Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 2 (Current-State Assessment)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Leading IT Transformation is provided by Ms. Drabenstadt MBA BBA Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 24 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
If you would like to view the Client Information Hub (CIH) for this program, please Click Here
Learning Provider Profile
Ms. Drabenstadt is a Certified Learning Provider (CLP) at Appleton Greene and she has experience in Information Technology, Information Governance, Compliance and Audit. She has achieved an MBA, and BBA. She has industry experience within the following sectors: Technology; Insurance and Financial Services. She has had commercial experience within the following countries: United States of America, Canada, Australia, India, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Her program will initially be available in the following cities: Madison WI; Minneapolis MN; Chicago IL; Atlanta GA and Denver CO. Her personal achievements include: Developed Trusted IT-Business Relationship; Delivered Increased Business Value/Time; Decreased IT Costs; Re-tooled IT Staff; Increased IT Employee Morale. Her service skills incorporate: IT transformation leadership; process improvement; change management; program management and information governance.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
The first 30 days of the 90-day plan will be focused on current-state assessment. To understand what the business already has and where it is lacking in terms of IT or digital technology, it is important to carry out a thorough assessment of the current business state. Only when we know where we are starting from will we be able to map out the path to the future goal that we want to attain. A current-state assessment for IT transformation will have to take into account all aspects of the business. It has to evaluate the current processes, systems, and operations in the business. The current-state assessment will also study the organization’s structure, culture, and approach towards change. The assessment will also review the roles of the different people working in the organization in an attempt to see how their skills can be better utilized and if some reshuffling can benefit the transformation process. This current-state assessment will bring forward the opportunities for improvement and pain points that need to be addressed during the IT transformation program. One of the major reasons for failure in IT transformation projects is that companies do not review their current state and assume that the existing technology can simply be migrated to a new platform, or new technology can directly be implemented to improve the efficiency and productivity of the organization. This approach does not help because it does not tell what to prioritize or which areas require more attention. A complete current-state assessment helps make informed strategic decisions that ensure that the IT transformation will add more value to the organization.
Objectives
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
Strategies
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
Tasks
01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze How to Perform an Internal IT Audit.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Understanding Business IT Requirements.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Cost Analysis of IT Transformation.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation.
Introduction
Assessments are necessary for the smooth operations of the IT department. Assessments need to be conducted by the right personnel so that they can gather the best possible results and help maintain your competitive advantage in Information Technology.
Information technology is an important part of the work structure today and organizations need to be technologically advanced to compete with competitors and better serve customers. Today, many organizations spend exuberant sums of money on IT and tech resources to reap the benefits of enhanced data and cyber security. The key methodology here is to ensure that IT systems are reliable and do not break down when faced with cyber attacks and threats.
Most organizations today have invested heavily in their business IT department and are in a continuous cycle of identifying IT requirements and making investments where they can for the future. Budgets allocated for the IT department are often more comprehensive and detailed than any other department and allow businesses to align with the prevalent technology around them.
A popular practice in most businesses today is to have the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) oversee the responsibilities and requirements of the IT department. There are several reasons why following this structure could help your organization and make sense in the long run.
1. Most organizations today have a substantial percentage of the total budget allocated for the IT department. However, not many IT executives and managers are well versed with techniques and strategies to manage financial responsibilities that come with a large budget. A CFO is usually well-suited to manage budgets and can help set IT progress and requirements in line with the money allocated for the department.
2. Most Chief Financial Officers are also in a better position to control structures and set financial objectives that are needed for the IT department to act in line with the intentions set by the management. Since CFOs are tasked with allocating funds and setting budgetary objectives, they are well aware of management intentions and can translate that into their management style when managing the IT department.
3. Most Chief Financial Officers come with a strong sense of organizational skills and project management aptitude. These skills can come in handy to ensure that key IT projects and requirements are completed in time, within the specific business requirements, and within the budget set for them. This helps the organization move forward in its progress towards IT dominance and strategic objectives and goal setting.
Many organizations have started trusting CPAs and CFOs with the requirements of their IT department. And, while these CFOs have the budgetary aspect of it all covered, this chapter covers some of the steps and techniques they can follow to understand business IT requirements and evaluate new IT technologies.
Steps for Building an Effective IT Department
There are certain steps that CFOs assigned with leading an IT department to success can follow in their managerial style. These steps include:
IT Objectives Should Always be Aligned with Company Objectives
The way IT departments function has significantly changed during the last couple of decades. In the past, we saw that many IT departments were left to devise and develop their own strategies for coming periods and years. This was because business leaders weren’t well versed with the ever-changing techno babble mentioned by IT heads and because the IT department wasn’t seen as strategic and as important to the overall development and strategic goals of the organization.
However, the business environment is more comprehensive and developed today than ever. The IT department plays a comprehensive role in determining how companies achieve their objectives and move towards overall success. IT departments today are considered to be key enablers for multiple business objectives and are leading the wave of change forward. Organizations and the executives tasked with leading them today realize that almost all business objectives can only be achieved through reliable and well-functioning systems managed by the IT department.
Therefore, organizations wishing to build an effective IT department that eventually inspires the business forward should ensure that all IT objectives and functions are aligned with the goals set by the organization. To align both IT objectives and business objectives, organizations should write their objectives on paper and make them clear.
Both the organization and the IT department should have well-defined goals and objectives that are documented and written down for almost everyone in the organization to view and comprehend. Obviously, since water trickles down, the company’s objectives and goals should be defined and written down first, before the IT department jots its objective. The objectives and goals set by the IT department should be heavily influenced by the goals set by the company itself.
For instance, if an organization wishes to expand to new international markets and mentions this down as a goal, the IT department should ensure they follow it up with strategic backing. The IT department should hence look to develop strategic applications and systems that help the business make the transition to international markets in a seamless manner.
Establish IT Governance
Perhaps the biggest point of concern and frustration for both IT management teams and business executives is the continuous inflow of complex projects and project requests that come with impossible requirements. Many IT executives have failed to monitor IT governance due to the regular inflow of projects with ridiculous requirements. The constant pressure to meet short deadlines on projects while ensuring the fluid flow of routine operations can seriously dent organizational reserves. This process can become impossible if the IT department lacks enough members and personnel.
This disconnect between the IT department and the management of projects often comes through alack of proper IT governance in an organization. IT governance is best defined as the practices businesses follow to capture, publish and regularly review all of the project requests initiated by the IT department. IT governance is achieved through regular meetings with business stakeholders, including the top management and department leaders. IT managers should provide a detailed list of all current IT obligations in this meeting, along with a list of all future projects that need to be addressed soon.
During an IT governance meeting, the top management in the organization can collectively sit together to review the obligations of the IT department and set priorities for the future. If it deems necessary, the organization will redirect the key company IT resources to a new project that is known to be of a higher priority.
This ensures better IT management and ensures that all business leaders and stakeholders are better informed of the obligations undertaken by the IT department and how it is fulfilling them. Additionally, business leaders will also know of the likely timeframe for completing IT projects, the reasons behind re-prioritization, the inability to deliver solutions, the need for more advanced IT solutions, and other IT requirements.
Good IT governance allows IT leadership teams to have a better understanding and a clear direction of how all IT resources are to be utilized in the future. This evaluation of priorities will help set a clear direction for the future and reduce the burden and stress levels exerted on IT teams.
Manage and Mitigate Electronic Risk
Information security and cyberattack management is a hot topic in most IT departments and IT firms today. As cases of identity theft, data loss, hacking and malware viruses continue to infiltrate businesses, organizations of all sizes have come to realize this as a common enemy, especially because of the bad reputation and the negative light such an attack sheds on affected companies.
The risk of data attacks, along with the increase in regulatory requirements for companies located in multiple industries, data protection laws for most global jurisdictions and the strict requirement of credit card providers, has brought attention towards data protection and cybersecurity.
Information security is an important part of IT management today and deals with measuring, identifying and managing risks related to the integrity, confidentiality and availability of IT assets to a required level. Executives should come together here and identify their role to advise and educate every member of the IT team and the management team. Security professionals can be hired to educate teams and arm organizations with the technology and the information they need to minimize the chances of such attacks in the long run.
Your organization’s security program should ideally be based on a stringent framework, including a set of documented baselines to influence risk decisions.
• Organizations can use multiple frameworks here. However, the best approach to adapt here is to realize the most common framework in your industry, as it aligns with the regulatory and legal compliance of your business environment.
• Conduct a risk assessment to strategically analyze and identify the weaknesses of your organization.
• Once you identify weaknesses, you should work on an action plan and address items that deserve high priority.
Endpoint security should also be ensured, as endpoints are most susceptible to data thefts and threats. Endpoints include PCs, laptops, tablets, and other smartphones used by employees in your organization to access the company’s ERP systems.
Measure IT Performance
IT plans for the future can be set by measuring IT performance and working on them to achieve systematic growth. If your organization makes a hefty investment in Information Technology, it does make sense for you to periodically measure the returns on the investment and evaluate the value it brings within your organization. This is, however, easier said than done.
Most organizations today would agree that perhaps the biggest indicator of IT performance today is uptime. Uptime is usually a measure of just how much time systems are up online to support and recognize business transactions. However, organizations and IT managers need to realize that IT systems need regularly planned downtimes for patching, upgrades, and general maintenance. Besides systematic downtimes for system maintenance, your business applications should be up and running.
Another way to measure IT progress is to check the way they’re working on key projects. IT governance meetings—outlined above—can help check whether milestone dates are being consistently achieved or if the department is slacking in areas that require constant attention.
If you have an IT helpline, you can measure the efficacy and the general benefits of this helpline through the following ways:
• The number of calls made to your helpline each month.
• The number of calls resolved by the helpline without being escalated and handed over to another department.
• The average wait time for consumers before a call is answered.
• The number of abandoned calls before someone picks up and answers.
Another way to measure the efficacy of your IT department is through vulnerability management. A well-run IT department has plans in store to manage strategic vulnerabilities and does not take system attacks lightly.
Factors to Help Evaluate a New Technology
A major part of understanding IT requirements is evaluating new technologies and seeing whether they really sit well with your organizational strategy and goals. Most organizations jump straight on the bandwagon when they hear about new technology and its potential in management and overall success. However, organizations should put all new technologies through diverse evaluation criteria and ask a few questions before implementing them within their system.
In this section, we study a few factors that can help you evaluate new technologies and see whether they sit well with your IT requirements:
Development Cost
The very first thing to consider in the evaluation process is how much this new technology will cost you. Get an estimate of the entire amount it will cost you to integrate this new technology within your system and start using it. Development time also matters here because time is money for most businesses today.
Besides just the cost of implementing the technology, also think of how much it would cost you to create the right ecosystem for the technology to flourish. How much more would you have to pay to developers working on this new technology than the other developers you have working for you right now?
Development costs can either make or break your decision to move to a certain technology. For instance, Forrester’s survey of over 54 autonomous car manufacturers found that the support environment required for manufacturing and integrating the technology for self-driving vehicles is still too high.
Consider Threats
IT managers should consider all facets of a change process before implementing it. In line with this, IT managers should consider the risk of implementing new technology and what it means in terms of financial aspects, security and business viability. If you aren’t sure what your technology will be like in the foreseeable future, it is likely that you will suffer due to the risks and threats involved with it.
Many organizations have ditched implementing new technology because the safety and security risks on offer are just too much for them to cover.
Capability
Perhaps the most important vector to consider before bringing in new technologies is the new capabilities they bring to the table. The new technology you go for should open up new business capabilities that you really want to achieve. Unless it opens up new doors, you shouldn’t be investing heavily in it.
Usability
Usability is another important factor to consider when moving towards new technology. The new technology that you transition to should improve usability and be easy to use. If the new technology does not address usability issues for you or your audience, is it worth the investment?
Interoperability
Interoperability is defined as the ability of software operations and new hardware technologies to exchange information between systems. How much interoperability does your new technology have? Does it help in sharing information and creating an ecosystem of growth and development? If it does, will you able to seamlessly move towards it without wasting resources or time?
Integration
Carrying on from our point above, you should also measure the ease of integrating the technology within your existing IT systems. The integration process should be flawless and as quick as possible. The quicker it is, the easier it makes for you to run the technology faster and derive the necessary benefits from it.
Legal Compliance
You should also look to consider the legal compliance this new technology offers. Scan through the regulatory requirements related to implementing this new technology and consider if there are any legal challenges involved in implementation. All legal challenges should be mitigated for proper success.
Security and Privacy
You should measure the privacy risks that come to the picture with this new technology and the security concerns that it brings. Evaluating these risks will let you know just how secure this new technology will be in monitoring your data sets and keeping your systems safe.
Investing in new technology comes with a number of risks, something that we will look at in greater detail further within this manual. For now, you can go through the factors above and determine whether the new technology your team is going gaga over is worth the investment or not.
Security Assessments of New Technologies
Carrying on from the point we mentioned above, security risk assessments are highly necessary for effective IT management and analysis today. Software systems are an integral asset for your organization, and you should look to minimize and manage the risks you face in regards to them. Whether you believe it or not, if you have a functional IT department, gather customer data, have an internal communication system, and store sensitive financial information, you are directly in the line of fire from threat actors online.
To that end, you should regularly conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment to measure how secure you are to combat external risks from malware and hackers and how safe your IT infrastructure is.
What is a Security Risk Assessment?
Security risk assessment includes a detailed process to identify and evaluate all risks that your business could suffer in the face of a cybersecurity attack. Businesses hold innumerable intellectual assets today, which are often under threat from fraudsters and scammers online.
During a typical security risk assessment, businesses identify the common external and internal threats facing them and the potential impact these threats can have on factors such as data integrity, data confidentiality and data availability. The analysis process also considers the total costs of a cybersecurity lapse and just how much it would take for the business to recover from it. The information gained through this risk assessment process can help businesses evaluate their current risk profile and set their sails right for a better future.
To get started with the IT security risk assessment, businesses should be ready to answer the following questions thoroughly:
• What are some of the important information technology assets currently possessed by your business? These assets could include sensitive customer data and other important systems that could lead to major downtimes in business operations when hacked.
• What are your key business operations and processes that could be impacted in the case of a cyber attack? Identify core processes that are directly in the line of cyberattacks and would face a major brunt of the impact.
• How much would the ability of your business functions be compromised in the case of a cyberattack, and how long would the downtime persist? Have an idea to know just how much attention you should put on this subject matter.
Once you realize what exactly you have to protect and the departments that need immediate attention, you can perform an elaborate risk analysis and also develop strategies in the meanwhile. However, before you set out on an IT security assessment, you should consider just how much time you’re going to be spending on it, the type of risk you’re going to address here, and whether or not you have a cost-effective approach to the risk.
Defining Cyber Risk
According to the Institute of Risk Management, cyber risk is defined as “any risk of financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of an organization from some sort of failure of its information technology systems”. Gartner has a more general definition of cyber risk, as it defines it as “the potential for an unplanned, negative business outcome involving the failure or misuse of IT.”
Some examples of cyber risk on the internet include:
• Hardware damage and the subsequent loss of data that results because of it
• Theft of sensitive information that was required to be regulated.
• Malware and viruses within systems owned by the organization.
• Compromised user credentials, which provide access to sensitive information
• Website failure of the company due to a hosting error.
• Natural disasters and damaged servers.
Whenever you’re noting down cyber risk, make sure that you evaluate the specific financial damage that each risk type can cause. Remember that besides the damages suffered in lost data, cyber risks also result in legal fees, lost business, customer distrust, operational downtime, and poor results in profit and loss statements.
Importance of Regular IT Security Assessments
There are numerous benefits that businesses can get from regularly assessing their IT security and finding out glitches in it. Conducting a thorough IT security assessment allows businesses to build a solid foundation for success without any weak points.
The importance of regular IT security assessments are:
• To help businesses identify IT security gaps and remediate them as soon as possible.
• To prevent data breaches and stop sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands.
• To mitigate risks.
• To prioritize the protection of different assets based on their value and risk profile.
• To eliminate unnecessary control measures that aren’t much good.
• To help in the evaluation of security partners so that businesses can pick better options.
• To help establish and maintain compliance with regulations as far as cybersecurity and data protection is concerned.
• To accurately predict future needs for the business and help determine how much the business would have to improve over the course of the future.
Components and Formula of IT Security Risk Assessment
The IT risk assessment process is made up of four key components. These key components include:
1. Threat: A threat is usually known as an event or activity that could seriously harm the assets and people within an organization. Examples of threats include website failures, natural disasters, corporate espionage and company-wide malware attacks.
2. Vulnerability: Vulnerabilities are all weak points or points of entry for a threat to infiltrate within your system and harm your processes. Vulnerabilities can come in any form and may allow malware attacks to succeed. The most common vulnerability is an outdated antivirus system in endpoint connections, as malware in one system may eventually make its way through the entire network. Other examples of vulnerabilities include aging hardware, unguarded entry points, no two-way authentication on system login and disgruntled employees who may leak private details out to the public.
3. Impact: The impact of a security threat generally indicates just how much damage the threat may end up causing. The impact can vary based on the nature of the attack. For instance, a ransomware attack may not just lead to downtime but will also require extra expenses in data recovery.
4. Likelihood: The likelihood of a threat is based on the threat of an attack and the vulnerabilities present within a system.
Risk is calculated through the following mathematical formula:
Risk = Threat x Vulnerability x Asset
The risk and likelihood of a threat actualizing are calculated by assigning values to the figures in this formula and finding an appropriate range.
Managing IT Teams
Besides just analyzing IT systems and processes, organizations also have to manage their human resources and find the best fit. Organizations can choose between in-house teams and outsourcing here.
Every organization and employer with an IT team strives to have the perfect in-house team of professionals – who wouldn’t want to have a stellar team that meets client requirements, sets objectives right, and is always up to the task? The problem, however, is that simply recruiting and hiring the best individuals from the industry doesn’t necessarily give you the kind of results you want and expect here.
Top recruits surely bring their acumen and superior working style to your firm, but there is no guarantee that they’ll be working with the same styles and parameters a couple of months or a year down the line. And, even if your team is performing well and meeting metrics, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have any more room for improvement.
This is where in-house team reviews come in, especially for the IT department. To look at them in the most rudimentary manner, performance reviews are evaluations done to determine how your team performs and whether any improvements can be signalled in the overall performance of the team. The performance of each employee is documented during the review and is then presented back to them during the next review to signal whatever improvements have been made during the period.
Reasons for Regular Performance Reviews of In-House Teams
Formal performance appraisals play an integral role in most organizations and should not be neglected at any cost. Unfortunately, in-house IT team reviews are underutilized and undervalued by both employees and employers.
Some of the reasons why organizations today should conduct regular in-house performance reviews for their IT team include:
Gain Oversight on Current Projects
Most IT departments are typically working on tens and hundreds of projects on a regular basis. Hence, it can be extremely difficult for managers and executives to maintain a stringent eye on all projects and be up to date with what is happening.
Formal performance reviews allow employers an opportunity to sit down with employees and gain their perspectives on different matters. Different projects often come with multiple complications and difficulties that only the employees working on them would be best aware of. While it is necessary for IT heads to maintain a thorough eye over projects regularly, performance reviews can help succinctly unearth all details. The performance review can also help clarify why certain project deadlines weren’t met and why certain systems failed to deliver as expected. However, it is best to discuss these points in the moment, rather than waiting for the performance review.
Make People Feel Valued
The formal performance review process is a good way to make your employees feel valued and to help them realize that they’re putting in good work within the organization. To be fully productive and competent, employees need to feel satisfied with the work they do. Satisfaction is known to come from sincere feedback and valuable insights from the top management.
Employees value frequent recognition and words of praise they get from their employers. This eventually helps them work smarter and better in the future. Employees appreciate that managers higher up in the hierarchy are aware of the good work they’re putting in and aren’t mincing words in giving their feedback and positive output.
Help You Choose Between an In-House Team and Outsourcing
Perhaps the most important reason for an in-house performance review in an IT department is to help organizations choose between maintaining an in-house team and opting for an outsourcing model.
With the outsourcing model becoming ever so convenient, organizations today are forced to contemplate whether their in-house teams really benefit them in the long run or whether they should go looking for more comprehensive outsourcing models.
An in-house performance review does allow you to evaluate the performance of each employee and the department as a whole. It also allows you to measure cost metrics to determine whether making the shift to an outsourcing model will benefit you in the long run. Many organizations jump to outsourcing without actually reviewing their in-house teams and identifying whether the outsourcing model really is the best one for them.
Assess Training Needs
Finally, regular performance reviews can help you assess the training needs of your employees and determine whether they need training to help them out with any new projects or technologies. Employees in the IT industry are usually open to training and appreciate that the employer is introducing them to new technologies and solutions.
Refocus on Team
Regular performance reviews can be a good way to focus back on your IT team and ensure that they sing from the same hymn sheet as you. This is the time to brief employees about your values, culture and any updates on your goals.
Regular performance reviews will help sustainably build the importance of objectives in your team and allow them to fluidly be part of the culture that you want to build. A disconnect between members of the IT team and the top management can bring bad omens for the firm, as progress stalls and employees never take responsibility for their work.
Set New Goals
The most productive employees happen to be those that are constantly driven by new goals and objectives. Employees that are unrelenting in their pursuit of new goals and objectives tend to be motivated and driven in their work.
Regular performance reviews allow the management to set achievable targets that every employee can follow. Employees will be intrinsically driven to meet those objectives and will eventually up their game as well.
The IT department is all about setting achievable targets to help the organization get actionable output. The objectives of the IT department should be aligned with those of the organization, while the objectives and goals set for each specific employee should be aligned with the objectives of the IT department. This popular strategy is known as ‘Management by Objectives’ and helps teams achieve their objectives.
Chance to Introduce New Technologies
Most executives and managers like to wait till performance reviews before they introduce new technologies and systems within their IT department. The performance review meeting sets an amazing platform for the introduction of new technology as all stakeholders within the IT team are present and talked to individually.
All employees can be briefed about the nature of the future investment and how the new investments will impact them. Employees can also be allowed to chip in and let the employers know if there are any brief changes they would like to see during the implementation phase.
Signs it is Time for You to Outsource IT Functions
There are a few signs every business gets to view when their IT department isn’t performing all functions accurately and steps need to be taken to improve the situation.
These signs include:
Inability to Meet Deadlines
Organizations will consider outsourcing their IT functions if they’re unable to meet strict deadlines. The inability to meet client requirements and follow strict deadlines can significantly dent your growth prospects and can eventually reduce your profit generation ability.
If you feel that your IT department is unable to keep pace with projects on a strict deadline and time to market is an issue, you should preferably look for an outsourced solution. Time to market is an important metric, and you will lose out on clients if you’re unable to give them the specialized output they require.
IT Presents a Burden on Business Operations
Perhaps the biggest and most visible signal for outsourcing your IT functions is when the IT department takes up unnecessary time and takes your attention away from key business functions. The more time you spend on utilizing and figuring out your IT resources, the less time you get to give to the core operations in your business.
Business managers would know that there is no end to the requirements of the IT department. So, if a manager gets involved in the processes, they will never be able to fully bring their focus back to the other departments of the firm. When you outsource your IT functions, you get to benefit from several capabilities hosted by the other firm. Rather than maintaining a single in-house resource, you will now have a dedicated team servicing your requirements from elsewhere and prioritizing your work.
Skills and Growth Gap
Growth is something that most businesses today envision achieving with time.
Expansive growth in operations and the overall structure of the firm can significantly improve your operations and can open the doors to amazing opportunities in the future.
In order to scale up in size, you will need to have a dedicated IT department with proficiencies in the new technologies you will be encountering in your journey. This can become a tad too difficult if your IT department has a skill or growth gap of sorts.
Obviously, you don’t have the budget to hire an entirely new set of developers and cannot shift your focus towards training staff members. Outsourcing comes as a viable alternative during these complicated times.
Team management, along with auditing of IT resources and security assessments, is necessary for keeping an eye on your IT department and achieving incremental growth. This introduction puts down the foundation for the learning modules to come within the course manual.
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
This chapter introduces readers to the intricacies of an Internal IT audit and what can be done to perform one at a rudimentary level. The chapter includes core processes of an audit, and the different parts it is broken into.
The rapid pace of development in the information technology domain has significantly changed the way many organizations operate. Organizations today have dropped the pen and paper of traditional processes and adopted automated operations that not only save time but also improve efficiency.
The use of information technology across multiple business departments has improved firms’ data processing and transmission capacity and has played a considerable role in improving results. However, the emergence of IT technologies does not mean that organizations in the contemporary era are free of any vulnerability.
The incessant use of technology in key business processes has led to the rise of IT vulnerabilities and shortcomings that can blow out of proportion if not mitigated at the right time through the right approach. The use of IT in organizations needs to be controlled. Internal audits should be conducted regularly to ensure that all IT resources are utilized to their full potential, and there are no shortcomings in usage or consumption rates.
What is an IT Audit?
Regardless of the industry they operate in and the niche market they are part of, a number of organizations are investing more of their financial capabilities into building tech resources. From money to time and labor resources, organizations are investing whatever they can to ensure that the true potential of the IT revolution is realized, and their business moves towards a period of growth and development.
One of the best ways to improve investment in your organization is through a thorough information technology audit. Internal information technology audits to ensure the safety of your resources and full utilization of your tech resources. An IT audit can make a world of difference between an organization that fails to leverage IT potential and another one that uses its tech resources as a catalyst for success within the industry.
An IT audit can generally be defined as an investigation of all existing IT systems and the generation of a report related to an entity. An information technology audit is a systematic review of the IT systems, applications, data use, and management style within the firm.
IT audits are made out of different types and are broken down into multiple phases. While we will study the phases of the audit later within this chapter, let us first study what the IT audit is based on and the different types.
There are five basic types of audits for the IT department. These IT audits can strategically be broken down and segregated in two basic ways: application control review and general control review. General control review is a broad IT audit covering the entire IT operations and implementations within an organization. A general control review expands across the face of the organization. It positively reviews just how well the company is performing in context to the overall industry standard and IT spending. Application control review does not look over the overall dealings of the organization and deals with a specific application based on a computer.
To further illustrate the difference between these two, you can consider general control review as an organizational audit that considers all use of IT across departments. In contrast, an application control review is a website or application audit that reviews the computer-based application of the firm.
To help you understand the intricacies of an IT audit better, you can go through the five types mentioned below;
• System and Application Audit: A systems and applications audit is the first type of audit in our list and is concerned with the review of all systems and applications under the control of an organization. This audit goes through the backend of all websites and applications to check whether they are secure and actively running without flaws. This audit will also evaluate the reliability of systems within the organization and pass a verdict on this.
• Information Processing Facilities: Information processing facility audit verifies that all processes within a system are working correctly and in order with the objectives they are meant to serve. Any disruptions or irregularities within the system and its relevant processes are found in here.
• Systems Development Audit: A systems development audit confirms the development of new systems and tech advances and ensures they are in compliance with the organizational requirements expected by legal authorities around them. Any disruptions from the organization’s destined path are minimized.
• IT Management and Enterprise Architecture Audit: An IT management audit examines the current operations and success of IT managers and teams. The audit records team satisfaction and management efficiency.
• Telecommunication Audit: This audit investigates the servers and telecommunication protocols within the firm to minimize the chances of a breach in the future. Data breaches can significantly dent customer trust in you and be bad for your reputation.
Chapter 2: Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
This chapter looks at the audit process to follow for assessing tech controls in both support and service models. The controls are broken down into general and application controls. The chapter also sheds light on the risks that are to be managed through proper monitoring.
