There was a time when organizations were able to informally but efficiently align IT with their business’s needs, opportunities and strategies on an incremental basis to deal with specific issues. Today, however, with frequent and constant advances in technology, the incredible growth of the web, and applications that have become increasingly challenging to manage, the complexity and urgency of deploying the right technology tools to the right people at the right time has never been so high.
The coordination of business process throughout the entire organization is a critical success factor for competitive success, which has made developing a complete and intelligible IT strategy more complex, riskier and more crucial. Before an organization can structure a roadmap to their desired future state, it is important to comprehend exactly where the organization’s current IT and business states are at.
What Results Can Be Expected from Performing an IT Assessment?
The key result of any successful IT Assessment is the alignment of all the business stakeholders with the overall direction of IT – based on a transparent process that values input and ideas from all parties.
Specific suggestions may include initiatives such as:
Enhancements to key IT processes;
Implementation of new IT metrics, service level agreements and performance reports;
Development or updates to IT plans;
Changes to IT governance structures (e.g. improved prioritization processes and decision making);
Enhanced/improved technical architectures, and
New or revised sourcing arrangements.
Implementation of recommendations resulting from an IT assessment may lead to the realization of such benefits as:
Improved IT performance;
Improved business performance;
Decreased operational risks;
Better control of the IT organization, processes and infrastructure;
Successful projects on time and on budget;
Decreased cost exposure from overruns;
Enhanced competitive position;
Internal control over financial reporting;
Improved security and
Improved IT governance.
Conducting an IT assessment is particularly important when there has been a change in senior management, a change in business direction, or when the marketplace commands that new ways of doing business are required. The IT assessment will help your organization explore new ways of improving its return on IT investments and enabling improved business performance.
Because of the substantial benefits of an IT assessment, companies are taking time to assess their IT environment to determine whether their platform supports today’s business and more importantly if their business can grow with the application, database and infrastructure that is presently in place.
The Litcom Approach
Discovering potential issues and risks before they can cause a project to fail or be delayed—is the driving force behind an IT assessment. Our IT assessment not only plays an integral role in providing a snapshot of your company’s technology capability; it also provides your organization perspective on the effectiveness of its systems, staff, budget, vendors, procedures and company policies. At Litcom, we recognize that maximizing your technology investment and efficiently supporting the business is the path to competitive advantage. We can help you improve technology ROI and align IT investments with your overall business strategy.
Litcom’s IT assessment service will help your organization improve technology ROI and align IT investments with your overall business strategy. Our assessment will help you better understand and take action to:
- Ensure effective leadership, management and governance of the IT function;
- Reduce IT risks and exposures;
- Control costs and decrease project and other investment overruns;
- Improve security and disaster recovery processes; and
- Build improved capability to successfully deliver projects on time and on budget.