ICT governance

By Infoxchange Australia

Introduction
The governing body of any community sector organisation (CSO) has always maintained strategic control of the direction of the organisation and fulfilment of its mission and its legal, financial and accounting obligations.
The technological revolution of the last twenty years has been so profound, however, that it has changed the very nature of every organisation that has adopted its benefits. As a consequence, ICT management has now also become a matter of strategic importance to every governing body and organisation leader or CEO.
Governing body and organisation leader or CEO oversight of ICT management in CSOs must now rank as a fundamental strategic responsibility. ICT governance has become as important for the effectiveness of the organisation as responsibility for the skills and performance of staff and for issues like legal, financial and accounting performance. Without an effective ICT governance strategy, organisations will struggle to maintain effectiveness or efficiency.
Governance will need to become familiar with the level of information communication technology (ICT) use in the organisation, its impact on the effectiveness of service provision and the importance of establishing and maintaining ICT monitoring and development programs so that the organisation remains at the forefront of service delivery.

Digital proficiency
CSO governing bodies should appreciate that, despite ICT making up only a small portion of the overall organisation budget, it has a profound influence. Considering current budget constraints, the increasing role ICT has in running and delivering the service and the nature of digital proficiency as a process rather than an outcome, the establishment of a governing body level ICT strategy will provide dividends far in excess of the budgetary costs and will enable a more responsive and effective organisation more readily than could be achieved by any comparable action.
Digital proficiency is central to the function of all organisations today whether they be for profit or not for profit. If CSOs are to develop their efficiency and effectiveness and make their necessary contribution to the increase in productivity so essential for the future welfare of the nation they must become digitally proficient. For these reasons, ICT governance must also become an integral part of community organisation governance.
The aim of digital proficiency is to:

aid in aligning ICT with the organisational goals and strategy
raise the profile of ICT
aid in compliance
help deliver strategic goals using ICT
aid in project and portfolio management
reduce organisational risk
aid in ICT strategic planning
aid in performance measurement
aid in embedding ICT into the organisation's culture
aid in demand management (demand for ICT services across the organisation)
optimise ICT operations
increase organisational visibility.

Small to medium-sized CSOs in particular could consider using external expertise to help develop their ICT governance strategy to ensure that they are able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

"IT governance is the term used to describe how those persons entrusted with governance of an entity will consider IT in their supervision, monitoring, control and direction of the entity. How IT is applied within the entity will have an immense impact on whether the entity will attain its vision, mission or strategic goals." - Robert S. Roussey, CPA, Professor, University of Southern California