Procedures and Solutions to Follow
A number of solutions and auditory procedures can be followed to minimize the dangers of poor general IT operations control and its risks.
These solutions and procedures include:
Service Level Agreements
A typical service level agreement It is a common practice in today’s changing corporate world for IT departments to enter a Service Level Agreement or an SLA with the other departments of the organization – i.e., those linked with the users. This allows the users and their interconnected departments to specifically provide the level of service they expect to receive in writing. The level of services specified and mentioned in a service level agreement will vary from organization to organization and be influenced by a number of factors.
This includes the following:
• General provisions related to the scope of the agreement, the date of the next review and the signatories that signed it
• Service hours set by the organization
• A brief description of all services
• User support levels
• Percentage availability of service and the maximum downtime for failure
• Performance metrics including turnaround times and response times
• Restrictions on the IT provider
• Security lapses and provisions to limit them
Proper Operations Documentation
All organizations should have clear documentation available for all IT systems to ensure secure and accurate operation. The documented details related to each system should include the following information:
• The correct handling and maintenance of all data files.
• The scheduling and management of system requirements.
• Instructions and other preferable methods to handle exceptions and problems which might occur when jobs are being performed.
• Support contacts to get in touch with during unexpected technical and operational difficulties.
• Special instructions for handling outputs.
• System recovery and restart procedures.
The organization should also preferably have documented proof to help with maintenance activities such as daily data backups, IT room management, and IT equipment start-up procedures, etc. Documentation can prove to be extremely beneficial for operating staff and members whenever they are about to perform a procedure, especially one that is difficult to implement.
Auditors would like to see large quantities of documentation across the board to help with the organization process. Documentation lends credibility to an organization’s IT resources and makes maintenance easier for stakeholders.
Problem Management
The IT department should have documented guidelines available at all times to help staff members detect and record anomalies within IT equipment and processes. A manual/computerized log can be used to record and work on these conditions.
Workers should also be allowed to add entries to the log without any restrictions whatsoever; however, this ability should only be extended to a few authorized workers. The IT department and workplace management should develop proper mechanisms to ensure the true maintenance of IT systems and that all outstanding errors are addressed and adequately resolved in due time.
Network Management and Control
Another suggestion to follow here is to incorporate control and improve the standard of management in network control. A new range of controls is usually required in organizations using computer networks. Network managers are usually tasked to oversee these controls and ensure that the organization performs smoothly without any threats to networks. The networks within the organization should always be protected from unauthorized users.
Some of the controls that can be implemented by the management here include:
• Segregation of duties and roles between both operations and network administrators.
• Monitoring both network availability and performance around the clock. Organizations should preferably maintain reports and systems to record utility time, response time and downtime.
• Expert management of all procedures and remote equipment. Remote equipment should be managed to avoid breaches.
• Establishing security controls that are directly related to a computer network and implement long-term solutions for them.
Areas to Be Secured Through General Controls
All resources, facilities and files that require protection through general control methods include:
• Data Files: Data files are usually the first resource to be protected through general methods of control. Data files consist of both databases of consumer data and transaction files, including financial information.
• Applications: Unrestricted access to company applications can increase the threat of unauthorized alterations and data loss. These alterations eventually lead to fraud, corruption and a dent in your reputation in the general market.
• Password Files: Every organization maintains a password file to monitor information and stop unauthorized access to them. Password files should be adequately protected and have restricted access.
• System Software and Utilities: All system software operations such as compilers, program debuggers, code editors and frameworks should be monitored. Access to these software processors and utilities should only be restricted to certain individuals. These tools can generally be used to run amendments on application software and data files.
• Logs: Log files are systematically used to record user actions and provide organization management and system administrators with an equitable and accountable method of user accountability. Inadequately protected log files can be accessed by fraudsters and hackers, who may delete and edit the actions they have committed through a user account.
Chapter 3: Understanding Business IT Requirements
This chapter covers the study of business IT requirements and how they can best be understood through requirements management. Requirements management is a growing business facet and concerns itself with the issues that emerge when a new solution or software system has been deployed in your IT department.
Requirements management is performed to understand the changes required to systems over time, after implementation, and oversee the level of control required to execute these changes effectively.
The core activities performed during a typical requirements management process include the following:
• Recognizing the imperative need for changes within the business environment and system solution.
• Establishing a key relationship between all stakeholders and ensuring their involvement in the requirements identification and reengineering process.
• Identifying the attributes of the requirements and tracking them for surety.
Requirements management in the IT department allows developers and managers to identify, track and control requirements through the development process. Some advantages associated with requirements management in the IT department are listed below:
• Allows Better Control of Difficult Projects: Requirements management helps give the development team a clear understanding of details related to the software delivery. This clear understanding eventually ensures that all priorities are delivered according to user requirements.
• Improved Software Quality: Requirements management ensures that the system performs in accordance with the quality requirements expected from it.
• Reduced Project Costs: Requirements management significantly reduces the cost of development and ensures that project costs are kept to a minimum.
• Improved Team Communication: Requirements management can improve communication within the team and ensure that objectives are met with proper communication between all stakeholders and team members.
Requirement Tracing
Requirement tracing is a key process followed by IT teams from the start of the process till the system is developed and delivered to users. The requirement tracing process ensures that all requirements are clearly identified and well understood. Tracing ensures that user requirements are incorporated across the software and that the system helps adjust to changing requirements.
Tracing techniques help the IT team in identifying requirements in a project that is currently under development. The information achieved through information tracing is then stored within a convenient traceability matrix. This matrix relays requirements to all stakeholders.
Additionally, there are different types of traceability tables, which are identified in the table below:
A change in one aspect of the table can help affect different aspects. Hence, these tables are necessary for traceability and identifying areas where attention is needed.
Chapter 4: Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
This chapter looks at some of the ways organizations can follow to perform a security risk assessment. This process holds true for both current IT assets and future assets. Go through the assessment procedure, which has been elaborated in the course manual, below.
Identify and Prioritize Asset Security
The first step in the process is identifying and prioritizing assets based on the risk they carry. Assets here include your client contact information, servers, trade secrets, partner documents and other sensitive data. Remember that you need to look at assets from a business’s perspective and not through your own perspective. What you consider as valuable might not exactly be as valuable when considered through the lens of the business.
Once you list down your assets, you should find out the following information related to all assets:
• Software
• Hardware
• Data
• IT security architecture
• Network topology
• Information storage protection
• Information flow
• Technical security controls
• Physical security environment
• Interfaces
• Users
• Support personnel
• Mission or purpose
• Criticality
• Functional requirements
• IT security policies
• Environmental security
Since most organizations have a limited budget for risk assessment, you will have to determine the importance of each asset based on its importance in core business processes.
Identify Different Threats
A threat, as we have identified above, is something that cans seriously cause harm to an organization and damage its reputation. While most of us do know of malware attacks and the hackers behind them, here are some other types of common threats:
• Natural Disasters: Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires can destroy not only your data but also your appliances and severs. Many organizations house their servers in remote areas without assessing the different risks of natural disasters in these locations. Always house your servers in a location with a relatively low risk of natural disasters. The lower the risk, the more reliable and safe your data would be.
• Hardware Failure: Hardware failure is a common threat for businesses today. The likelihood of a hardware failure will depend on the age and quality of the servers you use. The chances of failure are low for relatively new and high quality equipment used in your organization. However, organizations will have to constantly operate under the pressure of failure if their servers are old and susceptible to such failure.
• Malicious Behavior: There are three common types of malicious behavior that you will come across here:
– Interception is the theft of your data in a malicious manner.
– Interference is when someone deletes your data or physically steals your hardware.
– Impersonation is when someone misuses credentials and finds out sensitive company information by posing to be someone else.
Identify Different Vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities are all weak points or points of entry through which a threat can attack your systems and harm your processes. Vulnerabilities can come in any form and eventually allow malware attacks to succeed.
The most common vulnerability is an outdated antivirus system in endpoint connections, as malware in one system may eventually make its way through the entire network. Other examples of vulnerabilities include aging hardware, unguarded entry points, no two-way authentication on system login and disgruntled employees who may leak private details out to the public.
Do not limit your assessment to software vulnerabilities, as there are a number of human vulnerabilities as well. For instance, maintaining your server room in the basement can significantly increase the risk of flooding.
Analyze Controls
We studied the analysis and auditing of controls in the previous chapter and now link it up with risk assessment. Once you’re analyzing and assessing the risk involved in your processes, it is necessary that you run through the controls in place to minimize and eliminate the probability of risk or vulnerability.
Determine Likelihood of a Threat
The next step in the process is to determine the likelihood of a threat actually transpiring into something. It is necessary that you the likelihood of a vulnerability actually being exploited. The likelihood should be determined by assessing the vulnerability, the capability and the motivation that guides the source of the threat and the efficiency of your current control measures.
The likelihood of an attack cannot be measured in a number and is instead measured through categories and ratings of high, low and medium. High likelihood indicates a high chance of an attack or any other event of an adverse nature.
Assess the Impact of Threats
You should identify and analyze the impact of different threats through the following factors:
• The value of the asset under risk
• The role of the asset in core processes
• The sensitivity of the asset
The impact can further be determined through the mission impact analysis report.
Prioritize Security Risks
For each security threat/vulnerability pair, you should determine an appropriate level of risk and prioritize it. This should be done based on the following steps:
• Likelihood of the threat exploiting the vulnerability
• The approximate impact of the threat
• The adequacy of the current controls and the improvements required.
Once you have this information, priorities should be sent to the IT department. If you have a large enough IT department, you can assign the risk assessment role to the IT department itself and have them oversee it.
Chapter 5: Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
This chapter sheds some light on some tips executives and managers can follow while conducting performance reviews for their in-house IT teams. These reviews aren’t just important for setting goals and objectives but also for helping managers decide the utility of continuing with an IT team and whether they can benefit by outsourcing their services.
Understand the Elements of an Effective Performance Review
Performance reviews offer executives a decent opportunity to review the performance of their employees and find out ways they can follow to help them perform better. When done the right way, performance reviews can help organizations maximize their efforts and achieve their objectives. However, when done wrong, performance reviews can kill motivation with employees and send them into a downward spiral of disengagement and dissatisfaction.
Here are some important elements of team reviews in the contemporary corporate world.
Performance Reviews Should be Frequent
Performance reviews only reap results when they are done frequently. Organizations can only reap positive results from their team reviews if they conduct them regularly and branch out of the traditional nature of annual reviews.
There are so many changes over the course of a year, which is why it does not make sense for you to leave your performance review to the very end of the year.
We recommend formal reviews on a quarterly basis, with a monthly conversation between managers and employees to discuss general themes, bring up pain points and move in the right direction. Many organizations might find the cadence of monthly reviews daunting, but they don’t require a hefty time commitment and can be short and concise for effectiveness.
Encourage Two-Way Conversations
Performance reviews should generally be based on two-way conversations rather than just one person leading the conversation without listening to the other. They should be engaging in nature.
While there is no one size fits all approach to follow, the review meeting should reduce anxiety, promote trust, showcase alignment and create clarity in processes.
The discussion can address:
• Career development and growth for the future
• Challenges in engagement faced by employees
• Alignment with organizational objectives and goals
• Key leadership messages from the senior leadership
• Peer feedback
• Recognition of performance
• Feedback from clients
• Discussion of new IT technologies
• Need for training sessions
• Reasons behind current glitches, if any, within IT systems
Be Prepared for the Team Review
Managers and leaders should approach all team reviews with thorough preparations and detailed knowledge of what is to be discussed. Managers should preferably equip themselves with plenty of data. Some of the areas to prepare yourself in include:
• Sync criteria of the review with goal progress and future goals
• Prepare an agenda with some notes
• Find the right place and time for the meeting
• Set clear expectations for employees
Additionally, before you head to the review meeting, you should gather employee performance data and use examples to establish and validate your points. Not too long ago, performance review meetings were held on a manager’s objective understanding of matters, but that has significantly changed in the data driven world today.
Managers should validate their facts with data from different sources. The data to gather before the meeting should include:
• Engagement and survey responses
• Notes kept from one on one meeting with employees
• Recent feedback through client surveys
• Examples of recognition
• Ratings from talent reviews
• Proof from previous performance conversations and meetings
• Hiring documents
• Input and feedback from direct managers and colleagues
• Strengths in work style tests
Identify Proper Criteria
Both managers and employees should know just what constitutes as good or poor performance before the review meeting. Organizations should clearly communicate their criteria to the client and let them know the performance standards they require.
Setting clear metrics and identifying effective performance criteria should help employees and managers:
• Define success
• Measure impact
• Determine future growth
• And prove the success of current plans
•
Most organizations today would agree that perhaps the biggest indicator of IT performance today is uptime. Uptime is a measure of just how much time systems are up online to support and recognize business transactions.
However, organizations and IT managers need to realize that IT systems need regularly planned downtimes for patching, upgrades, and general maintenance. Besides systematic downtimes for system maintenance, your business applications should be up and running.
If you have an IT helpline, you can measure the efficacy and the general benefits of this helpline through the following ways:
• The number of calls made to your helpline each month.
• The number of calls resolved by the helpline without being escalated and handed over to another department.
• The average wait time for consumers before a call is answered.
• The number of abandoned calls before someone picks up and answers.
Another way to measure IT team progress is to check the way they’re working on key projects. IT governance meetings, outlined above, can help check whether milestone dates are being consistently achieved and whether the department is lacking in areas that require constant attention.
The last technique to measure the efficacy of your IT department is vulnerability management. A well-run IT department has plans in store to manage strategic vulnerabilities and does not take system attacks lightly.
Ask the Right Questions
A typical performance review meeting typically consists of a number of questions and discussion points. You should preferably look to ask the right questions and ensure that all necessary points of discussion are addressed in the meeting.
Some good questions to ask during the meeting include:
• What goals do you have for yourself in the future?
• Which achievement during the past quarter or performance period are you most proud of?
• How do you look to develop within the coming 3 or 6 months?
• What obstacles do you feel currently stand in your way and hinder your progress?
• How can the management team improve and facilitate your growth objectives?
• What impact do you think your performance had on the team and on the organization as a whole?
Focus on the Future
While it is good to reflect on the past within your in-house team review for the IT department, your focus should be on the future. Traditional performance reviews tend to focus on past performance without clearly identifying a plan for the future and what will be expected by employees during it.
Hence, if you want your performance review meeting to succeed, you should effectively reflect on the past but also focus on the future. Future-focused reviews and discussions are more in line with what employees want. Employees will want to be told of improvements within their work in the very moment, rather than waiting for the annual performance review to be conducted. You should also clearly set future goals to avoid any confusion.
In-house reviews for your IT department can be complex and complicated, but they are absolutely necessary to determine the future progress of your team.
Additionally, they help you recognize the importance and efficiency you will get by outsourcing IT requirements, something we discuss in the next chapter.
Chapter 6: Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
Our last chapter discussed the importance of reviewing in-house teams regularly and finding out the utility of maintaining such a permanent team for your organization. If, however, during your review process, you find out that your in-house team is more of a burden than a utility, then you should obviously move towards the more convenient model of IT outsourcing.
Outsourcing your IT requirements does more than just maximize your IT service. There are a number of benefits that outsourcing your IT requirements brings to the table, and we study them here in this section:
Scalability
Perhaps the biggest benefit of outsourcing your IT requirements is that you get scalable results in return. As a business owner, you likely realize just how big a hindrance hiring new employees can present to you the moment you want to grow your operations or move to new industries.
With an outsourcing firm, all you need to do is sign a few paperwork and move to a more comprehensive plan to cover the new requirements that your business will undergo during its growth curve. Outsourced IT departments are hence more scalable and show flexibility during times of growth.
Reduction in Hiring Costs
Ask any HR department and you would know just how unnecessary and difficult it can be for businesses to hire frequently and regularly recruit new employees. Hiring is one of the biggest expenses incurred by a business and is bound to grow as you hire new people. Add to this the high turnover rates in most IT departments and you get an unnecessary expense that you can cut out by outsourcing.
Outsourcing saves you from the hiring process and allows you to invest your time and money in more actionable areas. All companies experiencing growth will be able to save a lot of money in hiring and recruitment by outsourcing their IT functions. Also, with an outsourcing firm, you pay for what you get and don’t have to pay hefty amounts you pay to in-house developers even when there is no work for them.
Help In-House Team
Most organizations like to maintain a hybrid mode of management, wherein they maintain both an in-house IT team and also outsource some of their functions to an outsourcing organization. This comes with a number of benefits and can actually help your business. An in-house IT team will manage core IT requirements, while outsourcing firms can be used to distribute some of the additional burdens.
Round the Clock Monitoring
Maintaining an in-house IT team does not come without its own perils. When you maintain your own in-house IT team, you are at the mercy of sick days, business hours, vacations and additional workload problems. However, outsourcing your IT requirements ensures that you don’t have to go through any such conundrum in your processes.
The company you outsource your IT department to is present to manage your requirements around the clock and give you a sustainable long-term solution. Outsourcing firms ensure that there is as little downtime in operations as possible.
Increase in Expertise
Hiring an outsourced IT organization to manage your IT department allows you to benefit from a significant increase in expertise. The fact is that the company you outsource your requirements to will have plenty of experienced personnel within their ranks and will be willing to provide for you as much as they can.
While your IT manager might parallel their experience, it is difficult to rely on just one person’s experience to run your department. Almost everyone working in an outsourcing firm is experienced and proficient in IT details. Also, since they work on a number of projects at one time, they are well versed with IT requirements and can help you out when required.
Reduce IT Costs
As you will have an idea of by now, outsourcing your IT functions can significantly reduce the costs you spend on your IT department. First of all, you pay only for what you need. Outsourcing firms provide flexible packages based on what you require, without any fixed payments.
Additionally, as we discussed earlier, you get to save money through reduced recruitment costs. Since you no longer have to hire and maintain an in-house IT team, you don’t have to spend on hiring and training employees.
Finally, you don’t have to incur costs on buying and maintaining the best in-house hardware and systems for your IT department. The outsourcing firm handles your requirements and has its own systems.
Chapter 7: Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
We start this chapter by mentioning a few steps that corporate managers and executives should consider before successfully implementing technology within their ranks. We will later look at some of the critical aspects to consider before tech integration to prepare managers and the organization for what is to come.
Investigate Problem-Solving Technologies
The first step to implementing new technologies is to investigate new technologies that can help you and your organization in the natural cycle of progression. The very purpose of implementing and adopting new technologies within the workplace today is to find solutions to inefficiencies and problems that your organization currently faces.
While solutions to some of your problems might be evident, others will require a lot of industry and external research. For starters, you will have to begin by researching the competitors within your own industry. Find out just how they’re performing to identify trends and work on adopting technologies already in your industry.
However, there will be cases and problems where you won’t find ideas or solutions from within the industry. This is where you’ll have to do some research, even ask some vendors, and act as a pioneer within the industry.
Make Sure You Have an Implementation Team
The second step businesses need to take while integrating new technology is to assemble an implementation team. Don’t let the word ‘team’ scare you, especially if you are a small business owner, because an implementation team can also consist of just one individual.
You need an implementation team to build the importance and the superiority of the new technology in the eyes of your employees. The benefits of the new technology and the competitive advantage it enjoys will mean very little if the technology is not wholeheartedly accepted and adopted by your employees.
Many tech integration projects fail because of the lack of a dedicated implementation team. The lack of such a team eventually leads to poor implementation and a disconnect between the benefits of the new technology and the expectations of the employees.
The team should work on the following tasks and responsibilities:
• Managing conflicts in priorities to help assure a dedicated approach to the integration process.
• Overseeing all administrative details related to the tech integration.
• Allocating the required resources to the project and ensuring that all corners are connected.
• Managing change at the ground level and helping employees jump on the bandwagon.
Run a Pilot Program
The next step to take in successfully integrating the technology within your system is to run a pilot program. A pilot program will basically experiment with the usage and implementation of the technology while demonstrating its impact on different departments.
A pilot program will also allow you to identify a few kinks in the process, such as ironing out complexities that are part of the integration process and connecting old technologies with new ones. Once these kinks have been identified and resolved, you don’t have to worry about the successful implementation of the program. The pilot program is necessary to decide areas where improvements are needed.
Train Employees
Training all employees is perhaps the most important thing to do before picking up a new technology and integrating it within your organization. Not all technologies are easy to understand and user-friendly in nature. New technologies can be complex to understand for employees, even more so when they have a complex UI and aren’t easy to master.
Providing training sessions to your staff can do wonders here, as it prepares them for the different aspects of the technology and helps improve their understanding of it. The following aspects should be kept in mind before you organize a training session:
• Every employee in your organization will have different learning styles and requirements. Not every individual has the same learning style, so the training should incorporate as many different learning materials and methods as possible. The training session can be tailored and adjusted to different learning styles through adequate measures.
• The training sessions should be kept personal. You should let people know just why the training sessions matter to your organization and how they will impact the different day-to-day work employees do.
• Ask users for feedback during each and every step of the implementation process. This will improve adoption and will help clear away any errors in their infancy.
Organizations do tend to face resistance from employees when it comes to implementing a training program. Do not underestimate the importance of training when rolling out new programs and incorporating them into your business.
Launch and Fine Tune as You Go
Making it to the launch stage of your new technology is an achievement of its own. You have now troubleshot your new solution for possible problems and have minimized them to a certain extent to roll out the technology across the board. However, contrary to popular belief, the launch is not the end of the tech integration process. Most organizations rather unintentionally follow the ‘set it and forget it’ methodology, which we believe is not the right approach to follow. A very important step for successfully integrating new technology in your organization is to monitor just how it performs after it has been implemented and fully integrated.
If problems exist within the technology, which there most likely will, you should continue changing and updating how you use it and identify iterations that take away the problems. Do not forget to hire the tech expertise of a professional that has previously worked in similar technologies. They will help point out errors and minimize flaws for you.
Chapter 8: Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
In all actuality, managing ROI for IT innovations does seem to be simple enough. You start by finding out just how much you invest in ROI innovations and then moving towards areas where you spend it. This does seem simple but can be difficult to implement in practice. Some challenges here include:
Complexities in Management
Companies may have to manage return on innovation investment in order to:
• Justify the current spending on innovation and design to external and internal stakeholders.
• Make a business case for implementing new IT solutions and technologies.
• Demonstrate the value and future ambitions of the company to future investors and stakeholders.
• Align technology objectives with those of the business.
• Optimize innovation project portfolio
The tools used by organizations here will not always be the same, as there are certain diversities and differences that managers have to account for. Hence, managing these new technologies and the investments made in them can be particularly difficult as well.
Identifying Innovation Investment
Another challenge businesses face here is in identifying innovation investment. This is a key challenge early on in the process. The amount spent on research and development is clearly part of the investment process, but certain organizations include the amount spent on troubleshooting, technical support, quality testing, and software reformulations within R&D as well. There is also no clear correlation or connection between the amount spent on R&D and revenue growth, making it harder for most organizations to track costs and their direct results.
Identifying Returns
While there is confusion in identifying areas of innovation investment, there are also certain confusions in identifying return. Organizations do face a tough time estimating returns on their investments as the entire return process is fraught with difficulties.
The most commonly used metric to the returns is Risk-adjusted Net Present Value, which also loses its meaning and purpose in certain situations that require assumptions to be made.
Reasons to Make ROI Demonstration a Priority
Organizations looking to successfully run innovations in IT and make their own future as thought leaders in the industry should look to prioritize ROI and keep it at the center of all their projects. Most organizations fall short when it comes to measuring ROI along with the project and are unable to keep an eye on key processes as they roll out. In this section, we look at some serious reasons to make ROI demonstration a priority along with all steps of the project.
Innovations may need Alignment
You should make ROI observations necessary during an IT innovation project because your innovations may need alignment with the business needs and objectives. You can ensure alignment in three ways following the ROI methodology.
These ways include:
• The ROI methodology achieves alignment before the project is even initiated. The method helps set goals and objectives upfront when the project is validated.
• The ROI methodology sets clear objectives, which can then be checked and measured in comparison to the business needs and objectives.
• Thirdly, the follow-up data helps businesses find out just how drastically measures around the business may have changed.
To Clarify Value of Innovation Projects to Stakeholders
There are times when the value of IT innovations and the amount spent on them isn’t exactly clear to most stakeholders and investors. The primary objective or goal of an IT innovation project is to deliver value to the organization, but the definition and context of value aren’t always clear to most stakeholders.
The lack of clarity in value means that external stakeholders, especially investors and sponsors, are not satisfied with the objectives and where they are driven.
The ROI methodology helps businesses run investment appraisals and find out the possible value of the project in advance. Once this value is delivered to the organization, the earlier value proposition can be validated.
We look at a number of reasons within the actual course manual to help build the importance of ROI in IT investments.
Chapter 9: Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
Small businesses have for ages been the lifeblood of the global economy. Even in the United States, small businesses are responsible for creating more than half of the total jobs, generating 54 percent of the total sales within the United States, spawning new ideas, leading innovations and acting as conduits within communities across a diverse environment.
The momentum towards small businesses has shown no signs of slowing downs, as the global economy relies more on them than ever before. With the rapid pace of digital adoption around, websites, applications and technology, in general, will act as the cornerstone for these new entrepreneurial ventures and business ideas.
While small businesses previously had a small presence on the internet with a simple cookie-cutter website, they have now gone for a new approach that includes complete dependence on the internet. These small businesses derive almost 100 percent of their revenue from the internet and rely on technology as the primary source of income.
Businesses that are completely reliant on the internet include:
• Online stores that do not have any physical outlet
• Content sites and blogging channels that achieve monetization through advertisement, referrals and subscriptions
• Niche providers that tap into the explosive demand for mobile applications and web platforms
The small business craze is just as extensive as it was back in the past, but all that is changed now is that small businesses rely more on the internet and tech resources today than they ever did. From purchasing a domain name for their website to starting an online store, small businesses are entirely reliant on technology to run their operations.
Dependency on Business Dashboard
A business dashboard summarizes all relevant information in one place and allows business owners and entrepreneurs to view a number of key details relevant to total sales, amount receivables and other key metrics related to the business. A dashboard also provides a glimpse into the overall financial health of the business and ensures that organizations are able to keep their financial objectives on track.
There are several benefits of using a unified dashboard for businesses today. Some of these benefits include;
• Visibility: A business dashboard helps give entrepreneurs and business managers the visibility they need into the performance of the different departments in their business. Visibility is essential for business management today, as managers need access to raw data to determine just how well the business is performing and identify areas of improvement. Without proper visibility, business decisions will always lack purpose and never identify the right improvements. The advanced visibility of a business dashboard allows managers to make quick decisions and provide quick answers to complex business questions. Since all information is available at the tip of your fingers, the decisions you make are relatively quicker and more influential.
• Time Saver: A business dashboard saves a lot of time for all stakeholders involved in the decision-making process inside an organization. Previously business owners had to go through elaborate systems and protocols to gain access to business reports and measure progress through different data representation techniques. This method has now been simplified through the use of a unified dashboard. Business owners do not have to log in to different systems to view reports and business data. They can view it all under one platform, which saves a lot of time. The time saved from this process can eventually be utilized for sales growth and business development.
• Results: Since all key business metrics are available in one place, it makes it easier for business managers to make decisions and find out areas where investments will lead to success. Most dashboards color code results, which makes it even easier for businesses to identify areas of good and bad performance. Most dashboards color code progress in green and mark a downward spiral in red. You can look after items in red and give them the attention they need to signal improvements.
