseeable risks, which can be audited and monitored, notes Carbutt.

“King III recommendations for listed companies emphasise sustainability of the business to safe-guard investments made in them, which also help to ensure stable markets. King III recommendations now also have guidelines regarding the govern- ance of IT systems, and serves as confirmation that business management and IT management are inseparable, as are their risks.

“Standards in a holistic and reinforcing framework offer proven, concrete and demon- strable methods of improving the quality of control over IT systems. Their main use is to align these systems with the evolution of the business strategy and enable IT to proactively develop systems to support the future needs of the business,” he explains.

The standards also provide effective ways of ensuring that more heterogeneous IT environments, including mobile working and bring-your-own-device initiatives, could be effectively managed according to business needs.

“These standards can be applied to any business to bind IT strategy and operations to the business strategy and make them responsive to, and supportive of, business needs. It is a structured way of achieving a measureable and guaranteed outcome,” notes Carbutt.

“Most clients who approach us say they do not know where to start, but the ISO standards, and the ISO system of best practice standards, in general, are designed to support and improve business operation, not act as a drag on it.

For this reason, we advise companies to apply those standards that will help them to resolve specific problems and then broaden the quality-based approach to include other sys-tems using other relevant ISO standards,” concludes Carbutt.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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