IT Governance in a Networked World - Essay Example

IT GOVERNANCE by (Name) The Name of the Class (Course) Professor (Tutor) The Name of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date IT Governance It governance entails putting up of structures within a given organization in order to determine how a given organization aligns its IT strategies with the strategies of the business. It functions to make sure that the organization sticks to the right track of achieving its goals, it also makes sure that the interests of all the stake holders in the organization are taken care of. The IT governance framework should also be able to provide answers on the general functioning of the IT department, the things needed by the management and the returns the business is getting after investment in the IT department (Hagen, 2011). Every organization needs an IT department which should be able to sustain the organization’s objectives and its strategies. The capacity of the IT department varies with the size and regulations but they perform the same functions. Since various organizations are currently subjected to many different regulations such as the retention of data, ensuring confidentiality of the various information about the organization and financial accountability, IT governance provides internal controls that helps the organization to meet guidelines to such regulations. Campbell who is the head of a processing company recognizes the importance of IT governance and implements it in order to improve quality production and service delivery so as to be competitive with other similar companies (Lee, 2009). IT governance is founded under specific objectives which it aims to meet. These objectives are in line with the plans Campbell has so as to ensure that it serves its purpose. Among these objectives, strategic alignment is a key factor that IT governance ought to deliver. Strategic governance entails liking of business with IT to ensure the two works together effectively, planning process is the integral step in achieving strategic alignment, and it ensures that there is effective communication between the corporate side of the business and the leaders of the business together with the IT leaders concerning organizational costs and impacts. Campbell’s company made changes that ensured there was a direct communication between the staff and the internal clients together with arranging meeting between the staff and the management was a step that helped to provide strategic alignment (Mehan, 2014). Value delivery is also another objective that IT governance needs to meet. In value delivery, the IT department puts up the necessary measures in order to ensure that the promises that were made during the beginning of a given project or an investment are all met. Value delivery is best achieved as planned at Campbell soup through ensuring that some functions in the organization are speed up when the value gained is growing and are removed during times when value decreases. Campbell soup company established various departments whose heads were replaced by others that had proven to be more competent in order to meet the objectives of the company. An accounting manager who was responsible for coordination of IBM sale, an IBM consulting service executive was bestowed with the task of client satisfaction and IBM’s revenue and profit goals. An executive from IBM’s strategic outsourcing business was put in place to ensure appropriate planning and execution of service contracts. All these departments and their heads worked together to ensure that the goals of the institution are met (Vellani, 2007). IT governance is also focused on ensuring adequate resource management. The best way of ensuring that resources are properly managed is making sure that the staff is efficiently organized. Campbell embarked in rearranging their staff and organizing them more in terms of the skills they had rather than their line of business. Employees in Campbell are deployed to the different lines of business in the organization depending on demand at a given time. The first step to change was ensuring that corporate IT leaders were solely responsible for governance and architecture while the business It leaders were tasked with relationship management. The most sensitive sectors in the company have been given more priority and attention and depending with the reported changes in market demands, various shifts are made. This ensures proper utilization of resources and during the appropriate period. Performance management is another objective that IT governance needs to meet. This entails putting in place structures that measure how the business performs in various sectors. It helps in achieving goals of the business by evaluating which sector is performing and the one that is not up to the targeted standard. In Campbell, the senior management is left with the task of evaluating progress. Managing Change Various transformations have been proposed by Campbell which is aimed at improving its service delivery and the quality of products. These transformations can however only be successful if the right steps are taken to implement the change that has been proposed. Lack of appropriate measures of change implementation may result to failure of some of the changes from being made effective or rather producing the impact they are supposed to. Appropriate steps therefore need to be taken to implement these changes and also ensure that they are effectively and successfully managed. Various measures have been put in place by the Campbell’s Vice President to ensure a proper integration of the proposed changes; these include initiating communications about the project, conducting meetings to discuss about the changes, he also tried to make it known to the staff that the change is due to take a while before its full potential is realized. Employing a structured change management methodology by Campbell could be an effective step in terms of achieving the objectives of the project. The use of structured process and tools in change management is a great contributor to the success of the project. Designing an approach to change that includes a model of how various individuals in Campbell will experience the change could be key to integrating a successful change process. Successful organizational changes occur when those people who are directly affected by the changes are given chance to go through the necessary transition at a personal level. This can be achieved by combination of an individual model on people’s experience to change and the tools in the organization which can be used to support these changes (Frick & Laugen, 2012). Campbell should then make sure that the project being put in place has got the necessary sponsorship which entails active and visible participation of leaders who approved the initiative. These are the major influential people to successful change. Primary sponsorship level should be able to match the size and type of the change being put in place. The sponsors to the change should also be prepares to fulfill their role, the required coalition of leaders should be built and the leaders be informed of their role. Once it is affirmed that there is the right level of sponsorship, the process of implementation can then begin. After being sure of the above measures, proper communication is then needed by Campbell to communicate the change or project in place. A variety of channels can be used for communication either through posters or meetings with the people involved or affected by the change. The communication channel should be able to provide a feedback mechanism so as to get views from the various departments in the company. This communication plan should not only be about what you as the leader wants to tell the people but should ensure that the affected people get to understand and internalize the key information. The managers and general supervisors need to be engaged in the change management program; this is because they play a crucial role in ensuring that the organizational changes are successful. They are more close to the staff and the people affected by change hence play a central role in terms of management and identification of resistance. Establishing efficient proactive and reactive resistance management strategies is essential by Campbell so as to know how to deal with emerging resistance to these changes. Resistance management is a central aspect of change management. Proactive management involves the identification of how the resistance might be and avenues where it may emerge from while reactive management entails putting in place appropriate measures to counter such resistance. Campbell should then put in place adequate systems which will help to gather feedback and measure the extent to which the change has been adopted. The main objective of the change in achieving the results, successful change management means that the objectives of the project have been attained, before final implementation, an analysis of the progress should be made in order to determine if it is worth it. Right mechanisms should then be implemented in order to ensure that the change remains in place throughout the project. These reinforcements help to prevent the employees or staff from reverting back to the old ways of doing things (Hayes, 2007). References Frick, J., & Laugen, B. (2012). Advances in production management systems. Berlin: Springer. Hagen, S. (2011). Planning for IPv6. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly. Hayes, J. (2007). The theory and practice of change management. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. Lee, L. (2009). IT governance in a networked world. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Mehan, J. (2014). CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime and CyberActivism. Ely, Cambridge, UK: IT Governance Pub. Willcocks, L., Venters, W., & Whitley, E. (2013). Moving to the cloud corporation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More