• Improve Productivity and Performance: Perhaps the ultimate objective of all business dashboards today is to improve overall productivity and performance. Business dashboards help improve overall business productivity, which eventually increases performance and results in better productivity. Businesses are eventually able to signal improvements in their performance and grow more profits. With a better focus on areas that are performing below expectations, business managers can ensure that business objectives are met in the manner they expect.
We further study some other metrics of IT dependency within the course manual.
Chapter 10: Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
Most executives are already sold to the idea of a digital transformation. However, it is still necessary to achieve clarity on what you will get at the end of the investment.
Your digital transformation can promote a wide-ranging scope of cost savings, which are unique to your organization. Some of the promised cost savings include:
Virtualization and Networking
Centralizing all of your applications and desktop computers can significantly reduce your IT-related costs. Virtualization of your computer systems can allow your desktop support team to record and deliver updates, fix issues remotely and deploy security upgrades. This saves time in terms of communication and travel. Virtualization also allows businesses to maintain smaller and leaner technical support teams, as no extensive IT backups and support are required. For example, businesses do not need to fill in a full-time staff position to deliver the kind of service promised by digital transformation.
Virtualization also allows for easier implementation of updates and patches, which can work wonders for existing hardware and software resources.
No Hard Copies
Filling out forms manually can take a lot of time and can significantly slow things down. Fortunately, businesses today have a number of options as a result of the digital transformation and do not have to rely on slow and traditional processes such as faxes and analog handwritten forms. The digitization of online documents and forms is just the beginning of the process. Once you include the forms in your digital system, you can roll out documented workflows and speed the process up. The power of digital transformation comes in the form of a fully automated process from team handover to signatures to customer onboarding and the final payment.
Preventative Maintenance
Perhaps one of the biggest applications of digital transformation today is to provide preventative maintenance in manufacturing firms. Organizations that run manufacturing concerns can benefit from preventative maintenance to find flaws and the need for maintenance in machines before they actually succumb to pressure. The ability to find the need for product maintenance at the right time can help businesses avoid downtime and other costs associated with sudden disruptions.
The costs saved through the techniques above add to the utility of digital transformation and make it even more convenient from a cost perspective. While the additional costs of implementation might seem daunting, remember that digital transformation can help save you money in the long run.
The Cost of Organizational Buy-In
The initial price of the digital transformation in dollars is nothing in comparison to the uphill battle most organizations face from their employees, investors and boards. The resistance to change is palpable across the organization and is felt both in terms of the implementation process and the day-to-day activities related to the new tech integration.
The digital transformation must potentially be rolled out from a top-down perspective. What this means is that the organization should preferably roll out the digital transformation with approval from the top management. Additionally, the transformation cannot be strategically implemented within just one department, so the implementation needs to be across the board.
The solution for organizations to create a long-term transformation strategy is to develop a vision that involves the customers, digitizes processes, trains employees and enables the workforce to achieve strategic results and objectives.
The Cost of Technology and Systems
Most organizations simplify the digital transformation process without realizing the full scope of the change. Buy some software, message your customers, train your employees and staff for a few new tasks, and BOOM, your digital transformation is ready. This isn’t actually the case.
The digital transformation process isn’t based on implementing or integrating one piece of software or a single system solution. Instead, it is a strategic transformation that takes over a significant amount of time and requires strategizing and multiple applications of the highest order.
Apart from the investments in innovation and technology, some other ways to invest in technology and innovation include:
• Partnerships
• Divestment and restructuring
• Mergers and Acquisitions
Your ability to tackle the budgeting requirements of your digital transformation comes down to the unique cost details concerning your plans and the diverse options that you’re willing to follow for the transformation. Every organization has a different use case for implementation.
Chapter 11: Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
From the use of smartphones, personal computers and tablets to business networking sites and social media, technology has had a significant impact on customers and businesses. With higher connectivity levels and customers using more tech resources than ever before, there is an imperative case for businesses to implement new technologies within their corporate network. Companies like Walmart, Amazon and Netflix are all increasing their total spend on technology and data resources to amplify the customer experience they offer to new and old customers.
Customer experience, or CX, as it is commonly known in business lingo, is the sum of all interactions shared between a customer and an organization. Customer satisfaction, on the other hand, is a measure of just how satisfied and happy customers are with the experiences they have had with you.
Customer experience and customer satisfaction go hand in hand because by improving CX across different touchpoints, businesses satisfy customers and drive up satisfaction levels.
Technologies to Enhance Customer Experience
If you’re willing to transform your customer experience journey and include technology within it, there are thankfully many avenues available to you. Technology is now at the forefront of business operations and determines how consumers feel after using a service or buying a product.
As we move forward in the digital era, the spotlight is on organizations that are able to retain customers through improvements in the customer experience. Success awaits organizations that provide a relevant customer experience to customers and help exceed their expectations. To that end, there are a number of new tech tools and solutions that can make customer experience management even easier in this current age.
In this section, we explore some of the best cutting-edge technologies that can improve the customer experience for your service or product users. Assess your current IT system and make room for IT investments within these technologies:
Chatbots
Chatbots are usually based on artificial intelligence and automate the simple tasks and answers that previously required a dedicated agent. Successful chatbots are driven through a vast amount of information poured within them to drive their intelligence forward.
The intelligence and the solutions provided by a chatbot will only be as good as the data poured within them. Chatbots resolve product and service usage issues and help provide answers when a human agent or representative is not able to. If the information poured within chatbots is valid, it will help solve queries and provide authentic answers.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, or AI as it is popularly known today, is considered to be the most disruptive of all tech innovations. AI has multiple applications in the business world today, with the most prominent one being in enhancing customer expectations. As per predictions from Gartner and leading tech researchers, we are a couple of years away from a world where businesses will manage their communication with customers without the presence or interaction of a human.
Many new technologies available to organizations come down to their usage of artificial intelligence. AI helps increase efficiency, drive customer experience towards the better and reduce costs. Common and repetitive tasks are automated, and your sales agents get to be more productive. AI also helps empower customers and allows them to solve their own issues. However, the use of AI should be transparent to customers to comply with regulations and ensure optimal support.
Video Chat
Sometimes, reading or hearing about the customer experience just isn’t enough. In such situations, you will need a video chat solution to be able to fully understand customer concerns and help address them. Visual customer support can help straighten the root cause of a problem and can help solve it in the long run. The smooth and frictionless manner of this resolution will help drive loyalty in customers and form long-term connections.
However, due to the elaborate nature of this communication and the use case for it, we believe only B2B businesses with a handful of customers can currently offer video chat support through their bot.
Speech VR
The use of speech-enabled voice recognition is really driving innovation forward in organizations. The use of functions and national language processing allows customers to fully converse with bots, as they would do with human representatives. This provides a simpler and more interactive method of common problem resolution. Additionally, human customer support agents can take their time helping customers with more complex and difficult problems while the bot handles simpler queries.
Speech and Voice Analytics
Customers that call your customer support number will not always be willing to interact with a bot. Sometimes, customers are angry; they’re emotional and require an immediate response from the other end. Speech analytics and voice biometrics allow organizations to equip chatbots with the artificial intelligence needed to listen to elevated voice pitches and the other related emotional cues that come with them.
Call center bots should know just how the customer is feeling through their voice tone and cues in their speech. The call should then be transferred to a live agent when the bot feels it is appropriate. Conversation analytics can uncover emotional drivers and determine the common metrics that influence certain behavior and tone.
How can Technology Improve Customer Experience?
With rampant tech progress around us, customers today have higher expectations and expect you to meet them. Some questions generally asked by customers while experiencing a new product or service include:
• Are you reachable through different devices at the same time?
• Do you respond to customer requests in real-time or keep them waiting for hours or even days.
• Is your website frequently updated or is it just neglected and left to be?
• Will you keep customers informed about new products and services in an interactive manner that does not overwhelm them?
• Will you listen to customer feedback and work on it to improve overall performance?
Technology and the progress achieved through it have allowed businesses to meet the expectations above and provide a comprehensive customer experience to satisfy all new, old and prospective customers. We look at ways technology can be used to enhance the business customer experience in the course manual and introduce new concepts and technologies.
Chapter 12: Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced the corporate world and economy into an unimaginable situation. However, technology trumped through the pandemic, as many organizations managed remote work and kept the cycle of progress running.
However, while the pandemic has reaffirmed our belief in technologies, it has also led to a set of new challenges, which need to be identified and worked upon to make remote work smoother and more flawless than it ever was.
Below are some of the general challenges facing IT firms and organizations with a functional IT department today and effective ways to deal with them.
Data Protection
With more regulations concerning data usage and collection methods, organizations are now incorporating data privacy and protection by design within their collection methods. GDPR measures reign supreme today, as even Google couldn’t escape the stringent eyes of French regulators and was fined for their data collection methods.
With a rampant market on the darknet for stolen customer data and financial information, businesses have had to amplify their data protection methods. The use of multiple endpoint devices and IoT connections may have made data protection more difficult, but it isn’t something businesses are willing to compromise on.
New Security Threats
The emergence of remote work and new connected systems has come at the cost of security. The pandemic saw a number of headline-grabbing events, which highlighted the importance of cybersecurity in the cyber world.
The lockdown and the emergence of remote work saw an increase in cyber threats around us. Critical corporate infrastructures were attacked as threat actors targeted unprotected endpoints across different networks. With the lockdown, many security professionals weren’t connected to their systems and systems were often left unprotected. This created a big hole for attackers to jump through.
AI-driven ransomware attacks require a more progressive cybersecurity mechanism, which minimizes the impact o the attack and helps ensure optimal security. Organizations have to spend more on cybersecurity than they ever have before.
Focusing on Innovation
According to recent research conducted by popular data streaming and collection website Gartner, about two-thirds of all business leaders think of digital transformation as a challenge rather than an opportunity. The competitive tech business environment of today forces organizations to look at the digital transformation as something they absolutely have to do to not lose ground to competitors and other adversaries.
Most companies force the digital transformation and are never able to get the full benefit out of it. While there are certain challenges that come with digital transformation, it is important to understand that these risks eventually pay off and lead to a more fluid and flawless flow of operations.
Skills Gap
With new technologies and frameworks, there is a skills gap that IT departments just cannot meet anymore. Imagine having to work on new innovations and technologies without having the right personnel in your team to manage resources and help you with the efforts.
The skills gap is more self-inflicted than enforced. Many organizations set unrealistic expectations from employees and push them out by overburdening them with excessive workloads. This needs to stop if employees are to be given room for growth and maturity. It is better to train employees on the job than to hire new recruits and train them from the start all over again.
Hence, your best bet to fight the skills gap is to not let go of employees and treat them as your assets. Additionally, many IT departments are also approaching foreign markets to get a hold of freelance employees who work without any full-time commitments or complications.
Hiring people from diverse backgrounds has its own benefits as well and allows you to bring a lot more creativity to your work processes. Additionally, your IT department will be able to generate tens and hundreds of new ideas, and innovation will reign supreme.
Multi-Cloud Security
Multi-cloud security is a major concern for organizations today and something that we wish organizations would talk about when exploring new cloud-based services and choosing an ideal platform. Security across platforms is necessary today, as different endpoints are used to access the cloud model.
Multi-cloud functionally allows businesses to manage different security systems and ensure optimal compatibility between different endpoints. Additionally, cloud-agnostic security is fundamental for businesses to achieve consistency and completeness in their company-wide security setup. The more thorough multi-cloud security is, the better it is for organizations.
Rebuilding Trust after a Hack
With an increase in cyberattacks, many businesses and corporations have found it hard to rebuild trust within customers and stakeholders. The period after an online hack or cyberattack is difficult for the affected organization, as they have to regroup and re-grow with time.
This does come across as a challenge for businesses today as they have to rebuild trust in customers. Trust is something that takes time to build, especially if it has been lost once.
The challenges mentioned above are some of the most common ones facing the IT department in general today. With new technologies coming out, these challenges are expected to become even more prominent and difficult to manage in the future.
Risks of Outsourcing
The skills gap we discussed earlier will force a number of organizations and executives to contemplate the idea of outsourcing their tech resources. As beneficial as this arrangement sounds in the short run, it is necessary to know that outsourcing comes with its own perils and challenges.
The risks of outsourcing are drastically growing with time, as businesses have no control over the operations that transpire within the company they have outsourced. When businesses outsource their work, they put the responsibility of their reputation and quality on other firms. Those firms may or may not live up to the expectations put on them.
In addition to the obvious quality concerns, outsourcing can also open a number of security threats. Handing key personal and client data in the hands of an outsourced client does come with its security risk. If you’re thinking of outsourcing your requirements, you have to be extremely careful and ensure that the risks are minimized to a certain extent.
Curriculum
Leading IT Transformation – Workshop 1 –Current-State Assessment
- How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
- Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
- Understanding Business IT Requirements
- Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
- Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
- Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
- Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
- Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
- Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
- Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
- Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
- Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.
Study environment
You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.
Study tools & rules
Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.
Successful distance-learning
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
Self-assessment
Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.
Accepting responsibility as a student
Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.
Planning
By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.
Management
Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.
Study objectives & tasks
The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.
Study forecast
As a guide, the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.
Performance management
It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.
With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.
With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.
Keeping in touch
You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.
Work colleagues and family
You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.
Making it relevant
The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.
Distance-learning check-list
Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.
Tutorial Support
Programs
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.
Support available
You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.
Support Process
Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Leading IT Transformation program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.
Distance Learning Guide
The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.
How To Study
The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Leading IT Transformation corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.
Tutorial Support Tips
Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.
Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails
Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.
Think about the impression that you want to create
Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.
Remember that quality is preferred to quantity
Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.
Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers
Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.
Keep a record of your tutorial support emails
It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Tutorial Support Email Format
You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.
Subject line of your email
Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.
Main body of your email
Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)
Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.
Question 1
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 3
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 4
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 5
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.
Procedure
* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.
How To Study
Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.
Planning your study environment
Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.
Planning your program objectives
It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.
Planning how and when to study
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.
Planning your study tasks
You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.
Planning your time
You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.
Keeping in touch
Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.
Charting your progress
Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.
Making it work
To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.
Reading methods
Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.
Speed reading
When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.
Content reading
Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.
Making structured notes on the course manuals
When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.
Organizing structured notes separately
You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.
Question your understanding
Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.
Clarifying your understanding
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.
Question your interpretation
Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.
Clarifying your interpretation
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Leading IT Transformation corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Leading IT Transformation Specialist (ALITTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.
Leading IT Transformation – Grading Contribution
Project Study – Grading Contribution
Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%
Qualification grades
A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.
When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:
Pass with merit
A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory
Pass with distinction
An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory
Preliminary Analysis
With new software processes, operation management tools and communication gateways, the corporate world is more efficient than it has ever been. IT departments across industries from all industries and verticals lead this wave forward by integrating and implementing new tech solutions and resources within core operations and processes.
Amidst this breakneck pace of operations, it is highly important for organizations to take a breather and understand the workings of their IT department and underline the improvements/changes that are required. Regular IT assessments are hence not just a requirement but a necessity today.
Current state assessments are usually performed in the form of an IT audit. IT audits streamline core IT operations and understand their competence in terms of industry norms and overall progress.
Current state IT assessments also put down the foundations for innovation and integration in the future. These audits determine just how rapidly your organization will progress towards the future and also if there are any new technologies an organization can pick up for better operations and management.
At their very core, current state IT assessments act as a conduit for the future. These assessments are necessary to open up the door to your organization’s future and to also build a competitive advantage that will last for the time to come.
The key methodology behind an IT current state assessment is to ensure that IT systems are reliable and do not break down when faced with cyberattacks and threats. It is also to ensure that organizations are prepared for the tech wave of the future and have their arsenal ready to digitally transform their operations and enter the digital era with all guns blazing.
How IT Audits Work
Information technology is an important part of the work structure today, and organizations need to be technologically advanced to compete with competitors and better serve customers. Today, many organizations are spending exuberant sums of money on IT and tech resources to reap enhanced data and cybersecurity benefits.
An IT audit is crucial to the growth and success of an organization as it helps streamline the one asset that your future relies on. IT audits are set to meet several business objectives and requirements. A typical IT audit is set to include the assessment and evaluation of multiple processes powered by technology. The objectives of an IT audit include:
Asset Safeguarding
The very first and primary purpose of an IT audit is to safeguard the assets within an organization and protect that from external threat actors. Organizations cannot blindly rely on tech resources without regularly performing audits of their own to find glaring irregularities within the system.
Assets that are to be safeguarded through an IT audit include the following:
1. All data objects within the possession of the organization. All forms of data generated through internal systems, generated from customers, and even relating to manufacturing plant maintenance should be protected. Structured data should be set under special protocols.
2. Applications and systems should be safeguarded through an IT audit. The applications mentioned here are to be considered a sum of the programmed and manual procedures.
3. Tangible and intangible tech assets of the firm including, hardware, networking, multimedia, operating systems and database management, etc.
4. Staff skills, management styles and the overall tech acumen of your staff should be audited. The audit should measure the productivity to plan, acquire, organize, deliver, monitor and provide support to information systems and servers.
5. Resources that are acquired to house your information system and database servers.
Ensure Maintenance of Data and Information
A good IT audit should ensure that the following attributes of data and information are strategically maintained:
1. Efficiency: The efficiency in data management here deals with the provision of related information through optimal tools and resources.
2. Effectiveness: This deals with the relevance of data and information to business processes. Data generated through collection measures should be actionable in nature.
3. Confidentiality: This factor deals with protecting and managing sensitive information taken from customers and other stakeholders.
4. Integrity: This attribute is related to the completeness of data and the validity it holds in line with the expectations and values of the business.
5. Availability: Relates to the availability of information when it is required by the business management for decision making.
6. Compliance: This refers to the legal attributes of data collection measures. There are a number of legal measures determining data collection and governance, including the GDPR. These legal measures make compliance even more important, as organizations should regularly audit their data collection and governance measures.
7. Reliability of Information: The insights and decisions you generate from your data will only be as reliable and authentic as the data itself. Hence, it is necessary for the information you gather to be reliable and assist decision-making in an authentic manner.
Efficiency in IT Operations
At its core, the primary objective of an IT audit is to add efficiency to an organization’s IT operations. Information technology sits at the forefront of digital disruption. All organizations looking to be part of it want their IT operations to be efficient in nature and lack any glaring errors.
Most organizations have spent extensive budgets on their IT campaigns and cannot risk losing out on the potential due to their inability to maintain checks and carry out regular audits. An audit can unearth areas of concern and help put your house in order. It also collects evidence from within the firm and evaluates management styles so that nothing acts as a roadblock in the way of true tech prowess.
Phases of the Audit Process
The audit process is usually broken down into a number of steps or phases to help manage the process and oversee its efficiency.
The process includes the following phases:
1. Planning
2. Defining audit scopes and the objectives to be unearthed through it
3. Evidence evaluation and collection
4. Documentation and reporting of final results
We will discuss all these phases in greater detail within this section.
Planning
Planning is the first step of the audit process and is usually the most important one. Planning is an iterative process that is repeated at different points during the audit to reach the best possible results and course of action. The results of planning eventually determine the basis for the type of auditing model that would be followed and the extent of the testing
Once auditors working on an internal IT audit find out that specific IT protocols concerning a given procedure are ineffective and not applicable, they will consider measures to evaluate the efficiency of the earlier conclusions and the planning decisions they reached based on these factors.
IT auditors are required to generate input and plans related to the following aspects of the firm being audited:
Organizational Functions and Operating Environment
This process will be concerned with the overall general understanding of the business practices in place within the firm being audited and how they relate to the IT systems and protocols. The process also oversees the different types of information systems in place within the organization and how they are to be regulated for effective management.
The auditor will also study the environment these information systems operate in. Understanding the functions and systems in place within the organization can help unearth the factors to be audited and the frequency to be followed.
Organizational Structure
The second aspect of the firm that will be studied during the planning process is the organizational structure of the firm. The IT auditor working on the auditing process should preferably obtain a full hierarchy of the IT department in the organization and the different ranks sitting across different positions.
Importance of IT Systems
The next step in the planning process is to determine the importance and the criticality of the IT systems being studied here. IT systems are usually categorized as Support Systems and Mission Critical Systems.
Mission Critical Systems are all information systems that have a serious impact on the performance and output of the firm and are critical for success.
Support Systems are required to support the decision-making process of the management team and may not be as significant as the Mission Critical Systems. These systems support decisions, and the organization can still perform without them working fine.
Nature of Hardware and Software
IT auditors will like to initiate their planning process after studying and understanding details related to the hardware components used within the firm. This analysis will oversee the use of hardware in the firm in general and the IT department in specific.
The information of hardware components will help provide auditors with the information they need to form an understanding of risk. Almost every type of hardware today comes with its own vulnerabilities and risks. Auditors can find the risk within specific pieces of hardware when they know they are used within the organization to a certain extent.
Additionally, the auditor should collect information pertaining to information systems and other software processes within the organization. Gathering info pertaining to network architecture in their preliminary study is also important for auditors.
Nature of Risks Affecting the System
Auditors will oversee the nature of risks attracted by the system and the vulnerabilities involved. They will determine this by:
• Reviewing strategic IT plans
• Visiting organization facilities
• Reading annual reports, independent reports and publications released by the firm
• Interviewing key personnel
The extent of the knowledge captured by the auditors will be based on the extent of the audit.
Defining Audit Scope and Objective
Almost all IT organizations have some objectives they would like to achieve through their audit. Some of these common audit objectives include:
• Reviewing controls of the IT system to evaluate the effectiveness and adequacy of these systems in the modern world.
• Evaluating the performance of specific programs in the systems to see how they react to threats.
• Reviewing the security protocols of IT systems and how they react to threats.
• Examining the development process for new systems, change protocols within the organization and the procedures following within these systems.
The objectives outline above could cover more than one area within each organization. For instance, reviewing the security system of the organization could cover a combination of the following points:
• Physical access security
• User rights
• Security settings
• Firewall security
• Passwords
Audit scope usually determines the domain or the boundaries that are to be followed within the audit. Determining the scope of the audit and setting boundaries for it is usually included within the planning process. The scope determines the extent of testing and is based on costs and risk levels.
Evidence Collection and Evaluation
All IT audits should collect and evaluate reasonable quantities of evidence to support the judgments achieved by the auditor and the conclusions that the organization is willing to agree upon. Data collection techniques are to be chosen with due consideration to minimize the irregularities.
Before the audit starts and picks up pace, the auditor should comprehensively oversee and understand the type of evidence that is to be gathered through the audit. Additionally, the auditor should also clarify the use of these systems in clarifying audit objectives and enhancing the readability of the process.
The different types of audit evidence to be covered by auditors here include:
• Documented evidence available through electronic records
• Analysis of IT systems and how they perform
• Observed evidence of physical hardware items
•
Physical hardware evidence is obtained through observation and physical checks. Physical verifications and inspections by the auditor can help form an understanding of tangible assets held by the firm. The auditor can physically inspect terminals, computers, printers, etc.
Besides physical evidence, the following methods can be employed to gather data related to the audit and accumulate evidence.
Interviews
IT auditors can use interviews to obtain data from across the board and record information. Interviews can be used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative information. System programmers and analysts within the organization can be interviewed here to better understand the functions and controls within the firm.
Users of a website or application can also be interviewed to check user experience. The answers given by different users and personnel within the firm will help form a blueprint of the evidence to be used within the audit.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires have traditionally been used in audits to evaluate system controls. Auditors can use these questionnaires to pinpoint areas of weakness and concern within the different information systems. Inefficiencies within information systems can result in improper progress and delayed response. General questionnaire guidelines must be kept in perspective, and questions should be specific in nature.
Control Flowcharts
Control flowcharts help analyze and illustrate that control exists across the system. The reasons to include a flowchart in this process include:
• Flowcharts improve comprehension as they illustrate areas of concern.
• Flowcharts help with evaluation as senior auditors can use these flowcharts to find out irregularities in the pattern.
• Auditors can communicate through flowcharts.
The evidence collected through these means will help determine which areas need further verification and testing and which areas of the audit should be investigated thoroughly. Evidence should be generated early in the audit to help with the other processes.
Tools of Evidence Collection
IT auditors now have a variety of tools and solutions at their disposal. These tools help simplify the audit process and get the certification and authenticity required for future validation.
Generalized Audit Software
Generalized audit software allows businesses the means to manipulate data resources and gain access to them in a unified manner. IDEA software is the most commonly used case of generalized audit software in the corporate environment today. Generalized audit software operates with the sole purpose of unifying different software and hardware platforms within an organization under one umbrella.
Generalized audit software provides a number of solutions, including file re-organization, file access and the selection/extraction of data resources from their locations. Data is a key asset for organizations in this tech revolution and generalized audit software helps examine the accuracy, existence, completeness, timeliness and consistency of data resources held by an organization.
A systematic analytical review is then performed to create a trend analysis and analyze key indicators. However, there are certain limitations to what generalized audit software can do, such as a limited potential to find out propensity for error and limited resources for processing and verifying logic.
Industry-specific Audit Software
As the name itself suggests, industry-specific audit software is a high-level solution programmed for the needs and requirements of specific industries. An industry-specific audit software operation includes commands and resources that perform common functions required to audit companies within a specific industry. The processes and logic within industry-specific software are in line with the trends and requirements of the relevant industry.
Utility Software
This is a basic software process that helps perform common functions such as sorting data, copying information, searching disc programs and formatting discs across the board. A utility software operation is used in conjunction with other processes to perform a complete IT audit.
Specialized Audit Software
Specialized audit software is written and developed to fulfill a set of auditing tasks and not the entire process. The nature and structure of specialized audit software can vary based on the task it fulfills and the specialized role it plays within the audit process.
Concurrent Auditing Tools
Concurrent auditing tools and techniques are used for evidence collection. Concurrent auditing tools collect audit evidence from systems while concurrently ensuring the continuity of data processing within each system. This is done by enforcing specialized data modules within systems to collect, process, and print evidence for the audit.
Documentation and Reporting of Audit Findings
Once the key planning, accumulation, and analysis processes are finalized, auditors should document all audit evidence in an adequate shape and form. An audit report serves as fully documented proof of the audit and the factors that have been uncovered within the audit. The report should include the findings of the audit, along with a detailed introduction on the basis and extent of the audit process. This document is then passed on to key stakeholders within and outside the organization.
Documentation for an audit includes a basic record of:
• The planning and preparation of all objectives within the project and the boundaries set for it.
• The audit program and process.
• Evidence collected through different sources and the conclusions they helped achieve.
• A mention of all work papers included within the audit, including the work papers and files maintained by the organization.
• Points discussed with employees and other stakeholders within interviews. The brief should clearly state the point of discussion, the person interviewed, their role and designation within the firm, and the time and place of the interview.
• Observations are noted down by the auditor as they watch the performance of the core IT team during hours of work. The observations may include a mention of the reason behind this observation, the people involved in the observation and the time and place of observation.
• Reports and other data obtained by the auditor. These reports and data sources are either directly obtained by auditors or provided to them by liaison officers within the firm. Auditors will include a separate mention of the source of these reports and the conditions served.
• Auditors can add their personal comments, clarifications and concerns at various points through the documentation process of the audit. The personal points will serve as a documented proof of the auditor’s doubts, concerns and the need for additional information to reach successful conclusions.
The final report created by the auditor is an important part of audit documentation and is often the most important document passed over to stakeholders and other concerned parties.
