Post on 06-Apr-2018
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IT Governance and theERP Process
Fred SiffVice-President & Chief Information Officer,
Professor of Information Systems
University of Cincinnati
F.H. Siff, 2005
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Assembling Packets from the
Campus Ether
Listen and hear
Develop coherenceGarbled messages
lead to failed
executive leadership
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Five Ideas
The New Kid on the Block
What is Governance and Why Is ItEssential?
Who Cares About IT in the Business?
Governance Beyond ERP Selection Some Keys to Effective Governance
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The New Kid in the Executive SuiteGetting IT Right, Harvard Business Review,
Feld & Stoddard, February 2004
Of all the members of the Executive
Committee, the CIO is the least understood
many companies just kick the kid out of
the house.
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The New Kid in the Executive SuiteManage to a mature business model,
not to the next crisis
Do (only?) what your organization can dowell
Sound resource management is essential
A cost center with a P&L statement
A mature business model mustinclude governance
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What is Governance? Who makes decisions, why, and how
Academic organizational culture largely defined
by issues of governance IT is new to the process
IT is too important to leave to IT folks
You need theirvoice
Just IT: myopic and ill-Informed
Just IT: nobody else cares
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What is Governance Why
Successful business transformation
starts with business needs and priorities
involves the business process owners in
significant ways
An antidote for anarchy?
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What is Governance Why
Practical: prioritize the deployment of limited
resources
Reflect community
Not forbuy-in
Involvement of informed users leads to better
ideas, products & decisionsBut fit the larger organizational culture
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What is Governance WhyThe business agenda defines issues
IT-Business Alignment
There are no IT projectsonly business
projects
The Next Great Thingin IT is not in IT, it is
in the business
All of this applies to the ERP Process
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Who Cares About IT in the Business? Everyone.
Im IT. Youre IT.
A Higher Ed institution is not Wal-Mart Credibility is the key to organizational
involvement
...Deliver Deliver Deliver
Committees recommend
Officers and administrators make decisions
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Governance and the ERP Process Make the business case, not the IT case
Build the system for a client
Not the power users, but all users
IT may be the architect/construction engineer,
but the client is the owner/occupant.
Identify & empower an appropriate sponsor
to whom IT is secondary, even subservient a
business partner
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Governance and the ERP ProcessWhat are the key decisions?
Need, sponsors, resources
Specs and selection
Blueprint/design and realization
Not hardly
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Governance beyond ERP SelectionAt UC, we have a Core Systems Matrix,
Allocated funds, core systems by year, projected to
10 yearsManaged by the Institutional Management
Committee, within the overall governance
structure
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Some Keys to Effective Governance
Vision = Execution
Deliver Deliver Deliver
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Some Keys to Effective Governance
Involve the right people matched tothe right issues
Executive involvement critical
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Simplified UC IT Governance
Structure (February 2004)
InfrastructureInfrastructure
TechnologyTechnology
PlanningPlanning
CommitteeCommittee
InstitutionalInstitutional
ManagementManagement
PlanningPlanning
CommitteeCommittee
AcademicAcademic
TecTechnolhnologyogy
PlanningPlanning
CommitteeCommittee
--ECAR Case Study 4, 2004, Using an IT Governance Structure to Achieve Alignment at the University of Cincinnati.
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Some Keys to Effective Governance
Involve the right people matched to theright issues
Executive involvement critical
Thought leaders
Strong recommendations -- empower
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Some Keys to Effective Governance
Involve the community
Using an IT Governance Structure to
Achieve Alignment at the University ofCincinnati, ECAR Case Study 4, 2004
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Conclusion
The IT Governance
structure is one
mechanism for re-assembling the
packets and
enabling the
executive function of
IT to be conducted.
The ERP decision
(which really isnt) isjust one issue to be
treated within the IT
Governance
structure.