Structure of the Report
An audit report should be complete, accurate, timely, convincing, clear and as objective as possible in nature. The report should also be concise and to the point since the subject does not permit much meandering. The structure of the report can follow the structure and the outline provided below.
The Introduction
The audit report will start with a brief introduction to the audit being conducted and the starting point of the report. The introduction sets the tone for the overall report and should be as thorough and as detailed as possible. The introduction must give brief and concise details of the systems and processes highlighted within the audit and the hardware resources required to run the IT hub of the organization.
The introduction should also clearly highlight the complexity of data processing in the firm, the volume of data structured regularly, and the irregularities expected within them. A clear picture of the organization’s current standing is necessary to give stakeholders and viewers the perspective they desire and to build an appreciation of findings made within the audit.
The introduction should assess and mention the criticality and importance of different information systems. The seriousness of different audit findings and concerns mentioned further in the report will be evaluated on the basis of the criticality of that system. If the data flow and other facets of data are complex in nature, the auditor may add a separate flow chart to the report.
The Objectives, Scope and Methodology
Readers and stakeholders viewing the document need the necessary knowledge of the scope set for the audit and the methodology defined to achieve objectives. Readers need this information to judge the merits of the work done within the audit, understand the audit requirement, and comprehend the information reported within the text and report to follow.
While reporting the audit objectives, auditors should be clear to outline and explain the performance aspects examined within the audit. Auditors should briefly delve into what was audited during the process, identify the organizational departments, geographic locations visited and the hardware and software used within the period.
The methodology should also explain any/all problems faced while collecting evidence for the audit. The tools used for gathering evidence should be briefly explained, along with the reason behind them. The methodology and scope should also mention whether any assumptions were made during the auditing process. Finally, this section should clarify the comparative techniques used within the audit process, along with the criteria set by auditors.
The Audit Results and Findings
Auditors should report all significant findings noticed at the end of the audit project and the irrelevance to each objective outlined earlier in the report. When reporting the findings achieved during the project, auditors should include competent, sufficient and relevant sources of information to back their findings and promote an adequate understanding of the area being discussed.
The findings should also be presented clearly, making it easy for stakeholders to understand the point discussed within the report. Any related background information that can help clarify the findings should also be presented appropriately, along with the findings.
The Conclusion
The conclusions mentioned and reported within the final audit report should be relevant to the audit objectives highlighted earlier. The strength of a good conclusion is determined through the presence of relevant evidence supporting the logic used in formulating and drafting these conclusions.
Auditors should look to avoid sweeping statements and conclusions that aren’t substantiated by any background data or any source of information for that matter. All conclusions should be tested through a proper mechanism and should be validated.
For instance, “haphazard IT development in an organization is a result of an absence of IT policy” is not a clear and authentic audit conclusion, even if the auditors have discovered no IT policy.
The auditors working on the process should gather evidence from across the board to find out whether haphazard IT development in the firm is in fact linked to the lack of an IT policy. If it is linked, the auditors should identify the intricate details of the link and their own personal concerns.
The Recommendations
Auditors are also generally tasked with reporting recommendations as a part of their audit process. Audit recommendations are to be mentioned when there is significant potential for improvement in the operations and performance of the IT department. Recommendations should also be made to improve compliance with laws and regulations. Besides just pointing out areas of mismanagement or non-compliance, the audit should include references to managerial changes that can be implemented to reduce weaknesses in controls.
Auditors should also form a connection between previous audits and current ones. The current audit should report all instances of uncorrected findings and recommendations from previous audits. The negligence in correcting this evidence should be reported so that the firm is able to take appropriate measures for course correction in the future.
Constructive recommendations and solutions tend to encourage improvements across the board. Recommendations happen to be most constructive when they are directed towards potentially solving the problems identified in the conclusions above. Recommendations should be action-oriented in nature and set a guideline or modus operandi for the actions to be implemented.
These recommendations should be addressed to parties, employees and stakeholders that can take immediate measures to act and rectify the situation. Finally, all recommendations should be practical to a certain extent and should be cost-effective in nature. This is necessary for avoiding common problems in audit finalization.
Noteworthy Accomplishments
The audit report should also mention noteworthy managerial and technical accomplishments found out and identified during the auditing process. All processes within the scope of the audit should be evaluated on a fair basis, and any noteworthy accomplishments seen within these processes should be outlined for future review.
Besides just highlighting deficiencies, the audit process should highlight current areas with accomplished results. Including instances of accomplishment can lend a fair balance to the report.
The Limitations
Finally, the audit report should mention all limitations faced by auditors during the course of the project. These limitations should be mentioned to add perspective to the audit findings and clarify a key point to future auditors. The audit report makes more sense when viewed through the lens of limitations.
Managing IT Controls
The tech world has developed at a breakneck pace during the past few decades and the capabilities of computer systems have advanced rapidly during this period. The digital revolution has changed the way many organizations view data and the IT department. Most organizations today have computerized their data and have categorized information in a purely digital manner without relying on hard copies.
Auditors need to adjust to this change and implement the required measures to evaluate internal IT controls and systems. IT controls include all the programmed and manual methods, procedures and policies that protect assets within an entity and minimize disruptions.
A computerized environment depending on technology is often subjected to new forms of risks and threats. Auditors have to consider all of these risks in a detailed manner and study the overall impact they carry. Some of these risks include:
Unauthorized Access to Systems and Change in Data and Programs
System applications within an organization should be built with multi-level authorization for both approval and submission. Once an application is built and is passed onto the production phase, previous programmers and developers should no longer be granted access to data and programs on the platform. Even if programmers and developers are given access to the system, all of their activities should be properly monitored and reviewed by an independent individual and group.
Unauthorized access to system applications and servers comes with a number of risks, including the possibility of detrimental information leaks, which can help threat actors gain access to important information and characteristics of the organization. Both application software and the transactional data related to it should be protected from alterations from unauthorized personnel. This protection will help minimize the chances of data alterations and leaks.
Besides just tech barriers, organizations should also think of implementing physical access controls such as installing physical barriers to restrict entry into the IT department, buildings, computer rooms and pieces of IT hardware. These physical steps will help restrict and minimize the chances of unauthorized access to work systems from an external threat actor.
Automatic Processing
Computer systems are often found processing and initiating transactions automatically. Often, organizations are aware of automatic processing modules and what they mean for them. However, there are chances that automatic processing may not be visible and could lead to severe data loss.
Undetected Misstatements
Computers and hardware systems today use and store information on the cloud and do not require human interaction and involvement. Gone are the days when humans would have to manually update every bit of information, even if it was on a computer. Computers today track, transfer, store and analyze information all by themselves thanks, in part, to AI, Edge Computing and the Cloud.
However, the lack of human involvement and interaction does open the doors for unauthorized access to work systems and modules. Individuals from outside the organization can access virtual data within a firm and steal sensitive customer data, which is confidential.
There is often no visible trace of such a leak or alteration because changes to computer data logs and programs aren’t readily detectible. When users do find out about the data breach and the repercussions it carries, it is often too late for them to take a principled stance.
IT Controls and Classification
The risk of undetected transactions initiated by unauthorized personnel can be mitigated and reduced through the presence of effective system controls in the organization. These system controls provide unique password-protected access along with identifier codes to make authentication smoother and reliable.
The risks identified above are common across most IT departments today and significantly increase the demand and popularity of IT controls and requirements. Distributed networks allow multiple processing units to communicate effectively, increasing the risk of data alterations from unauthorized personnel.
It is a general perception in the industry that in-house applications tend to be more susceptible to risk than software processes supplied by a vendor. Vendor applications are usually tested and thoroughly authenticated before being sold for commercial use.
Some of the reasons why in-house security applications tend to be more susceptible to risk in comparison to vendor applications include:
• Weak Security: Information system security should be a high priority for both users and management. Many companies and in-house teams do not prioritize security and eventually suffer at the hands of security breaches.
• Unauthorized Remote Access: Unauthorized remote is one important reason for security breaches and data hacks. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the general emergence of the gig economy and flexible work schedules means that many organizations have to provide remote access to their employees. However, this remote access does open doors for unauthorized users to come in to see, copy and alter data resources. Remote access should only be provided if it is authenticated through proper resources. Otherwise, the information system will be prone to breaches and hacks.
• Inadequate Testing: Independent testing is extremely important for in-house design teams to evaluate and find out flaws that would have had otherwise been overlooked by production teams and developers. The design team is often the only one testing the end application or system, and they are often guilty of only testing design elements within the overall design. It is necessary that the application is tested for production and programming errors as well before it is forwarded to the end user.
• Inadequate Training: Inadequate training of in-house personnel is one reason why in-house applications do not compare to those produced and developed by external vendors. The cost of not training your employees and suffering from data breaches will eventually be far more than what it takes to train developers and users.
The controls you practice in your IT department and operations can be classified into two basic categories:
1. General Controls
2. Application Controls
General controls are steps you take to maintain control over system software, data center operations, maintenance of software processes, application system development and access security. Examples of general controls could include IT standards, policies, guidelines pertaining to information protection and IT security, change control, application software development, business continuity planning, IT project management and classification of duties across personnel. General controls are usually concerned with the overall IT infrastructure within the firm, including all IT policies and work practices.
General IT controls include the following in a nutshell:
• IT operations control
• Organization and managerial controls
• Physical controls
• Acquisition controls
• Logical access controls
• Business continuity controls
On the flip side, application controls are focused on specific computer applications and not the department as a whole. Application controls include systems that are in place to ensure proper completeness, authorization, validity and accuracy of transactions and other input mechanisms. Examples of application controls include system checks, transaction controls that limit user transactions outside of normal duties and detailed report creation.
The analysis and assessment of both application and practical IT controls eventually helps give a fair insight into current IT standing.
Course Manuals 1-12
Course Manual 1: How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
The rapid pace of development in the information technology domain has significantly changed the way many organizations operate. Organizations today have dropped the pen and paper of traditional processes and adopted automated operations that not only save time but also improve efficiency.
The use of information technology across multiple business departments has improved firms’ data processing and transmission capacity and has played a considerable role in improving results. However, the emergence of IT technologies does not mean that organizations in the contemporary era are free of any vulnerability. The incessant use of technology in key business processes has led to the rise of IT vulnerabilities and shortcomings that can blow out of proportion if not mitigated at the right time through the right approach. The use of IT in organizations needs to be controlled. Internal audits should be conducted regularly to ensure that all IT resources are utilized to their full potential, and there are no shortcomings in usage or consumption rates.
What is an IT Audit?
Regardless of the industry they operate in and the niche market they are part of, a number of organizations are investing more of their financial capabilities into building tech resources. From money to time and labor resources, organizations are investing whatever they can to ensure that the true potential of the IT revolution is realized and their business moves towards a period of growth and development.
One of the best ways to improve investment in your organization is through a thorough information technology audit. Internal information technology audits to ensure the safety of your resources and get the most out of your tech resources. An IT audit can make a world of difference between an organization that fails to leverage IT potential and another one that uses its tech resources as a catalyst for success within the industry.
An IT audit can generally be defined as an investigation of all existing IT systems and the generation of a report related to an entity. An information technology audit is a systematic review of the IT systems, applications, data use, and management style within the firm.
IT audits are made out of different types and are broken down into multiple phases. While we will study the phases of the audit later within this chapter, let us first study what the IT audit is based on and the types it carries.
There are five basic types of audits for the IT department. These IT audits can strategically be broken down and segregated in two basic ways: application control review and general control review. General control review is a broad IT audit covering the entire IT operations and implementations within an organization. A general control review expands across the face of the organization. It positively reviews just how well the company is performing in context to the overall industry standard and IT spending. Application control review does not look over the overall dealings of the organization and deals with a specific application based on a computer.
To further illustrate the difference between these two, you can consider general control review as an organizational audit that considers all use of IT across departments. In contrast, an application control review is a website or application audit that reviews the computer-based application of the firm.
To help you understand the intricacies of an IT audit better, you can go through the five types mentioned below;
• System and Application Audit: A systems and applications audit is the first type of audit in our list and is concerned with the review of all systems and applications under the control of an organization. This audit goes through the backend of all websites and applications to check whether they are secure and are actively running without flaws. This audit will also evaluate the reliability of systems within the organization and will pass a verdict on this.
• Information Processing Facilities: An information processing facility audit verifies that all processes within a system are working correctly and in order with the objectives they are meant to serve. Any disruptions or irregularities within the system and its relevant processes are found in here.
• Systems Development Audit: A systems development audit confirms the development of new systems and tech advances and ensures that they are in compliance with the organizational requirements expected by legal authorities around them. Any disruptions from the organization’s destined path are minimized.
• IT Management and Enterprise Architecture Audit: An IT management audit examines the current operations and success of IT managers and teams. The audit records team satisfaction and management efficiency.
• Telecommunication Audit: This audit investigates the servers and telecommunication protocols within the firm to minimize the chances of a breach in the future. Data breaches can significantly dent customer trust in you and be bad for your reputation.
Objectives of an IT Audit
Information technology is an important part of the work structure today and organizations need to be technologically advanced to compete with competitors and better serve customers. Today, many organizations are spending exuberant sums of money on IT and tech resources to reap the benefits of enhanced data and cybersecurity. The key methodology here is to ensure that IT systems are reliable and do not break down when faced with cyberattacks and threats.
An IT audit is crucial to the growth and success of an organization as it helps streamline the one asset that your future relies on. IT audits are set to meet several business objectives and requirements. A typical IT audit is set to include the assessment and evaluation of multiple processes powered by technology. The objectives of an IT audit include:
Asset Safeguarding
The very first and primary purpose of an IT audit is to safeguard the assets within an organization and protect that from external threat actors. Organizations cannot blindly rely on tech resources without regularly performing audits of their own to find glaring irregularities within the system.
Assets that are to be safeguarded through an IT audit include the following:
1. All data objects within the possession of the organization. All forms of data generated through internal systems, generated from customers, and even relating to manufacturing plant maintenance should be protected. Structured data should be set under special protocols.
2. Applications and systems should be safeguarded through an IT audit. The applications mentioned here are to be considered a sum of the programmed and manual procedures.
3. Tangible and intangible tech assets of the firm including, hardware, networking, multimedia, operating systems and database management, etc.
4. Staff skills, management styles and the overall tech acumen of your staff should be audited. The audit should measure the productivity to plan, acquire, organize, deliver, monitor and provide support to information systems and servers.
5. Resources that are acquired to house your information system and database servers.
Ensure Maintenance of Data and Information
A good IT audit should ensure that the following attributes of data and information are strategically maintained:
1. Efficiency: The efficiency in data management here deals with the provision of related information through optimal tools and resources.
2. Effectiveness: This deals with the relevance of data and information to business processes. Data generated through collection measures should be actionable in nature.
3. Confidentiality: This factor deals with protecting and managing sensitive information taken from customers and other stakeholders.
4. Integrity: This attribute is related to the completeness of data and the validity it holds in line with the expectations and values of the business.
5. Availability: Relates to the availability of information when it is required by the business management for decision making.
6. Compliance: This refers to the legal attributes of data collection measures. There are a number of legal measures determining data collection and governance, including the GDPR. These legal measures make compliance even more important, as organizations should regularly audit their data collection and governance measures.
7. Reliability of Information: The insights and decisions you generate from your data will only be as reliable and as authentic as the data itself. Hence, it is necessary for the information you gather to be reliable in nature and assist decision-making in an authentic manner.
Efficiency in IT Operations
At its core, the primary objective of an IT audit is to add efficiency to an organization’s IT operations. Information technology sits at the forefront of digital disruption. All organizations looking to be part of it want their IT operations to be efficient in nature and lack any glaring errors.
Most organizations have spent extensive budgets on their IT campaigns and cannot risk losing out on the potential due to their inability to maintain checks and carry out regular audits. An audit can unearth areas of concern and can help put your house in order. It also collects evidence from within the firm and evaluates management styles so that nothing acts as a roadblock in the way of true tech prowess.
Phases of the Audit Process
The audit process is usually broken down into a number of steps or phases to help manage the process and oversee its efficiency.
The process includes the following phases:
1. Planning
2. Defining audit scopes and the objectives to be unearthed through it
3. Evidence evaluation and collection
4. Documentation and reporting of final results
We will discuss all these phases in greater detail within this section.
Planning
Planning is the first step of the audit process and is usually the most important one. Planning is an iterative process that is repeated at different points during the audit to reach the best possible results and course of action. The results of planning eventually determine the basis for the type of auditing model that would be followed and the extent of the testing
Once auditors working on an internal IT audit find out that specific IT protocols concerning a given procedure are ineffective and not applicable, they will consider measures to evaluate the efficiency of the earlier conclusions and the planning decisions they reached based on these factors.
IT auditors are required to generate input and plans related to the following aspects of the firm being audited:
Organizational Functions and Operating Environment
This process will be concerned with the overall general understanding of the business practices in place within the firm being audited and how they relate to the IT systems and protocols. The process also oversees the different types of information systems in place within the organization and how they are to be regulated for effective management.
The auditor will also study the environment these information systems operate in. Understanding the functions and systems in place within the organization can help unearth the factors to be audited and the frequency to be followed.
Organizational Structure
The second aspect of the firm that will be studied during the planning process is the organizational structure of the firm. The IT auditor working on the auditing process should preferably obtain a full hierarchy of the IT department in the organization and the different ranks sitting across different positions.
Importance of IT Systems
The next step in the planning process is to determine the importance and the criticality of the IT systems being studied here. IT systems are usually categorized as Support Systems and Mission Critical Systems. Mission Critical Systems are all information systems that have a serious impact on the performance and output of the firm and are critical for success. Support Systems are required to support the decision-making process of the management team and may not be as significant as the Mission Critical Systems. These systems support decisions, and the organization can still perform without them working fine.
Nature of Hardware and Software
An IT auditor will like to initiate their planning process after studying and understanding details related to the hardware components used within the firm. This analysis will oversee the use of hardware in the firm in general and the IT department in specific.
The information of hardware components will help provide auditors the information they need to form an understanding of risk. Almost every type of hardware today comes with its own vulnerabilities and risks. Auditors can find the risk within specific pieces of hardware when they know they are being used within the organization to a certain extent.
Additionally, the auditor should collect information pertaining to information systems and other software processes within the organization. The auditor should also gather info pertaining to network architecture in their preliminary study.
Nature of Risks Affecting the System
Auditors will oversee the nature of risks attracted by the system and the vulnerabilities involved. They will determine this by:
• Reviewing strategic IT plans
• Visiting organization facilities
• Reading annual reports, independent reports and publications released by the firm
• Interviewing key personnel
The extent of the knowledge captured by the auditors will be based on the extent of the audit.
Defining Audit Scope and Objective
Almost all IT organizations have some objectives they would like to achieve through their audit. Some of these common audit objectives include:
• Reviewing controls of the IT system to evaluate the effectiveness and adequacy of these systems in the modern world.
• Evaluating the performance of specific programs in the systems to see how they react to threats.
• Reviewing the security protocols of IT systems and how they react to threats.
• Examining the development process for new systems, change protocols within the organization and the procedures following within these systems.
The objectives outline above could cover more than one area within each organization. For instance, reviewing the security system of the organization could cover a combination of the following points:
• Physical access security
• User rights
• Security settings
• Firewall security
• Passwords
Audit scope usually determines the domain or the boundaries that are to be followed within the audit. Determining the scope of the audit and setting boundaries for it is usually included within the planning process. The scope determines the extent of testing and is based on costs and risk levels.
Evidence Collection and Evaluation
All IT audits should collect and evaluate reasonable quantities of evidence to support the judgments achieved by the auditor and the conclusions that the organization is willing to agree upon. Data collection techniques are to be chosen with due consideration to minimize the irregularities.
Before the audit starts and picks up pace, the auditor should comprehensively oversee and understand the type of evidence that is to be gathered through the audit. Additionally, the auditor should also clarify the use of these systems in clarifying audit objectives and enhancing the readability of the process.
The different types of audit evidence to be covered by auditors here include:
• Documented evidence available through electronic records
• Analysis of IT systems and how they perform
• Observed evidence of physical hardware items
Physical hardware evidence is obtained through observation and physical checks. Physical verifications and inspections by the auditor can help form an understanding of tangible assets held by the firm. The auditor can physically inspect terminals, computers, printers, etc.
Besides physical evidence, the following methods can be employed to gather data related to the audit and accumulate evidence.
Interviews
IT auditors can use interviews to obtain data from across the board and record information. Interviews can be used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative information. System programmers and analysts within the organization can be interviewed here to form a better understanding of the functions and controls within the firm.
Users of a website or application can also be interviewed to check user experience. The answers given by different users and personnel within the firm will help form a blueprint of the evidence to be used within the audit.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires have traditionally been used in audits to evaluate system controls. Auditors can use these questionnaires to pinpoint areas of weakness and concern within the different information systems. Inefficiencies within information systems can result in improper progress and delayed response. General questionnaire guidelines must be kept in perspective, and questions should be specific in nature.
Control Flowcharts
Control flowcharts help analyze and illustrate that control exists across the system. The reasons to include a flowchart in this process include:
• Flowcharts improve comprehension as they illustrate areas of concern.
• Flowcharts help with evaluation as senior auditors can use these flowcharts to find out irregularities in the pattern.
• Auditors can communicate through flowcharts
The evidence collected through these means will help determine which areas need further verification and testing and which areas of the audit should be investigated thoroughly. Evidence should be generated early in the audit to help with the other processes.
Tools of Evidence Collection
IT auditors now have a variety of tools and solutions at their disposal. These tools help simplify the audit process and get the certification and authenticity required for future validation.
Generalized Audit Software
Generalized audit software allows businesses the means to manipulate data resources and gain access to them in a unified manner. IDEA software is the most commonly used case of generalized audit software in the corporate environment today. Generalized audit software operates with the sole purpose of unifying different software and hardware platforms within an organization under one umbrella.
Generalized audit software provides a number of solutions, including file re-organization, file access and the selection/extraction of data resources from their locations. Data is a key asset for organizations in this tech revolution and generalized audit software helps examine the accuracy, existence, completeness, timeliness and consistency of data resources held by an organization. A systematic analytical review is then performed to create a trend analysis and analyze key indicators. However, there are certain limitations to what generalized audit software can do, such as a limited potential to find out propensity for error and limited resources for processing and verifying logic.
Industry-specific Audit Software
As the name itself suggests, industry-specific audit software is a high-level solution programmed for the needs and requirements of specific industries. An industry-specific audit software operation includes commands and resources that perform common functions required to audit companies within a specific industry. The processes and logic within industry-specific software are in line with the trends and requirements of the relevant industry.
Utility Software
This is a basic software process that helps perform common functions such as sorting data, copying information, searching disc programs and formatting discs across the board. A utility software operation is used in conjunction with other processes to perform a complete IT audit.
Specialized Audit Software
Specialized audit software is written and developed to fulfill a set of auditing tasks, and not the entire process. The nature and structure of specialized audit software can vary based on the task it fulfills and the specialized role it plays within the audit process.
Concurrent Auditing Tools
Concurrent auditing tools and techniques are used for evidence collection. Concurrent auditing tools collect audit evidence from systems while concurrently ensuring the continuity of data processing within each system. This is done by enforcing specialized data modules within systems to collect, process, and print evidence for the audit.
Documentation and Reporting of Audit Findings
Once the key planning, accumulation, and analysis processes are finalized, auditors should document all audit evidence in an adequate shape and form. An audit report serves as fully documented proof of the audit and the factors that have been uncovered within the audit. The report should include the findings of the audit, along with a detailed introduction on the basis and extent of the audit process. This document is then passed on to key stakeholders within and outside the organization.
Documentation for an audit includes a basic record of:
• The planning and preparation of all objectives within the project and the boundaries set for it.
• The audit program and process.
• Evidence collected through different sources and the conclusions they helped achieve.
• A mention of all work papers included within the audit, including the work papers and files maintained by the organization.
• Points discussed with employees and other stakeholders within interviews. The brief should clearly state the point of discussion, the person interviewed, their role and designation within the firm, and the time and place of the interview.
• Observations are noted down by the auditor as they watch the performance of the core IT team during hours of work. The observations may include a mention of the reason behind this observation, the people involved in the observation and the time and place of observation.
• Reports and other data obtained by the auditor. These reports and data sources are either directly obtained by auditors or provided to them by liaison officers within the firm. Auditors will include a separate mention of the source of these reports and the conditions served.
• Auditors can add their personal comments, clarifications and concerns at various points through the documentation process of the audit. The personal points will serve as a documented proof of the auditor’s doubts, concerns and the need for additional information to reach successful conclusions.
The final report created by the auditor is an important part of audit documentation and is often the most important document passed over to stakeholders and other concerned parties.
Structure of the Report
An audit report should be complete, accurate, timely, convincing, clear and as objective as possible in nature. The report should also be concise and to the point since the subject does not permit much meandering. The structure of the report can follow the structure and the outline provided below.
The Introduction
The audit report will start with a brief introduction to the audit being conducted and the starting point of the report. The introduction sets the tone for the overall report and should be as thorough and as detailed as possible. The introduction must give brief and concise details of the systems and processes highlighted within the audit and the hardware resources required to run the IT hub of the organization.
The introduction should also clearly highlight the complexity of data processing in the firm, the volume of data structured regularly, and the irregularities expected within them. A clear picture of the organization’s current standing is necessary to give stakeholders and viewers the perspective they desire and to build an appreciation of findings made within the audit.
The introduction should assess and mention the criticality and importance of different information systems. The seriousness of different audit findings and concerns, mentioned further in the report, will be evaluated on the basis of the criticality of that system. If the data flow and other facets of data are complex in nature, the auditor may add a separate flow chart to the report.
The Objectives, Scope and Methodology
Readers and stakeholders viewing the document need the necessary knowledge of the scope set for the audit and the methodology defined to achieve objectives. Readers need this information to judge the merits of the work done within the audit, to understand the requirement for the audit and to understand the information reported within the text and report to follow.
While reporting the objectives of the audit, auditors should be clear to outline and explain the performance aspects examined within the audit. Auditors should briefly delve into what was audited during the process, identify the organizational departments, geographic locations visited, and the hardware and software used within the period.
The methodology should also explain any/all problems faced while collecting evidence for the audit. The tools used for gathering evidence should be briefly explained, along with the reason behind them. The methodology and scope should also mention whether any assumptions were made during the auditing process. Finally, this section should clarify the comparative techniques used within the audit process, along with the criteria set by auditors.
The Audit Results and Findings
Auditors should report all significant findings noticed at the end of the audit project and the irrelevance to each objective outlined earlier in the report. When reporting the findings achieved during the project, auditors should include competent, sufficient and relevant sources of information to back their findings and promote an adequate understanding of the area being discussed. The findings should also be presented clearly, making it easy for stakeholders to understand the point being discussed within the report. Any related background information that can help clarify the findings should also be presented appropriately, along with the findings.
The Conclusion
The conclusions mentioned and reported within the final audit report should be relevant to the audit objectives highlighted earlier. The strength of a good conclusion is determined through the presence of relevant evidence supporting the logic used in formulating and drafting these conclusions.
Auditors should look to avoid sweeping statements and conclusions that aren’t substantiated by any background data or any source of information for that matter. All conclusions should be tested through a proper mechanism and should be validated. For instance, “haphazard IT development in an organization is a result of an absence of IT policy” is not a clear and authentic audit conclusion, even if the auditors have discovered no IT policy. The auditors working on the process should gather evidence from across the board to find out whether haphazard IT development in the firm is in fact linked to the lack of an IT policy. If it is linked, the auditors should identify the intricate details of the link and their own personal concerns.
The Recommendations
Auditors are also generally tasked with reporting recommendations as a part of their audit process. Audit recommendations are to be mentioned when there is significant potential for improvement in the operations and performance of the IT department. Recommendations should also be made to improve compliance with laws and regulations. Besides just pointing out areas of mismanagement or non-compliance, the audit should include references to managerial changes that can be implemented to reduce weaknesses in controls.
Auditors should also form a connection between previous audits and current ones. The current audit should report all instances of uncorrected findings and recommendations from previous audits. The negligence in correcting this evidence should be reported so that the firm is able to take appropriate measures for course correction in the future.
Constructive recommendations and solutions tend to encourage improvements across the board. Recommendations happen to be most constructive when they are directed towards potentially solving the problems identified in the conclusions above. Recommendations should be action-oriented in nature and should set a guideline or modus operandi for the actions to be implemented. These recommendations should be addressed to parties, employees and stakeholders that can take immediate measures to act and rectify the situation. Finally, all recommendations should be practical to a certain extent and should be cost-effective in nature. This is necessary for avoiding common problems in audit finalization.
Noteworthy Accomplishments
The audit report should also mention noteworthy managerial and technical accomplishments found out and identified during the auditing process. All processes within the scope of the audit should be evaluated on a fair basis, and any noteworthy accomplishments seen within these processes should be outlined for future review. Besides just highlighting deficiencies, the audit process should highlight current areas with accomplished results. Including instances of accomplishment can lend a fair balance to the report.
The Limitations
Finally, the audit report should mention all limitations faced by auditors during the course of the project. These limitations should be mentioned to add perspective to the audit findings and clarify a key point to future auditors. The audit report makes more sense when it is viewed through the lens of limitations.
Final Checklist of Documents to be Required within an Audit
An internal IT audit is thorough in nature and requires a detailed overview of key organizational documents and statistics. The following list illustrates the documents usually required during an internal IT audit process:
The table above includes a detailed list of documents that are required by the auditing team within an internal IT audit.
Course Manual 2: Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
The tech world has developed at a breakneck pace during the past few decades and the capabilities of computer systems have advanced rapidly during this period. The digital revolution has changed the way many organizations view data and the IT department. Most organizations today have computerized their data and have categorized information in a purely digital manner without relying on hard copies.
Auditors need to adjust to this change and implement the required measures to evaluate internal IT controls and systems. IT controls include all the programmed and manual methods, procedures and policies that protect assets within an entity and minimize disruptions.
A computerized environment depending on technology is often subjected to new forms of risks and threats. Auditors have to consider all of these risks in a detailed manner and study the overall impact they carry. Some of these risks include:
Unauthorized Access to Systems and Change in Data and Programs
System applications within an organization should be built with multi-level authorization for both approval and submission. Once an application is built and is passed onto the production phase, previous programmers and developers should no longer be granted access to data and programs on the platform. Even if programmers and developers are given access to the system, all of their activities should be properly monitored and reviewed by an independent individual and group.
Unauthorized access to system applications and servers comes with a number of risks, including the possibility of detrimental information leaks, which can help threat actors gain access to important information and characteristics of the organization. Both application software and the transactional data related to it should be protected from alterations from unauthorized personnel. This protection will help minimize the chances of data alterations and leaks.
Besides just tech barriers, organizations should also think of implementing physical access controls such as installing physical barriers to restrict entry into the IT department, buildings, computer rooms and pieces of IT hardware.
These physical steps will help restrict and minimize the chances of unauthorized access to work systems from an external threat actor.
Automatic Processing
Computer systems are often found processing and initiating transactions automatically. Often, organizations are aware of automatic processing modules and what they mean for them. However, there are chances that automatic processing may not be visible and could lead to severe data loss.
Undetected Misstatements
Computers and hardware systems today use and store information on the cloud and do not require human interaction and involvement. Gone are the days when humans would have to manually update every bit of information, even if it was on a computer. Computers today track, transfer, store and analyze information all by themselves thanks, in part, to AI, Edge Computing and the Cloud.
However, the lack of human involvement and interaction does open the doors for unauthorized access to work systems and modules. Individuals from outside the organization can access virtual data within a firm and steal sensitive customer data, which is confidential. There is often no visible trace of such a leak or alteration because changes to computer data logs and programs aren’t readily detectible. When users do find out about the data breach and the repercussions that it carries, it is often too late for them to take a principled stance.
IT Controls and Classification
The risk of undetected transactions initiated by unauthorized personnel can be mitigated and reduced through the presence of effective system controls in the organization. These system controls provide unique password-protected access along with identifier codes to make authentication smoother and reliable.
The risks identified above are common across most IT departments today and significantly increase the demand and popularity of IT controls and requirements. Distributed networks allow multiple processing units to communicate effectively, increasing the risk of data alterations from unauthorized personnel. It is a general perception in the industry that in-house applications tend to be more susceptible to risk than software processes supplied by a vendor. Vendor applications are usually tested and thoroughly authenticated before being sold for commercial use.
Some of the reasons why in-house security applications tend to be more susceptible to risk in comparison to vendor applications include:
• Weak Security: Information system security should be a high priority for both users and management. Many companies and in-house teams do not prioritize security and eventually suffer at the hands of security breaches.
• Unauthorized Remote Access: Unauthorized remote is one important reason for security breaches and data hacks. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the general emergence of the gig economy and flexible work schedules means that many organizations have to provide remote access to their employees. However, this remote access does open doors for unauthorized users to come in to see, copy and alter data resources. Remote access should only be provided if it is authenticated through proper resources. Otherwise, the information system will be prone to breaches and hacks.
• Inadequate Testing: Independent testing is extremely important for in-house design teams to evaluate and find out flaws that would have had otherwise been overlooked by production teams and developers. The design team is often the only one testing the end application or system, and they are often guilty of only testing design elements within the overall design. It is necessary that the application is tested for production and programming errors as well before it is forwarded to the end user.
• Inadequate Training: Inadequate training of in-house personnel is one reason why in-house applications do not compare to those produced and developed by external vendors. The cost of not training your employees and suffering from data breaches will eventually be far more than what it takes to train developers and users.
The controls you practice in your IT department and operations can be classified into two basic categories:
1. General Controls
2. Application Controls
General controls are steps you take to maintain control over system software, data center operations, maintenance of software processes, application system development and access security. Examples of general controls could include IT standards, policies, guidelines pertaining to information protection and IT security, change control, application software development, business continuity planning, IT project management and classification of duties across personnel. General controls are usually concerned with the overall IT infrastructure within the firm, including all IT policies and work practices.
General IT controls include the following in a nutshell:
• IT operations control
• Organization and managerial controls
• Physical controls
• Acquisition controls
• Logical access controls
• Business continuity controls
On the flip side, application controls are focused on specific computer applications and not the department as a whole. Application controls include systems that are in place to ensure proper completeness, authorization, validity and accuracy of transactions and other input mechanisms. Examples of application controls include system checks, transaction controls that limit user transactions outside of normal duties and detailed report creation.
Application controls usually include:
• Transaction control
• Processing control
• Output control
• Master files and standing data control
Auditing General Controls
We now study the processes for auditing the general controls we outlined above and the recommended practices that organizations can follow here.
IT operations basically include the following roles and objectives:
• Capacity Planning: Capacity planning comes directly under operations control and deals with ensuring that IT systems and solutions continue to provide a desirable level of performance even in the long run. This will include the scalability of IT resources and the use of techniques that can grow over time.
• Performance Monitoring: This operation control objective monitors the performance of systems and information on a day-to-day basis so that anomalies can be restricted whenever they pop up.
• Initial Program Loading: This is a strategy used to boot up systems and install new software when required.
• Media Management: This operations control objective is required to manage media, including digital files.
• Job Scheduling: Job scheduling of labor and personnel also falls under this category as necessary for practicing control over information.
• Data Backups: Data backups are absolutely necessary for a business in this digital age. A backup ensures that operations continue even in the face of a breach, lag or shutdown.
• Problem Management: Problems from day-to-day operations in the IT department need to be minimized through proper problem management controls.
• Maintenance: Maintenance of both software and hardware should be ensured for smooth operations.
Risks of Poorly Controlled IT Operations
Poorly controlled IT operations and management come with a number of risks. These risks include:
• Incorrect use of an application. Wrong configurations and parameters.
• Loss of important client financial data due to security lapse in a system file. A breach can occur due to unauthorized or improper use of utilities.
• Delays and disruptions within the processing capacity.
• Lack of contingency plans and backups to continue production and processing after a shutdown.
• Lack of proper capacity in the system to meet user expectations.
• High system downtime, resulting in bottlenecks.
• Unresolved user problems due to lack of response from the help-desk
Each one of these risks hosts the potential to significantly damage the reputation and service model of your brand. The risks mentioned above should be minimized if you want to achieve consistent success in operations.
Procedures and Solutions to Follow
A number of solutions and auditory procedures can be followed to minimize the dangers of poor general IT operations control and its risks.
These solutions and procedures include:
Service Level Agreements
It is a common practice in today’s changing corporate world for IT departments to enter a Service Level Agreement or an SLA with the other departments of the organization – i.e., those linked with the users. This allows the users and their interconnected departments to specifically provide the level of service they expect to receive in writing. The level of services specified and mentioned in a service level agreement will vary from organization to organization and will be influenced by a number of factors.
A typical service level agreement includes the following:
• General provisions related to the scope of the agreement, the date of the next review and the signatories that signed it
• Service hours set by the organization
• A brief description of all services
• User support levels
• Percentage availability of service and the maximum downtime for failure
• Performance metrics including turnaround times and response times
• Restrictions on the IT provider
• Security lapses and provisions to limit them
Proper Operations Documentation
All organizations should have clear documentation available for all IT systems to ensure secure and accurate operation. The documented details related to each system should include the following information:
• The correct handling and maintenance of all data files.
• The scheduling and management of system requirements.
• Instructions and other preferable methods to handle exceptions and problems which might occur when jobs are being performed.
• Support contacts to get in touch with during unexpected technical and operational difficulties.
• Special instructions for handing outputs.
• System recovery and restart procedures.
The organization should also preferably have documented proof to help with maintenance activities such as daily data backups, IT room management, and IT equipment start-up procedures, etc. Documentation can prove to be extremely beneficial for operating staff and members whenever they are about to perform a procedure, especially one that is difficult to implement. Auditors would like to see large quantities of documentation across the board to help with the organization process. Documentation lends credibility to an organization’s IT resources and makes maintenance easier for stakeholders.
Problem Management
The IT department should have documented guidelines available at all times to help staff members detect and record anomalies within IT equipment and processes. A manual/computerized log can be used to record and work on these conditions. Workers should also be allowed to add entries to the log without any restrictions whatsoever; however, this ability should only be extended to a few authorized workers. The IT department and workplace management should develop proper mechanisms to ensure the true maintenance of IT systems and ensure that all outstanding errors are addressed and adequately resolved in due time.
Network Management and Control
Another suggestion to follow here is to incorporate control and improve the standard of management in network control. A new range of controls is usually required in organizations using computer networks. Network managers are usually tasked to oversee these controls and ensure that the organization performs smoothly without any threats to networks. The networks within the organization should always be protected from unauthorized users.
Some of the controls that can be implemented by the management here include:
• Segregation of duties and roles between both operations and network administrators.
• Monitoring both network availability and performance around the clock. Organizations should preferably maintain reports and systems to record utility time, response time and downtime.
• Expert management of all procedures and remote equipment. Remote equipment should be managed to avoid breaches.
• Establishing security controls that are directly related to a computer network and implementing long-term solutions for them.
Areas to Be Secured Through General Controls
All resources, facilities and files that require protection through general control methods include:
• Data Files: Data files are usually the first resource to be protected through general methods of control. Data files consist of both databases of consumer data and transaction files, including financial information.
• Applications: Unrestricted access to company applications can increase the threat of unauthorized alterations and data loss. These alterations eventually lead to fraud, corruption and a dent in your reputation in the general market.
• Password Files: Every organization maintains a password file to monitor information and stop unauthorized access to them. Password files should be adequately protected, and access should be blocked to them. Unauthorized personnel should be stopped from viewing the contents within password files.
• System Software and Utilities: All system software operations such as compilers, program debuggers, code editors and frameworks should be monitored. Access to these software processors and utilities should only be restricted to certain individuals. These tools can generally be used to run amendments on application software and data files.
• Logs: Log files are systematically used to record user actions and provide organization management and system administrators with an equitable and accountable method of user accountability. Inadequately protected log files can be accessed by fraudsters and hackers, who may delete and edit the actions they have committed through a user account.
Auditing Application Controls
Application controls have a more direct impact on individual transactions and are concerned with specific applications. These controls usually validate transactions on an application and mark them as completed. Auditors usually build the desired understanding of a system before they can work on application controls.
Control Objectives and Risks
A majority of all systems found within medium or large-scale organizations are built on either wide or local area networks to form a connection between all users on the application. The use of networks brings the following benefits to organizations:
• Network sharing helps in the sharing of data
• System administration is left over to a central team
• To help in the use of input peripherals such as Printers
• To help users communicate directly with each other through instant messaging
• Allow remote access to systems
While there are multiple benefits of network sharing, the process does not come without its fair share of risks. It is necessary that all user accounts on a network are controlled as such that there are no unauthorized users involved. Network control goes beyond logical access security. Networks are also used to transmit data and inefficiencies within this process can lead to altered, corrupted, and lost data. Organizations should look to avoid the following risks here:
• Data loss: Data can unintentionally be lost and deleted as it is being transmitted.
• Data Corruption: Data can be corrupted and rendered useless due to technical or human errors in the transfer process.
• Fraud: Individuals involved in the transmission process may breach data and perform fraud.
• System Unavailability: This is perhaps the most disruptive risk as it limits the efficiency of a number of processes. Organizations suffer from system unavailability when network servers and links are damaged. The loss of one single hub can seriously dent the processing capability of many systems. There should be a backup plan available to manage system unavailability and avoid unnecessary complications.
• Disclosure of Confidential Information: There is a serious risk of disclosure associated with confidential information present on a connected network. This disclosure can be both intentional and accidental.
• Virus: Virus infections, especially those that carry worm-like capabilities, are designed to spread across a network and penetrate all systems within a connected local or wide area network. Virus infections can only be avoided through continuous updating of protective measures such as virus scanning. Users should scan data received from within the organization as well.
Recommendations and Procedure
Physical controls aren’t of much value when organizations are looking to protect the logical and intangible side of individual systems. Controls that can be implemented here include:
• Network Security Policy: A network security policy can be developed and then made an integral part of the IT department.
• Network Documentation: The organization should preferably have documented proof of the logical layout of the network and systems. It should be kept confidential.
• Logical Access Controls: These are important and organizations should ensure that all resources, permissions and passwords are kept in place.
• Appropriate Staff Training: Staff and workers within the organization should be trained to control and monitor systems/networks.
• Data Encryption: In certain cases, organizations can also encrypt data present within the system or network. Even if unauthorized users break through the barriers, they wouldn’t be able to decipher or utilize data.
Auditing IT controls can help unearth major flaws in the overall control environment and can help organizations improve their grasp over key general and application controls within the firm.
Course Manual 3: Understanding Business IT Requirements
Information technology is an important part of the work structure today and organizations need to be technologically advanced to compete with competitors and better serve customers. Today, many organizations spend exuberant sums of money on IT and tech resources to reap the benefits of enhanced data and cybersecurity. The key methodology here is to ensure that IT systems are reliable and do not break down when faced with cyberattacks and threats.
Most organizations today have invested heavily in their business IT department and are in a continuous cycle of identifying IT requirements and making investments where they can for the future. Budgets allocated for the IT department are often more comprehensive and detailed than any other department and allow businesses to align with the prevalent technology around them.
A popular practice in most businesses today is to have the CFO or the Chief Final Officer oversee the responsibilities and requirements for the IT department. There are several reasons why following this structure could help your organization and make sense in the long run.
1. Most organizations today have a substantial percentage of the total budget allocated for the IT department. However, not many IT executives and managers are well versed with techniques and strategies to manage financial responsibilities that come with a large budget. A CFO is usually well-suited to manage budgets and can help set IT progress and requirements in line with the money allocated for the department.
2. Most Chief Financial Officers are also in a better position to control structures and set financial objectives that are needed for the IT department to act in line with the intentions set by the management. Since CFOs are tasked with allocating funds and setting budgetary objectives, they are well aware of management intentions and can translate that into their management style when managing the IT department.
3. Most Chief Financial Officers come with a strong sense of organizational skills and project management aptitude. These skills can come in handy to ensure that key IT projects and requirements are completed in time, within the specific business requirements, and within the budget set for them. This helps the organization move forward in its progress towards IT dominance and strategic objectives and goal setting.
Many organizations have started trusting CPAs and CFOs with the requirements of their IT department. And, while these CFOs have the budgetary aspect of it all covered, this chapter covers some of the steps and techniques they can follow to understand business IT requirements and evaluate new IT technologies.
Steps for Building an Effective IT Department
There are certain steps that CFOs assigned with leading an IT department to success can follow in their managerial style. These steps include:
IT Objectives Should Always be Aligned with Company Objectives
The way IT departments function has significantly changed during the last couple of decades. In the past, we saw that many IT departments were left to devise and develop their own strategies for coming periods and years. This was because business leaders weren’t well versed with the ever-changing technobabble mentioned by IT heads and because the IT department wasn’t seen as strategic and as important to the overall development and strategic goals of the organization.
However, the business environment is more comprehensive and developed today than ever. The IT department plays a comprehensive role in determining how companies achieve their objectives and move towards overall success. IT departments today are considered to be key enablers for multiple business objectives and are leading the wave of change forward. Organizations and the executives tasked with leading them today realize that almost all business objectives can only be achieved through reliable and well-functioning systems that the IT department takes care of.
Therefore, organizations wishing to build an effective IT department that eventually inspires the business forward should ensure that all IT objectives and functions are aligned with the goals set by the organization. To align both IT objectives and business objectives and ensure that the IT department is on the same page as the business, organizations should write their objectives on paper and should make them clear.
Both the organization and the IT department should have well-defined goals and objectives that are documented and written down for almost everyone in the organization to view and comprehend. Obviously, since water trickles down, the company’s objectives and goals should be defined and written down first, before the IT department jots its objective. The objectives and goals set by the IT department should be heavily influenced by the goals set by the company itself.
For instance, if an organization wishes to expand to new international markets and mentions this down as a goal, the IT department should ensure that they follow it up with strategic backing. The IT department should hence look to develop strategic applications and systems that help the business make the transition to international markets in a seamless manner.
Establish IT Governance
Perhaps the biggest point of concern and frustration for both IT management teams and business executives is the continuous inflow of complex projects and project requests that come with impossible requirements that cannot be met. Many IT executives have failed to monitor IT governance due to the regular inflow of projects with crazy requirements. The constant pressure to meet short deadlines on projects while ensuring the fluid flow of routine operations can seriously dent organizational reserves. This process can become impossible if the IT department lacks enough members and personnel present inside it.
This disconnect between the IT department and the management of projects often comes through alack of proper IT governance in an organization. IT governance is best defined as the practices businesses follow to capture, publish and regularly review all of the project requests initiated by the IT department. IT governance is achieved through regular meetings with business stakeholders, including the top management and department leaders. IT managers should provide a detailed list of all current IT obligations in this meeting, along with a list of all future projects that need to be addressed soon.
During an IT governance meeting, the top management in the organization can collectively sit together to review the obligations of the IT department and set priorities for the future. If it deems necessary, the organization will redirect the key company IT resources to a new project that is known to be of a higher priority. This ensures better IT management and ensures that all business leaders and stakeholders are better informed of the obligations undertaken by the IT department and how it is fulfilling them. Additionally, business leaders will also know of the likely timeframe for completing IT projects, the reasons behind re-prioritization, inability to deliver solutions, the need for more advanced IT solutions, and other IT requirements.
Good IT governance allows IT leadership teams to have a better understanding and a clear direction of how all IT resources are to be utilized in the future. This evaluation of priorities will help set a clear direction for the future and reduce the burden and stress levels exerted on IT teams.
Manage and Mitigate Electronic Risk
Information security and cyberattack management is a hot topic in most IT departments and IT firms today. As cases of identity theft, data loss, hacking and malware viruses continue to infiltrate businesses, organizations of all sizes have come to realize this as a common enemy, especially because of the bad reputation and the negative light such an attack sheds on affected companies.
The risk of data attacks, along with the increase in regulatory requirements for companies located in multiple industries, data protection laws for most global jurisdictions and the strict requirement of credit card providers, has brought attention towards data protection and cybersecurity.
Information security is an important part of IT management today and deals with measuring, identifying and managing the risks that are related to the integrity, confidentiality and availability of IT assets to a required level. Executives should come together here and identify their role to advise and educate every member of the IT team and the management team. Security professionals can be hired to educate teams and to arm organizations with the technology and the information they need to minimize the chances of such attacks in the long run.
Your organization’s security program should ideally be based on a stringent framework, including a set of documented baselines to influence risk decisions.
• Organizations can use multiple frameworks here. However, the best approach to adapt here is to realize the most common framework in your industry, as it aligns with the regulatory and legal compliance of your business environment.
• Conduct a risk assessment to strategically analyze and identify the weaknesses of your organization.
• Once you identify weaknesses, you should work on an action plan and address items that deserve high priority.
Endpoint security should also be ensured, as end points are most susceptible to data thefts and threats. Endpoints include PCs, laptops, tablets, and other smartphones used by employees in your organization to access the company’s ERP systems.
Measure IT Performance
IT plans for the future can be set by measuring IT performance and working on them to achieve systematic growth. If your organization makes a hefty investment in Information Technology, it does make sense for you to periodically measure the returns on the investment and to evaluate the value that it brings within your organization. This is, however, easier said than done.
Most organizations today would agree that perhaps the biggest indicator of IT performance today is uptime. Uptime is usually a measure of just how much time systems are up online to support and recognize business transactions. However, organizations and IT managers need to realize that IT systems need regularly planned downtimes for patching, upgrades, and general maintenance. Besides systematic downtimes for system maintenance, your business applications should be up and running.
Another way to measure IT progress is to check the way they’re working on key projects. IT governance meetings, outlined above, can help check whether milestone dates are being consistently achieved and whether the department is slacking in areas that require constant attention.
If you have an IT helpline, you can measure the efficacy and the general benefits of this helpline through the following ways:
• The number of calls made to your helpline each month.
• The number of calls resolved by the helpline without being escalated and handed over to another department.
• The average wait time for consumers before a call is answered.
• The number of abandoned calls before someone picks up and answers.
Another way to measure the efficacy of your IT department is through vulnerability management. A well-run IT department has plans in store to manage strategic vulnerabilities and does not take system attacks lightly.
Factors to Help Evaluate a New Technology
A major part of understanding IT requirements is evaluating new technologies and seeing whether they really sit well with your organizational strategy and goals. Most organizations jump straight on the bandwagon when they hear about new technology and its potential in management and overall success. However, organizations should put all new technologies through diverse evaluation criteria and ask a few questions before implementing them within their system.
In this section, we study a few factors that can help you evaluate new technologies and see whether they sit well with your IT requirements:
Development Cost
The very first thing to consider in the evaluation process is how much this new technology will cost you. Get an estimate of the entire amount it will cost you to integrate this new technology within your system and to start using it. Development time also matters here, because as we all know, time is money for most businesses today.
Besides just the cost of implementing the technology, also think of how much it would cost you to create the right ecosystem for the technology to flourish. How much more would you have to pay to developers working on this new technology than the other developers you have working for you right now?
Development costs can either make or break your decision to move to a certain technology. For instance, Forrester’s survey of over 54 autonomous car manufacturers found that the support environment required for manufacturing and integrating the technology for self-driving vehicles is still too high.
Consider Threats
IT managers should consider all facets of a change process before implementing it. In line with this, IT managers should consider the risk of implementing new technology and what it means in terms of financial aspects, security and business viability. If you aren’t sure what your technology will be like in the foreseeable future, it is likely that you will suffer due to the risks and threats involved with it.
Many organizations have ditched implementing new technology because the safety and security risks on offer are just too much for them to cover.
Capability
Perhaps the most important vector to consider before bringing in new technologies is the new capabilities they bring to the table. The new technology you go for should open up new business capabilities that you really want to achieve. Unless it opens up new doors, you shouldn’t be investing heavily in it.
Usability
Usability is another important factor to consider when moving towards new technology. The new technology that you transition to should improve usability and be easy to use. If the new technology does not address usability issues for you or your audience, is it worth the investment?
Interoperability
Interoperability is defined as the ability of software operations and new hardware technologies to exchange information between systems. How much interoperability does your new technology have? Does it help in sharing information and creating an ecosystem of growth and development? If it does, will you able to seamlessly move towards it without wasting resources or time?
Integration
Carrying on from our point above, you should also measure the ease of integrating the technology within your existing IT systems. The integration process should be flawless and as quick as possible. The quicker it is, the easier it makes for you to run the technology faster and derive the necessary benefits from it.
Legal Compliance
You should also look to consider the legal compliance this new technology offers. Scan through the regulatory requirements related to the implementation of this new technology and do consider if there are any legal challenges involved in implementation. All legal challenges should be mitigated for proper success.
Security and Privacy
You should measure the privacy risks that come to the picture with this new technology and the security concerns that it brings. Evaluating these risks will let you know just how secure this new technology will be in monitoring your data sets and keeping your systems safe.
Investing in new technology comes with a number of risks, something that we will look at in greater detail further within this manual. For now, you can go through the factors above and determine whether the new technology your team is going gaga over is worth the investment or not.
IT Requirements Management in Software Engineering
Requirements management is a growing business facet and concerns itself with the issues that emerge when a new solution or software system has been deployed in your IT department. Requirements management is performed to understand the changes required to systems over time, after implementation, and oversee the level of control required to execute these changes effectively.
The core activities performed during a typical requirements management process include the following:
• Recognizing the imperative need for changes within the business environment and system solution.
• Establishing a key relationship between all stakeholders and ensuring their involvement in the requirements identification and reengineering process.
• Identifying the attributes of the requirements and tracking them for surety.
Requirements management in the IT department allows developers and managers to identify, track and control requirements through the development process. Some advantages associated with requirements management in the IT department are listed below:
• Allows Better Control of Difficult Projects: Requirements management helps give the development team a clear understanding of details related to the software delivery. This clear understanding eventually ensures that all priorities are delivered according to user requirements.
• Improved Software Quality: Requirements management ensures that the system performs in accordance with the quality requirements expected from it.
• Reduced Project Costs: Requirements management significantly reduces the cost of development and ensures that project costs are kept to a minimum.
• Improved Team Communication: Requirements management can improve communication within the team and ensure that objectives are met with proper communication between all stakeholders and team members.
Requirement Tracing
Requirement tracing is a key process followed by IT teams from the start of the process till the system is developed and delivered to users. The requirement tracing process ensures that all requirements are clearly identified and well understood. Tracing ensures that user requirements are incorporated across the software and that the system helps adjust to changing requirements.
Tracing techniques help the IT team in identifying requirements in a project that is currently under development. The information achieved through information tracing is then stored within a convenient traceability matrix. This matrix relays requirements to all stakeholders. A traceability matrix is drawn below:
U indicates a dependency between rows and columns, while R indicates the presence of a relationship between rows and columns.
Additionally, there are different types of traceability tables, which are identified in the table below:
A change in one aspect of the table can help affect different aspects. Hence, these tables are necessary for traceability and identifying areas where attention is needed.
Course Manual 4: Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
Software systems are an integral asset for your organization, and you should look to minimize and manage the risks you face in regards to them. Whether you believe it or not, but if you have a functional IT department, gather customer data, have an internal communication system, and store sensitive financial information, you are directly in the line of fire from threat actors online.
To that end, you should regularly conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment to measure how secure you are to combat external risks from malware and hackers and how safe your IT infrastructure is.
What is a Security Risk Assessment?
Security risk assessment includes a detailed process to identify and evaluate all risks that your business could suffer in the face of a cybersecurity attack. Businesses hold innumerable intellectual assets today, which are often under threat from fraudsters and scammers online.
During a typical security risk assessment, businesses identify the common external and internal threats facing them and the potential impact these threats can have on factors such as data integrity, data confidentiality and data availability. The analysis process also considers the total costs of a cybersecurity lapse and just how much it would take for the business to recover from it. The information gained through this risk assessment process can help businesses evaluate their current risk profile and set their sails right for a better future.
To get started with the IT security risk assessment, businesses should be ready to answer the following questions thoroughly:
• What are some of the important information technology assets currently possessed by your business? These assets could include sensitive customer data and other important systems that could lead to major downtimes in business operations when hacked.
• What are your key business operations and processes that could be impacted in the case of a cyberattack? Identify core processes that are directly in the line of cyberattacks and would face a major brunt of the impact.
• How much would the ability of your business functions be compromised in the case of a cyberattack and how long would the downtime persist? Have an idea to know just how much attention you should put on this subject matter.
Once you realize what exactly you have to protect and the departments that need immediate attention, you can perform an elaborate risk analysis and also develop strategies in the meanwhile. However, before you set out on an IT security assessment, you should consider just how much time you’re going to be spending on it, the type of risk you’re going to address here, and whether or not you have a cost-effective approach to the risk.
Defining Cyber Risk
According to the Institute of Risk Management, cyber risk is defined as “any risk of financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of an organization from some sort of failure of its information technology systems”. Gartner has a more general definition of cyber risk, as it defines it as “the potential for an unplanned, negative business outcome involving the failure or misuse of IT.”
Some examples of cyber risk on the internet include:
• Hardware damage and the subsequent loss of data that results because of it
• Theft of sensitive information that was required to be regulated.
• Malware and viruses within systems owned by the organization.
• Compromised user credentials, which provide access to sensitive information
• Website failure of the company due to a hosting error.
• Natural disasters and damaged servers.
Whenever you’re noting down cyber risk, make sure that you evaluate the specific financial damage that each risk type can cause. Remember that besides the damages suffered in lost data, cyber risks also result in legal fees, lost business, customer distrust, operational downtime, and poor results in profit and loss statements.
Importance of Regular IT Security Assessments
There are numerous benefits that businesses can get from regularly assessing their IT security and finding out glitches in it. Conducting a thorough IT security assessment allows businesses to build a solid foundation for success without any weak points.
The importance of regular IT security assessments are:
• To help businesses to identify IT security gaps and remediate them as soon as possible.
• To prevent data breaches and stop sensitive data from getting in the wrong hands.
• To mitigate risks.
• To prioritize the protection of different assets based on their value and risk profile.
• To eliminate obsolete and unnecessary control measures that aren’t much good.
• To help in the evaluation of security partners so that businesses can pick better options.
• To help establish and maintain compliance with regulations as far as cybersecurity and data protection is concerned.
• To accurately predict future needs for the business and help determine how much the business would have to improve over the course of the future.
Components and Formula of IT Security Risk Assessment
The IT risk assessment process is made up of four key components. These key components include:
1. Threat: A threat is usually known as any event or activity that could seriously harm the assets and people within an organization. Examples of threats include website failures, natural disasters, corporate espionage and company-wide malware attacks.
2. Vulnerability: Vulnerabilities are all weak points or points of entry for a threat to infiltrate within your system and harm your processes. Vulnerabilities can come in any form and may allow malware attacks to succeed. The most common vulnerability is an outdated antivirus system in endpoint connections, as malware in one system may eventually make its way through the entire network. Other examples of vulnerabilities include aging hardware, unguarded entry points, no two-way authentication on system login and disgruntled employees who may leak private details out to the public.
3. Impact: The impact of a security threat generally indicates just how much damage the threat may end up causing. The impact can vary based on the nature of the attack. For instance, a ransomware attack may not just lead to downtime but will also require extra expenses in data recovery.
4. Likelihood: The likelihood of a threat is based on the threat of an attack and the vulnerabilities present within a system.
Risk is calculated through the following mathematical formula:
The risk and likelihood of a threat actualizing are calculated by assigning values to the figures in this formula and finding out an appropriate range.
How to Perform a Security Risk Assessment
We now look at some of the ways organizations can follow to perform a security risk assessment. This process holds true for both current IT assets and future assets. Go through the assessment procedure below:
Identify and Prioritize Asset Security
The first step in the process is identifying and prioritizing assets based on the risk assessment they carry. Assets here include your client contact information, servers, trade secrets, partner documents and other sensitive data. Remember that you need to look at assets from a business’s perspective and not through your own perspective. What you consider as valuable might not exactly be as valuable when considered through the lens of the business.
Once you list down your assets, you should find out the following information related to all assets:
• Software
• Hardware
• Data
• IT security architecture
• Network topology
• Information storage protection
• Information flow
• Technical security controls
• Physical security environment
• Interfaces
• Users
• Support personnel
• Mission or purpose
• Criticality
• Functional requirements
• IT security policies
• Environmental security
Since most organizations have a limited budget for risk assessment, you will have to determine the importance of each asset based on its importance in core business processes.
Identify Different Threats
A threat, as we have identified above, is something that cans seriously cause harm to an organization and damage its reputation. While most of us do know of malware attacks and the hackers behind them, here are some other types of common threats:
• Natural Disasters: Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires can destroy not only your data but also your appliances and severs. Many organizations house their servers in remote areas without assessing the different risks of natural disasters in these locations. Always house your servers in a location with a relatively low risk of natural disasters. The lower the risk, the more reliable and safe your data would be.
• Hardware Failure: Hardware failure is a common threat for businesses today. The likelihood of a hardware failure will depend on the age and quality of the servers you use. The chances of failure are low for relatively new and high quality equipment used in your organization. However, organizations will have to constantly operate under the pressure of failure if their servers are old and susceptible to such failure.
• Malicious Behavior: There are three common types of malicious behavior that you will come across here:
– Interception is the theft of your data in a malicious manner.
– Interference is when someone deletes your data or physically steals your hardware
– Impersonation is when someone misuses credentials and finds out sensitive company information by posing to be someone else
Identify Different Vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities are all weak points or points of entry through which a threat can attack your systems and harm your processes. Vulnerabilities can come in any form and eventually allow malware attacks to succeed. The most common vulnerability is an outdated antivirus system in endpoint connections, as malware in one system may eventually make its way through the entire network. Other examples of vulnerabilities include aging hardware, unguarded entry points, no two-way authentication on system login and disgruntled employees who may leak private details out to the public.
Do not limit your assessment to software vulnerabilities, as there are a number of human vulnerabilities as well. For instance, maintaining your server room in the basement can significantly increase the risk of flooding.
Analyze Controls
We studied the analysis and auditing of controls in the previous chapter and now link it up with risk assessment. Once you’re analyzing and assessing the risk involved in your processes, it is necessary that you run through the controls in place to minimize and eliminate the probability of risk or vulnerability.
Determine Likelihood of a Threat
The next step in the process is to determine the likelihood of a threat actually transpiring into something. It is necessary that you the likelihood of a vulnerability actually being exploited. The likelihood should be determined by assessing the vulnerability, the capability and the motivation that guides the source of the threat and the efficiency of your current control measures. The likelihood of an attack cannot be measured in a number and is instead measured through categories and ratings of high, low and medium. High likelihood indicates a high chance of an attack or any other event of an adverse nature.
Assess the Impact of Threats
You should identify and analyze the impact of different threats through the following factors:
• The value of the asset under risk
• The role of the asset in core processes
• The sensitivity of the asset
The impact can further be determined through the mission impact analysis report.
Prioritize Security Risks
For each security threat/vulnerability pair, you should determine an appropriate level of risk and prioritize it. This should be done based on the following steps:
• Likelihood of the threat exploiting the vulnerability
• The approximate impact of the threat
• The adequacy of the current controls and the improvements required.
Once you have this information, priorities should be sent to the IT department. If you have a large enough IT department, you can assign the risk assessment role to the IT department itself and have them oversee it.
Course Manual 5: Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
Every organization and employer with an IT team strives to have the perfect in-house team of professionals – who wouldn’t want to have a stellar team that meets client requirements, set objectives right and is always up to the task? The problem, however, is that simply recruiting and hiring the best individuals from the industry doesn’t necessarily give you the kind of results you want and expect here. Top recruits surely bring their acumen and superior working style to your firm, but there is no guarantee that they’ll be working with the same styles and parameters a couple of months or a year down the line. And, even if your team is performing well and meeting metrics, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have any more room for improvement.
This is where in-house team reviews come in, especially for the IT department. To look at them in the most rudimentary manner, performance reviews are evaluations done to determine how your team performs and whether any improvements can be signalled in the overall performance of the team. The performance of each employee is documented during the review and is then presented back to them during the next review to signal whatever improvements have been made during the period.
While performance reviews appear to be straightforward to most managers and IT heads today, you cannot take them lightly. Performance reviews happen to set the pace for your IT department for the year and period to come, which is why it is absolutely necessary for the review to be as thorough and as comprehensive as possible. Performance reviews help employees better understand what exactly is expected of them and what they can do to meet those expectations. In simpler words, performance reviews are absolutely necessary to set goals and objectives for your team and to ensure that they eventually meet those objectives with their performance.
Reasons for Regular Performance Reviews of in-house Teams
Formal performance appraisals play an integral role in most organizations and should not be neglected at any cost. Unfortunately, in-house IT team reviews are underutilized and undervalued by both employees and employers.
Some of the reasons why organizations today should conduct regular in-house performance reviews for their IT team include:
Help You Choose Between an In-House Team and Outsourcing
Perhaps the most important reason for an in-house performance review in an IT department is to help organizations choose between maintaining an in-house team and opting for an outsourcing model.
With the outsourcing model becoming ever so convenient, organizations today are forced to contemplate whether their in-house teams really do benefit them in the long run or whether they should go looking for more comprehensive outsourcing models.
An in-house performance review does allow you to evaluate the performance of each employee and the department as a whole. It also allows you to measure cost metrics to determine whether making the shift to an outsourcing model will benefit you in the long run. Many organizations jump to outsourcing without actually reviewing their in-house teams and identifying whether the outsourcing model really is the best one for them.
Make People Feel Valued
The formal performance review process is a good way to make your employees feel valued and to help them realize that they’re putting in good work within the organization. To be fully productive and competent, employees need to feel satisfied with the work they do. Satisfaction is known to come from sincere feedback and valuable insights from the top management.
Employees value frequent recognition and words of praise they get from their employers. This eventually helps them work smarter and better in the future. Employees appreciate that managers higher up in the hierarchy are aware of the good work they’re putting in and aren’t mincing words in giving their feedback and positive output.
Set New Goals
The most productive employees happen to be those that are constantly driven by new goals and objectives. Employees that are unrelenting in their pursuit of new goals and objectives tend to be motivated and driven in their work.
Regular performance reviews allow the management to set achievable targets that every employee can follow. Employees will be intrinsically driven to meet those objectives and will eventually up their game as well.
The IT department is all about setting achievable targets to help the organization get actionable output. The objectives of the IT department should be aligned with those of the organization, while the objectives and goals set for each specific employee should be aligned with the objectives of the IT department. This popular strategy is known as ‘Management by Objectives’ and helps teams achieve their objectives.
Refocus on Team
Regular performance reviews can be a good way to focus back on your IT team and ensure that they sing from the same hymn sheet as you. This is the time to brief employees about your values, culture and any updates on your goals.
Regular performance reviews will help sustainably build the importance of objectives in your team and will allow them to fluidly be part of the culture that you want to build. A disconnect between members of the IT team and the top management can bring bad omens for the firm, as progress stalls and employees never take responsibility for their work.
Gain Oversight on Current Projects
Most IT departments are typically working on tens and hundreds of projects on a regular basis. Hence, it can be extremely difficult for managers and executives to maintain a stringent eye on all projects and be up to date with what is happening.
Formal performance reviews allow employers an opportunity to sit down with employees and gain their perspectives on different matters. Different projects often come with multiple complications and difficulties that not only the employees working on them would be best aware of. While it is necessary for IT heads to maintain a thorough eye over projects regularly, performance review can help succinctly unearth all details. The performance review can also help clarify why certain project deadlines weren’t met and why certain systems failed to deliver as expected. However, it is best to discuss these points in the moment, rather than waiting for the performance review.
Chance to Introduce New Technologies
Most executives and managers like to wait till performance reviews before they introduce new technologies and systems within their IT department. The performance review meeting sets an amazing platform for the introduction of new technology as all stakeholders within the IT team are present and talked to individually.
All employees can be briefed about the nature of the future investment and how the new investments will impact them. Employees can also be allowed to chip in and let the employers know if there are any brief changes they would like to see during the implementation phase.
Assess Training Needs
Finally, regular performance reviews can help you assess the training needs of your employees and determine whether they need training to help them out with any new projects or technologies. Employees in the IT industry are usually open to training and appreciate that the employer is introducing them to new technologies and solutions.
Tips to Conduct an In-House Performance Review
Having already looked at the importance of regular in-house performance reviews for your IT team, we now shed some light on some tips executives and managers can follow while conducting performance reviews for their in-house IT teams. These reviews aren’t just important for setting goals and objectives but also help managers decide the utility of continuing with an IT team and whether they can benefit by outsourcing their services.
Understand the Elements of an Effective Performance Review
Performance reviews offer executives a decent opportunity to review the performance of their employees and find out ways they can follow to help them perform better. When done the right way, performance reviews can help organizations maximize their efforts and achieve their objectives. However, when done wrong, performance reviews can kill motivation with employees and send them into a downward spiral of disengagement and dissatisfaction.
Some of the important elements of team reviews in the contemporary corporate world include:
Performance Reviews should be Frequent
Performance reviews only reap results when they are done frequently. Organizations can only reap positive results from their team reviews if they conduct them regularly and branch out of the traditional nature of annual reviews.
There are so many changes over the course of a year, which is why it does not make sense for you to leave your performance review to the very end of the year.
We recommend formal reviews on a quarterly basis, with a monthly conversation between managers and employees to discuss general themes, bring up pain points and move in the right direction. Many organizations might find the cadence of monthly reviews daunting, but they don’t require a hefty time commitment and can be short and concise for effectiveness.
Encourage Two-Way Conversations
Performance reviews should generally be based on two-way conversations rather than just one person leading the conversation without listening to the other. They should be engaging in nature.
While there is no one size fits all approach to follow, the review meeting should reduce anxiety, promote trust, showcase alignment and create clarity in processes. The discussion can address:
• Career development and growth for the future
• Challenges in engagement faced by employees
• Alignment with organizational objectives and goals
• Key leadership messages from the senior leadership
• Peer feedback
• Recognition of performance
• Feedback from clients
• Discussion of new IT technologies
• Need for training sessions
• Reasons behind current glitches, if any, within IT systems
Be Prepared for the Team Review
Managers and leaders should approach all team reviews with thorough preparations and detailed knowledge of what is to be discussed. Managers should preferably equip themselves with plenty of data. Some of the areas to prepare yourself in include:
• Sync criteria of the review with goal progress and future goals
• Prepare an agenda with some notes
• Find the right place and time for the meeting
• Set clear expectations for employees
Additionally, before you head to the review meeting, you should gather employee performance data and use examples to establish and validate your points. Not too long ago, performance review meetings were held on a manager’s objective understanding of matters, but that has significantly changed in the data driven world today.
Managers should validate their facts with data from different sources. The data to gather before the meeting should include:
• Engagement and survey responses
• Notes kept from one on one meeting with employees
• Recent feedback through client surveys
• Examples of recognition
• Ratings from talent reviews
• Proof from previous performance conversations and meetings
• Hiring documents
• Input and feedback from direct managers and colleagues
• Strengths in work style tests
Identify Proper Criteria
Both managers and employees should know just what constitutes as good or poor performance before the review meeting. Organizations should clearly communicate their criteria to the client and should let them know the performance standards they require.
Setting clear metrics and identifying effective performance criteria should help employees and managers:
• Define success
• Measure impact
• Determine future growth
• And prove the success of current plans
Most organizations today would agree that perhaps the biggest indicator of IT performance today is uptime. Uptime is a measure of just how much time systems are up online to support and recognize business transactions. However, organizations and IT managers need to realize that IT systems need regularly planned downtimes for patching, upgrades, and general maintenance. Besides systematic downtimes for system maintenance, your business applications should be up and running.
If you have an IT helpline, you can measure the efficacy and the general benefits of this helpline through the following ways:
• The number of calls made to your helpline each month.
• The number of calls resolved by the helpline without being escalated and handed over to another department.
• The average wait time for consumers before a call is answered.
• The number of abandoned calls before someone picks up and answers.
Another way to measure IT team progress is to check the way they’re working on key projects. IT governance meetings, outlined above, can help check whether milestone dates are being consistently achieved and whether the department is lacking in areas that require constant attention.
The last technique to measure the efficacy of your IT department is vulnerability management. A well-run IT department has plans in store to manage strategic vulnerabilities and does not take system attacks lightly.
Focus on the Future
While it is good to reflect on the past within your in-house team review for the IT department, your focus should be on the future. Traditional performance reviews tend to focus on past performance without clearly identifying a plan for the future and what will be expected by employees during it.
Hence, if you want your performance review meeting to succeed, you should effectively reflect on the past but also focus on the future. Future-focused reviews and discussions are more in line with what employees want. Employees will want to be told of improvements within their work in the very moment, rather than waiting for the annual performance review to be conducted. You should also clearly set future goals to avoid any confusion.
Ask the Right Questions
A typical performance review meeting typically consists of a number of questions and discussion points. You should preferably look to ask the right questions and ensure that all necessary points of discussion are addressed in the meeting.
Some good questions to ask during the meeting include:
• What goals do you have for yourself in the future?
• Which achievement during the past quarter or performance period are you most proud of?
• How do you look to develop within the coming 3 or 6 months?
• What obstacles do you feel currently stand in your way and hinder your progress?
• How can the management team improve and facilitate your growth objectives?
• What impact do you think your performance had on the team and on the organization as a whole?
Choose Your Phrases Carefully
If you’re new to conducting team reviews in the IT department, you should look to consider your phrases and words carefully. When meeting with employees in a review meeting, you would preferably like to be considerate, thoughtful and put some thought into your words.
Here are a few tips managers and leaders can ideally follow to improve the meeting routine:
• Use measurement-oriented tone and language
• Use powerful action words that mean something
• Stay constructive and positive and don’t enter a blame game
• Focus on finding solutions to problems rather than continuously talking about them
• Recognize good performance and do not be biased
• Respect all employees
In-house reviews for your IT department can be complex and complicated, but they are absolutely necessary to determine the future progress of your team. Additionally, they help you recognize the importance and efficiency you will get by outsourcing IT requirements, something we discuss in the next chapter.
Course Manual 6: Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
Be it due to unusual project requirements, budgetary concerns or some other reason, it is sometimes in the best interest of a business to outsource its IT department and hand its reigns over to a dedicated company.
In the chapter above, we discussed the importance of reviewing in-house teams regularly and finding out the utility of maintaining such a permanent team for your organization. If, however, during your review process, you find out that your in-house team is more of a burden than a utility, then you should obviously move towards the more convenient model of IT outsourcing.
Signs it is Time for You to Outsource IT Functions
While businesses should always be evaluating their options for outsourcing their IT functions, the IT department is quick to show signs when things go out of control. There are a few signs every business gets to view when their IT department isn’t performing all functions accurately and steps need to be taken to improve the situation.
These signs include:
IT Presents a Burden on Business Operations
Perhaps the biggest and most visible signal for outsourcing your IT functions is when the IT department takes up unnecessary time and takes your attention away from key business functions. The more time you spend on utilizing and figuring out your IT resources, the less time you get to give to the core operations in your business.
Business managers would know that there is no end to the requirements of the IT department. So, if a manager gets involved in the processes, they will never be able to fully bring their focus back to the other departments of the firm. When you outsource your IT functions, you get to benefit from a number of capabilities hosted by the other firm. Rather than maintaining a single in-house resource, you will now have a dedicated team servicing your requirements from elsewhere and prioritizing your work.
You Feel a Skills and Growth Gap
Growth is something that most businesses today envision achieving with time. Expansive growth in operations and the overall structure of the firm can significantly improve your operations and can open the doors to amazing opportunities in the future.
In order to scale up in size, you will need to have a dedicated IT department with proficiencies in the new technologies you will be encountering in your journey. This can become a tad too difficult if your IT department has a skill or growth gap of sorts.
Obviously, you don’t have the budget to hire an entirely new set of developers and cannot shift your focus towards training staff members. Outsourcing comes as a viable alternative during these complicated times.
Inability to Meet Deadlines
Organizations will consider outsourcing their IT functions if they’re unable to meet strict deadlines. The inability to meet client requirements and follow strict deadlines can significantly dent your growth prospects and can eventually reduce your profit generation ability.
If you feel that your IT department is unable to keep pace with projects on a strict deadline and time to market is an issue, you should preferably look for an outsourced solution. Time to market is an important metric, and you will lose out on clients if you’re unable to give them the specialized output they require.
High Turnover
Organizations today spend a major chunk of their hiring budget in recruiting employees for the IT department. This is because the IT industry is continuously evolving, and an IT professional who isn’t well versed with the frameworks and languages you follow in your systems would fail to stick with you. Hence, recruitment for the IT team takes more time and money and requires extensive training as well. Because of the significant investment organizations put into hiring new employees, the high turnover in the IT department can be a major cause of concern. A high turnover means that you have to bring in new employees after every little while and have to train them again.
Outsourcing can help save you from regularly recruiting employees and seeing them go. You can enter a contract with a dedicated team and have them oversee the requirements without having to worry about their personnel or internal handlings.
We believe the signs above are quite comprehensive in pointing out a few important reasons why you should outsource your IT department. A team of knowledgeable staff and resources can take years to build, while outsourcing offers similar benefits in no time.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your IT Requirements
Outsourcing Your IT requirements does more than just maximize your IT service. There are a number of benefits that outsourcing your IT requirements brings to the table, and we study them here in this section:
Round the Clock Monitoring
Maintaining an in-house IT team does not come without its own perils. When you maintain your own in-house IT team, you are at the mercy of sick days, business hours, vacations and additional workload problems. However, outsourcing your IT requirements ensures that you don’t have to go through any such conundrum in your processes.
The company you outsource your IT department to is present to manage your requirements around the clock and give you a sustainable long-term solution. Outsourcing firms ensure that there is as little downtime in operations as possible.
Increase in Expertise
Hiring an outsourced IT organization to manage your IT department allows you to benefit from a significant increase in expertise. The fact is that the company you outsource your requirements to will have plenty of experienced personnel within their ranks and will be willing to provide for you as much as they can.
While your IT manager might parallel their experience, but it is difficult to rely on just one person’s experience to run your department. Almost everyone working in an outsourcing firm is experienced and proficient in IT details. Also, since they work on a number of projects at one time, they are well versed with IT requirements and can help you out when required.
Scalability
Perhaps the biggest benefit of outsourcing your IT requirements is that you get scalable results in return. As a business owner, you likely realize just how big a hindrance hiring new employees can present to you the moment you want to grow your operations or move to new industries. With an outsourcing firm, all you need to do is sign a few paperwork and move to a more comprehensive plan to cover the new requirements that your business will undergo during its growth curve. Outsourced IT departments are hence more scalable and show flexibility during times of growth.
Reduction in Hiring Costs
Ask any HR department and you would know just how unnecessary and difficult it can be for businesses to hire frequently and regularly recruit new employees. Hiring is one of the biggest expenses incurred by a business and is bound to grow as you hire new people. Add to this the high turnover rates in most IT departments, and you have with you an unnecessary expense that you can cut out by outsourcing. Outsourcing saves you from the hiring process and allows you to invest your time and money in more actionable areas. All companies experiencing growth will be able to save a lot of money in hiring and recruitment by outsourcing their IT functions. Also, with an outsourcing firm, you pay what you get for and wouldn’t have to pay hefty amounts to in-house developers even when there is no work for them.
Help In-House Team
Most organizations like to maintain a hybrid mode of management, wherein they maintain both an in-house IT team and also outsource some of their functions to an outsourcing organization. This comes with a number of benefits and can actually help your business. An in-house IT team will manage core IT requirements, while outsourcing firms can be used to distribute some of the additional burdens.
Reduce IT Costs
As you will have an idea of by now, outsourcing your IT functions can significantly reduce the costs you spend on your IT department. First of all, you pay only for what you need. Outsourcing firms provide flexible packages based on what you require, without any fixed payments. Additionally, as we discussed earlier, you get to save money through reduced recruitment costs. Since you no longer have to hire and maintain an in-house IT team, you don’t have to spend on hiring and training employees. Finally, you don’t have to incur costs on buying and maintaining the best in-house hardware and systems for your IT department. The outsourcing firm handles your requirements and has its own systems.
Increases Compliance and Security
Outsourcing your IT requirements allows you to be more compliant with legal regulations and helps you be transparent in your data collection and privacy measures. Additionally, outsourcing firms have more experience to boast of and help improve your data security. The additional security helps save you from a cyberattack and minimizes the risk of downtimes and disruptions.
Outsourcing comes with a number of benefits, and at first look, it does seem like a more effective way to manage IT requirements. However, it is necessary that you understand the requirements of your firm and devise a strategy for what is best for your organization.
Course Manual 7: Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
The digital age of technology has brought the world around us into a new stage of progress and development. We are surrounded by updates and the corporate world is more reliant on technology than it ever was before. Companies of all sizes are faced with a digital imperative that they cannot possibly avoid.
The digital revolution around us today prompts organizations to effectively update their tech model or face obsolescence from their competition. Recent research found that 78 percent of all managers from the corporate world feel like digital transformation is highly critical today.
There are numerous hurdles in the progress towards technology adoptions, which organizations have to prepare for and look to mitigate. Hurdles appear in the form of poor training models for employees, habit-oriented employees, and a culture where new incorporations and integrations are frowned upon. There’s also the inability of technologies to settle within the previous system inside organizations.
Technology readiness is a major factor for organizations to consider when they’re rolling out new technology. Before incorporating and integrating new systems within their organizational setup, organizations should look to ensure the ideal scenario for readiness.
Steps to Successfully Implement New Technology
We start this chapter by mentioning a few steps that corporate managers and executives should consider before successfully implementing technology within their ranks. We will later look at some of the critical aspects to consider before tech integration to prepare managers and the organization for what is to come.
Investigate Problem-Solving Technologies
The first step to implementing new technologies is to investigate new technologies that can help you and your organization in the natural cycle of progression. The very purpose of implementing and adopting new technologies within the workplace today is to find solutions to inefficiencies and problems that your organization currently faces.
While solutions to some of your problems might be evident, others will require a lot of industry and external research. For starters, you will have to begin by researching the competitors within your own industry. Find out just how they’re performing to identify trends and work on adopting technologies already in your industry. However, there will be cases and problems where you won’t find ideas or solutions from within the industry. This is where you’ll have to do some research, even ask some vendors and act as a pioneer within the industry.
As new problems spring up around you, you will naturally have to speed up the pace of research and look for solutions. Make sure that you cash a wide enough net and look into all solutions that concern you. Make sure all stakeholders are kept on board when the top management is looking for tech solutions. Employees should, especially, be kept in tabs with the search progress and should be told of the possible solutions you’re evaluating. Once you do identify the best possible tech solutions, you should review the mover with your employees and get their input. Be sure to identify the extent to which your new technology will solve problems and just how helpful it will actually be.
Explaining the advantages of the new technology to certain employees from all levels comes with another advantage as well: you get to create ambassadors for the technology from all over the firm. Explain all advantages of the technology to your employees and make sure that they’re onboard with the change.
Make Sure You Have an Implementation Team
The second step businesses need to take while integrating new technology is to assemble an implementation team. Don’t let the word ‘team’ scare you, especially if you are a small business owner, because an implementation team can also consist of just one individual.
You need an implementation team to build the importance and the superiority of the new technology in the eyes of your employees. The benefits of the new technology and the competitive advantage it enjoys will mean very little if the technology is not wholeheartedly accepted and adopted by your employees. Many tech integration projects fail because of the lack of a dedicated implementation team. The lack of such a team eventually leads to poor implementation and a disconnect between the benefits of the new technology and the expectations of the employees.
The team should work on the following tasks and responsibilities:
• Managing conflicts in priorities to help assure a dedicated approach to the integration process.
• Overseeing all administrative details related to the tech integration.
• Allocating the required resources to the project and ensuring that all corners are connected.
• Managing change at the ground level and helping employees jump on the bandwagon.
Run a Pilot Program
The next step to take in successfully integrating the technology within your system is to run a pilot program. A pilot program will basically experiment with the usage and implementation of the technology while demonstrating the impact it will have on different departments.
A pilot program will also allow you to identify a few kinks in the process, such as ironing out complexities that are part of the integration process and connecting old technologies with new ones. Once these kinks have been identified and resolved, you don’t have to worry about the successful implementation of the program. The pilot program is necessary to decide areas where improvements are needed.
Train Employees
Training all employees is perhaps the most important thing to do before picking up a new technology and integrating it within your organization. Not all technologies are easy to understand and user-friendly in nature. New technologies can be complex to understand for employees, even more so when they have a complex UI and aren’t easy to master.
Providing training sessions to your staff can do wonders here, as it prepares them for the different aspects of the technology and helps improve their understanding of it. The following aspects should be kept in mind before you organize a training session:
• Every employee in your organization will have different learning styles and requirements. Not every individual has the same learning style, which is why the training should look to incorporate as many different learning materials and methods as possible. The training session can be tailored and adjusted to different learning styles through adequate measures.
• The training sessions should be kept personal. You should let people know just why the training sessions matter to your organization and how they will impact the different day-to-day work employees do.
• Ask users for feedback during each and every step of the implementation process. This will improve adoption and will help clear away any errors in their infancy.
Organizations do tend to face resistance from employees when it comes to implementing a training program. Do not underestimate the importance of training when rolling out new programs and incorporating them into your business.
Launch and Fine Tune as You Go
Making it to the launch stage of your new technology is an achievement of its own. You have now troubleshot your new solution for possible problems and have minimized them to a certain extent to roll out the technology across the board.
However, contrary to popular belief, the launch is not the end of the tech integration process. Most organizations rather unintentionally follow the ‘set it and forget it’ methodology, which we believe is not the right approach to follow. A very important step for successfully integrating new technology in your organization is to monitor just how it performs after it has been implemented and fully integrated.
If problems exist within the technology, which most likely will, you should continue changing and updating how you use it and identify iterations that take away the problems. Do not forget to hire the tech expertise of a professional that has previously worked in similar technologies. They will help point out errors and minimize flaws for you.
Aspects to Consider Before Adopting a New Technology
There are always new technologies and solutions available to businesses. The tech revolution is upon, as discussed above, and has brought with it a host of new technologies and potential changes. Organizations that want to lead the pack or stay ahead of the competition want to adopt new technologies right when they are in their infancy. As a result, the right competitive advantage can be built and steps can be taken.
However, early adopters and fans of technology also know that just because a technology is available and is in popular demand around the industry is not a strong reason to move towards it. Different systems require different solutions. It is always necessary to consider and run through a few factors to determine whether a technology is good or bad for you.
We have listed down 10 important aspects to consider before implementing new technology so that you can improve tech readiness and make sure you don’t go for the wrong tech innovation.
Seek Clarity
Visibility and clarity in observance should be crucial aspects to consider before incorporating new technology. The new solution you go for should be easy to adopt, provide greater clarity on business processes, improve interface health, and give visibility in process flow and other managerial considerations.
Any new technology that helps to improve your operations but does not give you the clarity you require will have a negative impact on the overall visibility across the organization and net capabilities of the firm. Organizations that operate under a black box of sorts and have no visibility within their tech integrations are not able to improve the overall capabilities of their firm.
Consider Options
As we discussed above as well, it is necessary that organizations put in some research hours to identify whether a technology is good for their business model or not. To start with, the technology you go for should provide a ready solution to the problems you face in your organization. Find out a complex industry problem you face and look for possible technologies that can help solve it.
The new technology should be right for your organization and should help you meet your goals and objectives. Put together all the requirements, including the specs, evaluation, plan and other details to find out whether the technology really is meant for you.
Consider Return on Investment
ROI or return on investment is the king of all business metrics and shouldn’t be ignored. The return on investment is by far the most crucial thing to consider before adopting any new technology. Adopting new technology is an arduous process that requires serious dedication from your side. Besides just the time and effort you put into the adoption stage, you should also consider the financial investment and whether the new technology actually comes near paying it off. If it doesn’t, then your new technology isn’t likely worth the investment. Put concrete numbers to identify the return on your investment.
Look at Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity and inside threat management are the two most important security considerations that organizations have an eye on when implementing and integrating new technology. With a drastic increase in the number of cyber threats and attacks online, it is even more important for organizations to only invest in technologies that help maintain stringent cybersecurity protocols online. The risk of insider attacks is also common and the technology you invest in should preferably manage it through proper security protocols and management techniques.
Ability to Get Things Done
The function of integrating and incorporating new technology in your organization should always be to find smarter ways to get things done. The one important reason businesses invest in new technology is finding new and more innovative ways to handle old problems. A good way to identify areas for tech expansion is to have your employees keep an open eye out for new technologies and solutions that can help with the business problems you face. A business need or problem should drive innovation, not the other way around.
Build Long-Term Competitive Advantage
Organizations going for advancements in technology should look to build long-term competitive over everything else. It is difficult to identify the right time and place for a new technology. However, it is necessary that you look behind what’s trending and buzzing in your industry and find new technology sources that help add value to your current operations and improve operations in the long run.
Incorporating and integrating new technology often takes time, so you should remember the long-term competitive advantages of the technology during the adoption stage. The long-term benefits will kick in by the time you are done with the implementation.
Understand Customer Pain Points and Requirements
One of the most important things to consider when integrating new technology is the customer requirements that it will help address. Meeting customer expectations and ridding them of certain pain points is an important consideration behind incorporating technology in your organization.
Putting your focus on customers allows you to understand any kinks in the current customer satisfaction strategy and gives you a head start to meet these inefficiencies.
Visualize Impact
Companies must be able to visualize the impact this new technology will have on certain processes and operations. Companies must consider and visualize the impact of new technologies like AI, cloud and blockchain on their processes. While tech benefits such as cost-savings can be generally expected from tech resources such as AI and virtualization, a number of new tech solutions are also coming as a result of new technology. Tech resources now allow businesses to fundamentally improve sales, service, operating models and service standards. These changes can be seen as transformational for the business model.
Assess Vendor Culture
Once you’re looking for a new technology to fulfill a need within your organization, you will most probably come across more than one vendor in the market. Assuming that all vendors provide well-designed solutions, are cost-effective and come with tangible benefits, you should look to make your decision based on vendor culture. Go for a vendor with a culture of continuous improvement, customer service and innovation. Vendors with a history of continuous improvement and have goals for the future will help you meet your objectives better.
Ask These Two Questions
There are a number of new technologies around us that have worked with other businesses and promise to help our business grow, make employees happier and increase efficiency. But before you determine whether the technology is right for you, you should ask these two questions:
How does this new technology help me grow revenue and protect current earnings?
How does integrating this technology reduce the complexities within the business currently?
Your answers to the questions above will help you identify the tech solution to go for and will also help improve your readiness. Eventually, through proper preparations, research and influence from your industry, you can identify areas of improvements and technologies to go for.
Course Manual 8: Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
We all understand just how important IT innovation is to organizations in today’s corporate structure. Recent years have seen a drastic increase in passionate discussions around the topic of innovations. Politicians cheer it. Leaders are obsessed with it. Investors tend to reward it, and customers demand it. The media loves talking about innovation and the spotlight shines the brightest when it is on the innovator. However, as much as we talk about the brilliance in innovation, it is also pertinent to mention the rise of critics and backlash.
If we look at it through an impartial lens, the backlash makes sense. While innovative thinking leads to a lot of breakthroughs in innovation, it also prompts failure. And, as is so often the case with the corporate world, failure is often met with a number of “I told you so’s”. All of this leads executive offers from different departments to align their music sheets together and sing the same chorus of “show us some results”.
This entire backlash, hue and cry make it even more important for organizations to turn towards measuring ROI for IT innovations.
Typical Challenges in Managing ROI for IT Innovation
In all actuality, managing ROI for IT innovations does seem to be simple enough. You start by finding out just how much you invest in ROI innovations and then moving towards areas where you spend it. This does seem simple but can be difficult to implement in practice. Some challenges here include:
Identifying Innovation Investment
The very first challenge businesses face here is in identifying innovation investment. This is a key challenge early on in the process. The amount spent on research and development is clearly part of the investment process, but certain organizations include the amount spent on troubleshooting, technical support, quality testing and software reformulations within R&D as well. There is also no clear correlation or connection between the amount spent on R&D and revenue growth, making it harder for most organizations to track costs and their direct results.
Identifying Returns
While there is confusion in identifying areas of innovation investment, there are also certain confusions in identifying return. Organizations do face a tough time estimating returns on their investments as the entire return process is fraught with difficulties.
The most commonly used metric to measure return is Risk-adjusted Net Present Value, which also loses its meaning and purpose in certain situations that require assumptions to be made.
Complexities in Management
Companies may have to manage return on innovation investment in order to:
• Justify the current spending on innovation and design to external and internal stakeholders.
• Make business case for implementing new IT solutions and technologies.
• Demonstrate the value and future ambitions of the company to future investors and stakeholders.
• Align technology objectives with those of the business.
• Optimize innovation project portfolio
The tools used by organizations here will not always be the same, as there are certain diversities and differences that managers have to account for. Hence, managing these new technologies and the investments made in them can be particularly difficult as well.
Reasons to Make ROI Demonstration a Priority
Organizations looking to successfully run innovations in IT and make their own future as thought leaders in the industry should look to prioritize ROI and keep it at the center of all their projects. Most organizations fall short when it comes to measuring ROI along with the project and are unable to keep an eye on key processes as they roll out. In this section, we look at some serious reasons to make ROI demonstration a priority along with all steps of the project.
Innovations may need Alignment
You should make ROI observations necessary during an IT innovation project because your innovations may need alignment with the business needs and objectives. You can ensure alignment in three ways following the ROI methodology. These ways include:
• The ROI methodology achieves alignment before the project is even initiated. The method helps set goals and objectives upfront when the project is validated.
• The ROI methodology sets clear objectives, which can then be checked and measured in comparison to the business needs and objectives.
• Thirdly, the follow-up data helps businesses find out just how drastically measures around the business may have changed.
To Clarify Value of Innovation Projects to Stakeholders
There are times when the value of IT innovations and the amount spent on them isn’t exactly clear to most stakeholders and investors. The primary objective or goal of an IT innovation project is to deliver value to the organization, but the definition and context of value aren’t always clear to most stakeholders.
The lack of clarity in value means that external stakeholders, especially investors and sponsors, are not satisfied with the objectives and where they are driven.
The ROI methodology helps businesses run investment appraisals and find out the possible value of the project in advance. Once this value is delivered to the organization, the earlier value proposition can be validated.
Helps Improve Your Processes
The processes within your innovation design stage will require continuous improvement, and the ROI methodology helps ensure that.
The ROI methodology works on the basic concepts of data and evaluation. The methodology evaluates how things are being managed and whether or not they are working to their full potential.
The data generated through the ROI approach can specifically help iron out details when the process is not going in a direction that was earlier expected. Data can help validate smooth proceedings and can also tell areas for improvements and the steps that can be taken for it.
Innovation Projects Lack Managerial Support
Most projects lack support from mid-level managers because there aren’t any authentic metrics in place to connect the fine points of the project together and to prove that the project falls under the domain of the mid-level manager.
Having an ROI methodology in place allows businesses to connect innovation projects with the relevant business managers and strategically position the business goals. When mid-level managers understand the relevance of the innovation and how it will help them meet department goals and speed up progress towards specific performance, they will speed up the process and work harder towards it.
ROI Demonstration Helps Budgetary Planning
Most organizations cannot budget for innovation properly until or unless they have a specific ROI methodology in place. Organizations can use the ROI methodology to support their proposed budgets and to form an understanding of the matter. The methodology allows businesses to see the monetary value they can get from certain innovation ideas. The budget accountability achieved through the ROI methodology can often secure future funding.
Builds Partnerships with Key Executives
Almost every mid-level manager attempts to build partnerships and set necessary communication standards with key executives across the organization.
Unfortunately, not many key executives would want to be partners in a project that does not provide any specific value to begin with. They only want to be partners in projects that provide value and have a certain methodology.
Using the ROI methodology in your innovation investment allows you to show proof of return in your approach and get the attention of key executives from over the organization. Being able to show the value derived from an investment can bring much-needed attention from higher-ups.
Aids the Innovation
Following the ROI methodology significantly aids the innovation process and helps organizations develop a solution more comprehensively and authentically. Many organizations today are working on different innovations, and all have different objectives in mind.
Organizations that follow the ROI methodology set a metric for success and can better meet the requirements and the desired results they expect from their objectives. Being able to show your contributions can add value to the innovation and increase the speed of delivery.
Demonstrating ROI can open up a new world of opportunity for organizations. The ROI methodology helps organizations in silencing criticism that may often take the attention of key executives away from innovation in the IT department.
Once certain projects and innovations in the IT department succeed, the top management has more interest in developing IT innovations and embraces the innovation. This ultimately leads to a culture of innovation that brings a wave of futuristic change across different core competencies.
Key Factors for Success
Some key factors for success in demonstrating ROI for IT innovations can be:
Articulately Mention ROI Objectives
To begin with, you should be clear and precise about your reasons for managing ROI and the outputs you intend to achieve from it. Businesses here can benefit from considering these two ‘lenses’ or perspectives to view the innovation portfolio:
1. Realizing ambitions
2. Optimizing value
Realizing Ambitions
Setting ambitions through this lens requires clarity on what the innovation is expected to achieve. Businesses can quantify and set clear business delivery objectives here, which they plan to not only follow but implement in the long run.
There are typically five types of innovations or ambitions that businesses work to realize through innovation:
1. Transform: Enter new markets and transform products.
2. Enhance: Grow in similar markets.
3. Defend: Offer incremental products related to current offering.
4. Increase Productivity: Use technology across manufacturing and supply chain concerns.
5. Decrease Energy Intensity: Add efficiency and change product consumption.
Identifying the type of innovation helps set objectives and recognizes the return of value.
Optimizing Value
The second lens to view business innovation spending is through value optimization. Many businesses work on innovation to optimize value and the ROI methodology allows them to measure the incremental impact on value generation. This perspective helps achieve business objectives and sets goals for the future.
Clear Governance Approach and Accountabilities
Businesses shouldn’t just rely on clear objectives and performance measurement tools because appropriate action is also required to derive value from an innovation investment.
Organizations following an ROI methodology for innovation investments have a clear governance approach for being accountable. Some good practices that organizations can follow here to be accountable and improve their governance include:
• Create a cross-functional body with enough authority and responsibility to take key decisions on prioritization, resourcing and building innovation portfolio.
• Avoid building blocks between technical research and development and marketing innovation governance. Value is created through integration between both these heads.
• Ensure responsibilities for the implementation and maintenance of each process, including data gathering, innovation testing and reporting.
• Formulate your own definition of responsibility and accountability, and let it be known to every member.
Take Notice of Cannibalization
Developing a new business innovation is very similar to reading the altitude gauge on an airplane. The 10,000 feet above sea level reading offers very little comfort when you’re flying high over a mountain range. The mountain range, or your current level of operations, is perilously close and needs to be considered to set a realistic growth reading.
Many organizations forecast their sales and growth as a result of the innovation without considering the current revenues these would be displacing. Marketing and other organizations should work hand in hand to take account of:
• Historical market sales results on product life-cycle analyses
• Customer analysis.
• New innovations and products released by competitors and the possible tech disruptions they have used.
• The degree of commoditization of new products. The higher this degree of commoditization, the greater the impact of cannibalization, and the higher will be the cost of inactivity.
Use Consistent Logic
One important strategy to perform a robust valuation of your innovation investments is to use consistency in your logic.
There are a few principles that can be applied here to achieve consistency.
• Go for single sources of truth from commonly shared data parameters.
• Apply transparent methods, approximations, assumptions and calculation models.
• Build shared ownership by ensuring that all departments and functions such as marketing and R&D understand the approaches and stand in support.
• Focus on feedback and learning to capture data during the innovation and improve future predictions.
• Distinguish the requirements for different requirements.
Selecting the right valuation approach comes with numerous benefits and rewards. Businesses can also develop a growth map that stays the same across the length of the project and improves consistency. More consistency means better results over time.
Course Manual 9: Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
The use of technology in business operations and different industries has brought about flexibility, mobility and automation in business processes. The digital revolution has increased the pace of IT adoption and it is refreshing to see just how dependent small business owners are on technology today. Technology is helping business owners grow their businesses to new heights and allowing them to open new doors of opportunities for the future. The use of technology in business operations today has meant that we now have a number of new avenues to explore and entrepreneurs can enter new markets without compromising on communication standards or letting go of their core competencies.
Recent research found out that over 48 percent of all business owners were excited to run their business remotely without being present in their corporate offices. This change is largely accredited to technology and the rapid pace of adoption around us.
The emergence of remote systems and cloud based networks has made it easier for business owners to get work done while on the go and to ensure that the business keeps churning out productivity, even if they are not present to oversee operations.
The integration of technology in core business processes has opened the doors to a new range of opportunities. These exciting opportunities have simultaneously made room for new industries, such as freelance work and virtual assistance companies. The availability of virtual assistance and remote work models online makes it easier for businesses to save overheads and get the help they require from additional staff.
Dependence on Business Dashboard
A fairly recent technological trend that has helped small businesses and other big enterprises advance their business style is the emergence of a unified dashboard. A business dashboard is the result of years of tech progress and is now a core offering for many new age organizations. A business dashboard usually consists of a series of charts, graphs and other data representation techniques that give actionable insights into how the business is actually performing and areas where improvements can be signalled.
A business dashboard summarizes all relevant information in one place and allows business owners and entrepreneurs to view a number of key details relevant to total sales, amount receivables and other key metrics related to the business. A dashboard also provides a glimpse into the overall financial health of the business and ensures that organizations are able to keep their financial objectives on track.
There are several benefits of using a unified dashboard for businesses today. Some of these benefits include;
• Visibility: A business dashboard helps give entrepreneurs and business managers the visibility they need into the performance of the different departments in their business. Visibility is essential for business management today, as managers need access to raw data to determine just how well the business is performing and identify areas of improvement. Without proper visibility, business decisions will always lack purpose and never identify the right improvements. The advanced visibility of a business dashboard allows managers to make quick decisions and provide quick answers to complex business questions. Since all information is available at the tip of your fingers, the decisions you make are relatively quicker and more influential.
• Time Saver: A business dashboard saves a lot of time for all stakeholders involved within the decision making process inside an organization. Previously business owners had to go through elaborate systems and protocols to gain access to business reports and measure progress through different data representation techniques. This method has now been simplified through the use of a unified dashboard. Business owners do not have to log into different systems to view reports and business data. They can view it all under one platform, which saves a lot of time. The time saved from this process can eventually be utilized for sales growth and business development.
• Results: Since all key business metrics are available in one place, it makes it easier for business managers to make decisions and find out areas where investments will lead to success. Most dashboard color codes results, which makes it even easier for businesses to identify areas of good performance and bad performance. Most dashboards’ color code progress in green and mark a downward spiral in red. You can look after items in red and give them the attention they need to signal improvements.
• Improve Productivity and Performance: Perhaps the ultimate objective of all business dashboards today is to improve overall productivity and performance. Business dashboards help improve overall business productivity, which eventually increases performance and results in better productivity. Businesses are eventually able to signal improvements in their performance and grow more profits. With a better focus on areas that are performing below expectations, business managers can ensure that business objectives are met in the manner they expect.
Business dashboards are a primary part of the digital revolution we see around us today and help play a role in our overall tech dependency. The nature of these dashboards allows business managers to embrace technology and work towards systematic improvements.
The Rise of Web-Dependent Businesses
Strong businesses have for ages been the lifeblood of the global economy. Even in the United States, small businesses are responsible for creating more than half of the total jobs, generating 54 percent of the total sales within the United States, spawning new ideas, leading innovations and acting as conduits within communities across a diverse environment.
The momentum towards small businesses has shown no signs of slowing downs, as the global economy relies more on them than ever before. With the rapid pace of digital adoption around, websites, applications and technology, in general, will act as the cornerstone for these new entrepreneurial ventures and business ideas.
While small businesses previously had a small presence on the internet with a simple cookie-cutter website, they have now gone for a new approach that includes complete dependence on the internet. These small businesses derive almost 100 percent of their revenue from the internet and rely on technology as the primary source of income.
Businesses that are completely reliant on the internet include:
• Online stores that do not have any physical outlet
• Content sites and blogging channels that achieve monetization through advertisement, referrals and subscriptions
• Niche providers that tap into the explosive demand for mobile applications and web platforms
The small business craze is just as extensive as it was back in the past, but all that is changed now is that small businesses rely more on the internet and tech resources today than they ever did. From purchasing a domain name for their website to starting an online store, small businesses are entirely reliant on technology to run their operations.
The Negative Impacts of Tech Adoption
Obviously, almost every scenario or situation in the world carries a particular set of pros and cons. While there are several good things associated with the tech revolution, businesses might encounter a few negatives as well.
These negatives include:
Tech Expenses
Almost every meaningful tech application, resource or website today comes with a host of new costs. These expenses will be spread out in different heads, including upfront expenses, maintenance charges and recurring fees. Tech adoption does have a number of benefits, but it is also expensive to set up and maintain.
Continuous Training Sessions
All employees and other stakeholders require varying levels of training to understand new tech implementation. The time and money invested into training sessions can be substantial and beyond what most small businesses can take out from their kitty. Additionally, since there are always new innovations around the corner, there is no end to the training sessions.
Tech Dependence
As your business benefits from technology and you incorporate new online resources, your company becomes dependent on it. When the inevitable bugs, power failures and glitches come, you are unable to come up with a contingency plan to continue operations and minimize downtimes. For instance, a glitch in the payment setup can send a number of potential buyers away.
Additionally, relying exclusively on tech offerings can lead your business into a position known as the vendor lock-in. This state is generally hard to cope with, and businesses simply have to tolerate the numerous idiosyncrasies of different vendors because signalling change will come with its downtime.
Hacks and Data Loss
Regardless of how innovative solutions on the cloud are, there is always the inherent risk of hacks and data loss on the cards. You can never fully recover from such a risk and have to be careful in how you proceed onwards. Sensitive business and client information can land in the wrong hands if it is accessible on the cloud and if you haven’t invested in expensive cyber security solutions or got professionals working under you.
Steps to Optimize Your Current Use of Tech Resources
There is no harm in being dependent on tech resources and solutions around. Since digital tools can revolutionize your organization and open new doors of revenue generation, you shouldn’t turn your back on them.
Some ways to optimize your current use of digital tools include:
Build Digital Literacy
A number of organizations today use digital solutions in one way or the other. However, employees and managers are still somewhat intimidated by the thought of foreign digital tools that they haven’t yet utilized.
Ideas of technologies such as the cloud, Edge computing and auditing your web presence can send shivers down the spine of most managers. For this very reason, it is necessary to build tech literacy in your firm and educate people about the different technologies and the benefits they offer before you think about adopting them.
Without the comfort and confidence of tech literacy, you will never be able to adopt new technology to its full potential. Always remember to think about tech resources in the following ways:
1. Technology is Not a Solution to Everything: The first thing you need to realize is that technology isn’t a solution to everything. Obviously, technology offers alternatives that make certain tasks easier and more efficient, but it cannot be considered a magic pill to change your command over things. Technology needs to be managed with the same thoughtfulness as other manual processes for effective results.
2. Technology should complement and not replace your existing processes: Sending out an email newsletter to current clients shouldn’t completely replace sending out a printed one. Online meetings are convenient, but they shouldn’t entirely replace face-to-face conversations.
3. It is fine to mess up: It is alright to mess up while using technology solutions. Trying new things and new technologies might lead you to failure, but there is no harm in it. In fact, you learn more from failure than anything else. So, mess up a bit if that is what you need to be confident in how you use technology.
4. Dedicate Resources to Technology Maintenance: Tech integration is not a one-step process that finishes the moment you introduce something new to your firm. Instead, you should dedicate resources, including time and money, to tech maintenance. Oversee tech operations and ensure that you are constantly moving towards innovation and don’t enter a strut.
Review Your Current Use of Digital Tools
The best way to optimize the way you utilize technology is by reviewing your different uses of tech tools. Run through your digital tools and identify just how these tools contribute to the success of your organization and the role they play in signalling improvements.
Start by reviewing your website, if you have one. Since most businesses do have a website today, this is a good starting point for you. Begin with the basics of your website and look at the usability, the content techniques you have used, the art direction methodology you follow and the integration of new tools.
As a business executive or manager, some questions you can ask yourself while reviewing your website include:
• How long have you had a website for?
• What role does your website play in your communication strategy?
• Can you add and edit content on your website by yourself, or do you have someone to do it?
• What are the goals and objectives you wish to achieve through your website?
Once you have asked these questions, you can ask similar questions related to other uses of technology in your firm:
• Email: Do you have an email subscription list? Do you use an email system like Constant Contact or MailChimp? Do you send emails through to one person at a time? Do you have personalized emails?
• Newsletters: Do you have newsletters? How frequently do you send them out? Do you track click-through and open rates?
• Social Media: What social media platforms are you active on? How frequently do you use each social media platform, and what is your posting schedule? What type of content do you usually post? Does it match with the perception you want to set?
• Databases: Where do you store client data? How do you gather client data? Is your data easily accessible to all relevant departments? How secure is your database?
• Online Backup: Do you have an online backup to save important files and data? Do you have an in-house server or utilize an external server from a cloud service provider? Do you simply back up using an external hard drive?
• Video: How do you integrate videos in your overall marketing campaign? Have you created videos of your own?
• Data Visualization: Do you utilize data mapping and visualization tools? Do you have a dashboard to visualize and represent customer data and metrics?
• Communication: Do you have any ERP or CRM resources to enhance visibility and communication across departments?
Answers to the questions above will let you know where you currently stand and what your current level of IT dependency is. IT dependency is not measured through a specific value but through a general understanding of how much your core processes rely on tech resources.
Identify Tools That Can Help Improve Efficiency
Identify new digital tools and technologies that can help minimize problems and improve efficiency. The very purpose of implementing and adopting new technologies within the workplace today is to find solutions to inefficiencies and problems that your organization currently faces.
While solutions to some of your problems might be evident, others will require a lot of industry and external research. For starters, you will have to begin by researching the competitors within your own industry. Find out the trends they follow and the tools they use. However, there will be cases and problems where you won’t find ideas or solutions from within the industry. This is where you’ll have to do some research, even ask some vendors, and act as a pioneer within the industry.
As new problems spring up around you, you will naturally have to speed up the pace of research and look for solutions. Once you do identify the best possible tech solutions, you should review them over with your employees and get their input. Be sure to identify the extent to which your new technology will solve problems and just how helpful it will actually be.
Course Manual 10: Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
Spend money to make money. This cliché business quote never goes out of fashion. While many businesses have reaped fruits from investing money into new business ventures and investments, others achieved nothing despite investing significantly in new avenues. While spending money is a basic prerequisite to make more money from your business endeavors, it isn’t the only one.
Ask businesses who hired a sales teaming without properly studying the market and hiring the right fit. Ask businesses who built an expensive application without understanding their competition and the resources they wanted to see. Both of these moves are super expensive and would have had required significant investments, but did they reap the rewards? We don’t think so.
It is time we rephrased this cliché business quote into something more contemporary and realistic;
Research your options, look into the future and invest money into assets that will help contribute to your long-term objectives.
Sure, it definitely isn’t as catchy as the earlier phrase. It doesn’t spark as much interest, but it displays better business acumen.
Digital transformation is a key investment of consideration for many businesses today. A survey by EY recently found that 87 percent of business executives are considering investing in digital transformation during the foreseeable future.
As with any major investment or business decision, moving into the digital transformation without a prior comparison of expected returns with ongoing costs isn’t profitable. In this chapter, we look at the financial and non-financial costs of the digital transformation and how the process actually helps save business costs.
Businesses looking to dip their toes into the digital transformation will find this overall analysis helpful.
Why Go For the Digital Transformation – Cost Savings on Offer
Most executives are already sold to the idea of a digital transformation. However, it is still necessary to achieve clarity on what you will get at the end of the investment.
Your digital transformation can promote a wide-ranging scope of cost savings, which are unique to your organization. Some of the promised cost savings include:
Virtualization and Networking
Centralizing all of your applications and desktop computers can significantly reduce your IT-related costs. Virtualization of your computer systems can allow your desktop support team to record and deliver updates, fix issues remotely and deploy security upgrades. This saves time in terms of communication and traveling. Virtualization also allows businesses to maintain smaller and leaner technical support teams, as no extensive IT backups and support are required. For example, businesses do not need to fill in a full-time staff position to deliver the kind of service promised by digital transformation.
Virtualization also allows for easier implementation of updates and patches, which can work wonders for existing hardware and software resources.
No Hard Copies
Filling out forms manually can take a lot of time and can significantly slow things down. Fortunately, businesses today have a number of options as a result of the digital transformation and do not have to rely on slow and traditional processes such as faxes and analog handwritten forms. The digitization of online documents and forms is just the beginning of the process. Once you include the forms in your digital system, you can roll out documented workflows and speed the process up. The power of digital transformation comes in the form of a fully automated process from team handover to signatures to customer on boarding and the final payment.
Preventative Maintenance
Perhaps one of the biggest applications of digital transformation today is to provide preventative maintenance in manufacturing firms. Organizations that run manufacturing concerns can benefit from preventative maintenance to find flaws and the need for maintenance in machines before they actually succumb to pressure. The ability to find the need for product maintenance at the right time can help businesses avoid downtime and other costs associated with sudden disruptions.
The costs saved through the techniques above add to the utility of digital transformation and make it even more convenient from a cost perspective. While the additional costs of implementation might seem daunting, remember that digital transformation can help save you money in the long run.
The Cost of Organizational Buy-In
The initial price of the digital transformation in dollars is nothing in comparison to the uphill battle most organizations face from their employees, investors and boards. The resistance to change is palpable across the organization and is felt both in terms of the implementation process and the day-to-day activities related to the new tech integration.
The digital transformation must potentially be rolled out from a top-down perspective. What this means is that the organization should preferably roll out the digital transformation with approval from the top management. Additionally, the transformation cannot be strategically implemented within just one department, so the implementation needs to be across the board.
The solution for organizations to create a long-term transformation strategy is to develop a vision that involves the customers, digitizes processes, trains employees and enables the workforce to achieve strategic results and objectives.
The Cost of Technology and Systems
Most organizations simplify the digital transformation process without realizing the full scope of the change. Buy some software, message your customers, train your employees and staff for a few works, and BOOM, your digital transformation is ready. This isn’t actually the case.
The digital transformation process isn’t based on implementing or integrating one piece of software or a single system solution. Instead, it is a strategic transformation that takes over a significant amount of time and requires strategizing and multiple applications of the highest order.
Apart from the investments in innovation and technology, some other ways to invest in technology and innovation include:
• Partnerships
• Divestment and restructuring
• Mergers and Acquisitions
Your ability to tackle the budgeting requirements of your digital transformation comes down to the unique cost details concerning your plans and the diverse options that you’re willing to follow for the transformation. Every organization has a different use case for implementation.
Mistakes to Avoid During the Digital Transformation
Considering the amount of investment involved in the project, a digital transformation deals with plenty of risk and requires a stable front. There are dozens of obstacles in the way, which many digital transformation projects have stumbled over, leading to binary corpses along the way. As you begin the research and planning phase, you can learn from the examples of those that have failed in their journey to the Promised Land so that you don’t make those mistakes again.
Some of the mistakes to avoid in your digital transformation include:
Inability to Transform
This does sound obvious but is a misfortune that awaits many organizations today. Without a proper long-term strategy, a vision and the right accountability measures in place, your digital transformation will fail to have the kind of impact that you’ve wanted for it. You might end up with a few new software and hardware purchases, but without the willingness to transform core processes, your digital transformation will lack both purpose and motive.
Not Identifying Your Unique Situation
As we have discussed above, every organization has a unique situation when they’re jumping on the digital bandwagon. The value of your digital transformation and the thoroughness of the process usually depends on the industry you’re part of. As per recent research from McKinsey, there are certain industries and areas where all providers have made the shift to the digital world, while there are other industries where the transformation is still at a nascent stage.
A retailer in the grocery industry might still survive without a digital transformation, but a label in the music industry won’t survive if they haven’t yet executed their digital transformation. Industries in the primary path of disruption need to move quickly towards the transformation to realize gains.
Some other factors determining the uniqueness of your transformation, besides your industry, include:
• The size of your operations
• Your current IT infrastructure
• The scale of your operations
• The nature of your business
• Your hierarchy
Budgeting
Most organizations mess up their budgets when preparing for the digital transformation. You need a specific budget for the cause and need to have a unique allocation for it. Do not mix up the costs with your IT budget, as they may entail discrepancies.
Getting Derailed
Most businesses make the mistake of getting derailed from the objectives of their digital transformation. A few ways to stop your digital initiatives from derailment include:
• Keeping executives engaged and active in all communication
• Maintaining ROI
• Avoiding short-term outlooks and setting eyes on the future
• Maintaining a dedicated team
With the right mindset and with their eyes on future objectives, businesses can focus on their digital transformation and account for the costs. However, remember not to be scared by the initial costs, as the transformation saves more than it costs.
Course Manual 11: Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
While new technology has disrupted all imaginable metrics in the corporate world, there is unparalleled excitement when it comes to industry verticals concerning customer service, support and experience. The progress of tech offerings that influence a better customer experience has meant that we are now at a key junction in time, with technology expected to play an even important role in the future of business management and customer experience.
The progress of real time messaging, chat bots, artificial intelligence, self-service kiosks and video have meant that organizations are using technology to improve customer experience. Like it or not, the new digital transformation is here to stay.
From the use of smart phones, personal computers and tablets to business networking sites and social media, technology has had a significant impact on customers as well. With higher connectivity levels and customers using more tech resources than ever before, there is an imperative case for businesses to implement new technologies within their corporate network. Companies like Walmart, Amazon and Netflix are all increasing their total spend on technology and data resources to amplify the customer experience they offer to new and old customers.
Customer experience, or CX, as it is commonly known in business lingo, is the sum of all interactions shared between a customer and an organization. Customer satisfaction, on the other hand, is a measure of just how satisfied and happy customers are with the experiences they have had with you. Customer experience and customer satisfaction go hand in hand because by improving CX across different touchpoints, businesses satisfy customers and drive up satisfaction levels.
Cutting Edge Technologies to Enhance Customer Experience
If you’re willing to transform your customer experience journey and include technology within it, there are thankfully many avenues available to you. Technology is now at the forefront of business operations and determines how consumers feel after using a service or buying a product.
As we move forward in the digital era, the spotlight is on organizations that are able to retain customers through improvements in the customer experience. Success awaits organizations that provide a relevant customer experience to customers and help exceed their expectations. To that end, there are a number of new tech tools and solutions that can make customer experience management even easier in this current age.
In this section, we explore some of the best cutting edge technologies that can improve the customer experience for your service or product users. Assess your current IT system and make room for IT investments within these technologies:
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, or AI as it is popularly known today, is considered to be the most disruptive of all tech innovations. AI has multiple applications in the business world today, with the most prominent one being in enhancing customer expectations. As per predictions from Gartner and leading tech researchers, we are a couple of years away from a world where businesses will manage their communication with customers without the presence or interaction of a human.
Many new technologies available to organizations come down to their usage of artificial intelligence. AI helps increase efficiency, drive customer experience towards the better and reduce costs. Common and repetitive tasks are automated, and your sales agents get to be more productive. AI also helps empower customers and allows them to solve their own issues. However, the use of AI should be transparent to customers to comply with regulations and ensure optimal support.
Chatbots
Chatbots are usually based on artificial intelligence and automate the simple tasks and answers that previously required a dedicated agent. Successful chatbots are driven through a vast amount of information poured within them to drive their intelligence forward.
The intelligence and the solutions provided by a chatbot will only be as good as the data poured within them. Chatbots resolve product and service usage issues and help provide answers when a human agent or representative is not able to. If the information poured within chatbots is valid, it will help solve queries and provide authentic answers.
Speech VR
The use of speech-enabled voice recognition is really driving innovation forward in organizations. The use of functions and national language processing allows customers to fully converse with bots, as they would do with human representatives. This provides a simpler and more interactive method of common problem resolution. Additionally, human customer support agents can take their time helping customers with more complex and difficult problems, while the bot handles simpler queries.
Speech and Voice Analytics
Customers that call your customer support number will not always be willing to interact with a bot. Sometimes customers are angry; they’re emotional and require an immediate response from the other end. Speech analytics and voice biometrics allow organizations to equip chatbots with the artificial intelligence needed to listen to elevated voice pitches and the other related emotional cues that come with them.
Call center bots should know just how the customer is feeling through their voice tone and cues in their speech. The call should then be transferred to a live agent when the bot feels it is appropriate. Conversation analytics can uncover emotional drivers and determine the common metrics that influence certain behavior and tone.
Video Chat
Sometimes, reading or hearing about the customer experience just isn’t enough. In such situations, you will need a video chat solution to be able to fully understand customer concerns and help address them. Visual customer support can help straighten the root cause of a problem and can help solve it in the long run. The smooth and frictionless manner of this resolution will help drive loyalty in customers and form long-term connections.
However, due to the elaborate nature of this communication and the use case for it, we believe only B2B businesses with a handful of customers can currently offer video chat support through their bot.
How can Technology Improve Customer Experience?
With rampant tech progress around us, customers today have higher expectations and expect you to meet them. Some questions generally asked by customers while experiencing a new product or service include:
• Are you reachable through different devices at the same time?
• Do you respond to customer requests in real-time or keep them waiting for hours or even days?
• Is your website frequently updated or is it just neglected and left to be?
• Will you keep customers informed about new products and services in an interactive manner that does not overwhelm them?
• Will you listen to customer feedback and work on it to improve overall performance?
Technology and the progress achieved through it have allowed businesses to meet the expectations above and provide a comprehensive customer experience to satisfy all new, old and prospective customers. Some ways technology can be used to enhance customer experience include;
Be Available
The very first benefit of using new tech resources in today’s world is that you can now be readily available to meet customer requests and requirements. As feasible as the 9 to 5 routine seems to you, it is necessary that you ensure your availability across the clock to meet customer requests and requirements.
If your company and workforce still work within the confines of the 9 to 5 routine, you wouldn’t be able to respond in real-time to a number of customers and their requests. Consumers are ‘always on’, and if they don’t get around-the-clock customer service and support from you, they’ll likely go elsewhere, where it is provided.
While previously organizations had to hire workers to tirelessly graft around multiple shifts spread over the 24 hours cycle, they can now use technology to assist them in this quest. Technology and the solutions provided through it allow you to service all customer requests at any given time, without a moment’s delay.
Solutions like email, chat boxes, SMS and even feedback forms allow you to gather input from customers at all hours of the day. Eventually, you’re able to record customer feedback and general opinion without delay and give them the kind of service they require of you.
Having around-the-clock interactions with your customers allows you to generate repeat business and form a loyal bond with all current and new customers.
Use Valuable Insights for Customer Service Management
Wouldn’t it be just great if businesses were able to gather data and trends related to customer behavior online without directly having to monitor them or ask them? The advanced usage of end-to-end analytics and other connected technology has made this easier. Organizations can now use technologies to track the online footprints of customers and generate actionable insights from the data they gather. This data helps tell what customers want, what sort of products and services they are interested in, and what motivates them.
By understanding the individual nature of customers and the kind of services they prefer, businesses can actually tailor their campaigns to meet customer expectations and requirements. Utilizing this data may also help you guide future product development.
The key to driving customer analytics through these means is to listen to what customers say and find behavioral patterns in how they act online. Tracking customer behavior, obviously after informing them, also helps you drive new innovations and offerings. Understanding what customers prefer and what your target market wants to see will help you find out which areas to improve and what to invest in next.
Build Self-Reliance
A number of customers do not ask questions when scrolling through a website and would prefer to navigate by themselves and be self-reliant. This enforces the importance of self-reliance in new technologies and how organizations can enforce it through strategic endeavors.
Technologies and software frameworks today allow you to simplify the user experience process and give customers a definite set of directions without complicating their progress. You should also leverage technology to help answer questions that customers usually have but don’t ask. Make the experience easier and simpler because building self-reliant customers is the most advanced and lasting form of customer support.
Add more Efficiency
Technology enables organizations today to move towards more efficiency in their operations and processes. Technology can help companies modernize and restructure their core services for maximum output and efficiency. Technology that helps you reduce labor-intensive processes and speed up time to market should be considered. Efficiency not only helps meet customer expectations but also helps save costs and overheads for the organization in context. If you’re relying on tech for customer experience, make sure that it makes processes more efficient and improves the overall experience.
Don’t Cut the Human Connection
While technology comes with great solutions and offerings, the human connection or touch will never run out of favor or become outdated. Technology should best be used to improve customer experience and not to completely form the basis for it.
A common mistake most companies make while devising their customer experience strategy is to completely position their customer experience around the use of technology. Customers eventually judge companies solely based on their tech solutions, and do not have the time or the insight to interact with the people within that brand. Technology doesn’t form a brand. It only augments the image and brand your people have created.
Form an Emotional Connection
Lastly, when incorporating tech solutions in your customer experience setup, it is necessary that you form an emotional connection with customers. One of the most important steps when enhancing customer experience is to form a wholesome emotional attachment with customers and to make them feel just how much they matter to you. The better your emotional connection, the more satisfied users will feel.
Technology can improve your connection with customers. But the human ability to empathize with and use their imagination to connect with people is far too complex to replicate yet.
Technology is the future of customer experience and is driving customer satisfaction rates upwards, but remember the role of the human connection when integrating technology in your organization.
Course Manual 12: Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
With new technology releases almost every year, the world is now surrounded by tech solutions and convenient offerings. Every year leaders face new challenges regarding general IT management and software implementation. With new product offerings and releases each year, these challenges change every year, paving the way for new opportunities and new challenges following them. Data overload was a major problem for firms around a couple of years back but is now an opportunity for data-hungry organizations. Leaders just cannot have enough of data, as that is what drives their AI processes forward. CEOs and organizations today are more concerned with data protection than managing data load, as organizations manage and simplify privacy regulations.
General IT Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced the corporate world and economy into an unimaginable situation. However, technology trumped through the pandemic, as many organizations managed remote work and kept the cycle of progress running.
However, while the pandemic has reaffirmed our belief in technologies, it has also led to a set of new challenges, which need to be identified and worked upon to make remote work more smooth and flawless than it ever was.
Below are some of the general challenges facing IT firms and organizations with a functional IT department today and effective ways to deal with them.
New Security Threats
The emergence of remote work and new connected systems has come at the cost of security. The pandemic saw a number of headline-grabbing events, which highlighted the importance of cybersecurity in the cyber world. The lockdown and the emergence of remote work saw an increase in cyber threats around us. Critical corporate infrastructures were attacked as threat actors targeted unprotected endpoints across different networks. With the lockdown, many security professionals weren’t connected to their systems and systems were often left unprotected. This created a big hole for attackers to jump through.
AI driven ransomware attacks require a more progressive cybersecurity mechanism, which minimizes the impact o the attack and helps ensure optimal security. Organizations are having to spend more on cybersecurity than they ever have before.
Data Protection
With more regulations concerning data usage and collection methods, organizations are now incorporating data privacy and protection by design within their collection methods. GDPR measures reign supreme today, as even Google couldn’t escape the stringent eyes of French regulators and was fined for their data collection methods.
With a rampant market on the darknet for stolen customer data and financial information, businesses have had to amp up their data protection methods. The use of multiple endpoint devices and IoT connections may have made data protection more difficult, but it isn’t something businesses are willing to compromise on.
Skills Gap
With new technologies and frameworks, there is a skills gap that IT departments just cannot meet anymore. Imagine having to work on new innovations and technologies without having the right personnel in your team to manage resources and help you with the efforts.
The skills gap is more self-inflicted than enforced. Many organizations set unrealistic expectations from employees and push them out by overburdening them with excessive workloads. This needs to stop if employees are to be given room for growth and maturity. It is better to train employees on the job than to hire new recruits and train them from the start all over again. Hence, your best bet to fight the skills gap is to not let go of employees and treat them as your assets. Additionally, many IT departments are also approaching foreign markets to get a hold of freelance employees who work without any full-time commitments or complications.
Hiring people from diverse backgrounds has its own benefits as well and allows you to bring a lot more creativity to your work processes. Additionally, your IT department will be able to generate tens and hundreds of new ideas, and innovation will reign supreme.
Multi-Cloud Security
Multi-cloud security is a major concern for organizations today and something that we wish organizations would talk about when exploring new cloud-based services and choosing an ideal platform. Security across platforms is necessary today, as different endpoints are used to access the cloud model.
Multi-cloud functionally allows businesses to manage different security systems and ensure optimal compatibility between different endpoints. Additionally, cloud-agnostic security is fundamental for businesses to achieve consistency and completeness in their company-wide security setup. The more thorough multi-cloud security is, the better it is for organizations.
Focusing on Innovation
According to recent research conducted by popular data streaming and collection website Gartner, about two-thirds of all business leaders think of digital transformation as a challenge rather than an opportunity. The competitive tech business environment of today forces organizations to look at the digital transformation as something they absolutely have to do to not lose ground to competitors and other adversaries.
Most companies force the digital transformation and are never able to get the full benefit out of it. While there are certain challenges that come with digital transformation, it is important to understand that these risks eventually pay off and lead to a more fluid and flawless flow of operations.
Risks of Outsourcing
The skills gap we discussed earlier will force a number of organizations and executives to contemplate the idea of outsourcing their tech resources. As beneficial as this arrangement sounds in the short run, it is necessary to know that outsourcing comes with its own perils and challenges.
The risks of outsourcing are drastically growing with time, as businesses have no control over the operations that transpire within the company they have outsourced. When businesses outsource their work, they put the responsibility of their reputation and of their quality on other firms. Those firms may or may not live on the expectations put on them.
In addition to the obvious quality concerns, outsourcing can also open a number of security threats. Handing key personal and client data in the hands of an outsourced client does come with its security risk. If you’re thinking of outsourcing your requirements, you have to be extremely careful and ensure that the risks are minimized to a certain extent.
Rebuilding Trust after a Hack
With an increase in cybersecurity attacks, many businesses and corporations have found it hard to rebuild trust within customers and stakeholders. The period after an online hack or cyberattack is difficult for the affected organization, as they have to regroup and re-grow with time.
This does come across as a challenge for businesses today as they have to rebuild trust in customers. Trust is something that takes time to build, especially if it has been lost once.
The challenges mentioned above are some of the most common ones facing the IT department in general today. With new technologies coming out, these challenges are expected to become even more prominent and difficult to manage in the future.
Software Implementation Challenges
Besides the general challenges faced by the IT department in general, there are certain challenges that are faced by departments when implementing new software and integrating it within their organization. Software integration is a tough boat to row and comes with complex requirements. Organizations need to consider a number of factors, including understanding what the project entails, what the teams involved in the project need, and the challenges they will face during this progress.
In this section, we consider some challenges of software integration and how they can be avoided:
Misaligned Requirements
Your software integration team will include a number of internal stakeholders such as team leaders, product managers, project managers, subject matter experts and adoption experts. This team will be required to work closely with vendors, including customer managers, designers and developers.
The vendors you work with should be able to set expectations based on what they can realistically deliver. For instance, if you want the final process to be managed in a given way, but the vendor tells you at the last moment that they don’t have the right acumen or team members to do so, it will disrupt your plans. You should maintain strong communication with all internal and external stakeholders and ensure that expectations are managed in a proper manner.
Data Integrity
Managing data is a challenge. We’re all well aware of it. Your software implementation program will often require you to shift data from one system to a new one. This transition can be difficult to manage and can even harm the integrity of your data. Maintaining data integrity during this transition is a challenge and should be overseen to the best of one’s knowledge.
You need to first understand the level of interoperability between the old system and the new system and then devise a strategy for the shift. No data should be lost in the migration process and all privacy standards should be upheld.
Lack of Preparedness
A typical software integration project requires significant preparations at your end. Your team should be prepared and should be aligned on overall processes, goals and the timeline to follow for integration. Each member within the project team should be prepared to do what is required of them and should recognize the best interests of their departments and how certain processes impact their workflows.
An important task for the project team to manage here is to understand the amount of support the vendor will require during the initial implementation phase. Additionally, the project team should also work on requirements and set up new communication channels between stakeholders and vendors. Communication should be easy to manage. Lack of preparation can seriously harm your project prospects.
Besides just the general project team, your employees need to be prepared for the integration and implementation as well. Change management is a complex part of software integrations, and you should do your homework rather than leaving it for the last day. Most organizations face resistance from employees during the early pilot roll out, but don’t pay much attention to it. This can harm you in the long run. Employees need to be trained on the requirements of the new software and should be educated about the benefits that it carries. The earlier this happens, the easier it will be for you to transition to the new technology.
Lack of Vendor Support
Choosing the right vendor is an important part of the overall software integration process. You need to ensure that the vendor oversees the implementation through the same lens as you and is willing to partner with your ambitions in the project.
The on-hand expertise and the support offered by the vendor are extremely vital for successful integration, which is why project success depends on it. Establish a good relationship with your software integration vendor and work with them on areas you can to speed up the process.
Inadequate Training of Employees
As we have pointed out above, training employees should be a top priority for you when implementing and integrating new software. After all, if your employees do not know how to use the system, it will not be of much use for them or for your organization. Employees need to understand the overall value of the software and need to realize the areas they can improve for success.
The project team plays a two-fold role here. Firstly, they should communicate the values of the software to the team, and secondly, they should develop a flawless onboarding plan. The plan should include a proper pathway to bring up employees up to speed with the features and processes of the new system.
Decline in Productivity
Often, new software integrations are met with a decline in productivity. This shouldn’t put you down or concern you, for that matter. The initial decline in productivity can kill the ROI of the project if it is not addressed soon and can also kill team morale. You can work with vendors, experienced professionals and even senior team members here to strategize plans that can help boost productivity and take you past the initial hiccups.
The world of software integration and IT management comes with its own challenges and complexities. However, if managers and executives are to take their IT department into the future, they have to be competent and active in the face of these challenges. Information Technology is progressing at a rapid pace and a current state assessment of your IT department, along with new integrations, will lead you to wonders.
Workshop Exercises
Current-State Assessment Exercises
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit : Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model : Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements : Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams : Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation : Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
SWOT & MOST Analysis Exercises
01. Undertake a detailed SWOT Analysis in order to identify your department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in relation to each of the 12 Current-State Assessment processes featured above. Undertake this task together with your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
02. Develop a detailed MOST Analysis in order to establish your department’s: Mission; Objectives; Strategies and Tasks in relation to Current-State Assessment. Undertake this task together with all of your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.
Project Studies
Project Study (Part 1) – Customer Service
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 2) – E-Business
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 3) – Finance
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 4) – Globalization
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 5) – Human Resources
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 6) – Information Technology
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 7) – Legal
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 8) – Management
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 9) – Marketing
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 10) – Production
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 11) – Logistics
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Project Study (Part 12) – Education
The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Leading IT Transformation process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:
01. How to Perform an Internal IT Audit
02. Auditing Tech Controls in Support/Service Model
03. Understanding Business IT Requirements
04. Security Risk Assessment of Current and Future IT Investments
05. Conducting Performance Reviews of In-House IT Teams
06. Efficiency of Outsourcing IT Requirements
07. Assessing Current Readiness for IT Integration
08. Effectiveness of Measuring ROI for IT Innovations
09. Optimizing and Improving IT Dependency
10. Cost Analysis of IT Transformation
11. Use of Information Technology to Enhance Customer Experience
12. Current Challenges in IT Use and Implementation
Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.
Program Benefits
Information Technology
- Agile IT processes
- Improved value delivery
- Decreased defects
- Continuous improvement
- Modernized infrastructure
- Re-tooled staff
- Increased morale
- IT Business partnership
- Meaningful metrics
- Effective sourcing
Management
- Decreased costs
- Aligned strategies
- Servant leadership
- Clarified priorities
- Improved effectiveness
- Improved transparency
- Reduced risk
- Measurable results
- Satisfied customers
- Vendor partnerships
Human Resources
- Empowered teams
- Servant leaders
- Re-tooled staff
- Improved teamwork
- Enhanced collaboration
- Improved performance
- Reduced turnover
- Improved loyalty
- Leadership development
- Employee development
Client Telephone Conference (CTC)
If you have any questions or if you would like to arrange a Client Telephone Conference (CTC) to discuss this particular Unique Consulting Service Proposition (UCSP) in more detail, please CLICK HERE.