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Today many financial institutions are experiencing transition and change.  This may be related to growth, mergers and acquisitions, or the introduction of new products and services.  In this environment the business can significantly benefit from the true application of Information Technology.  Unfortunately, many IT organizations are not adequately prepared to understand and meet the demands of the business due to their focus primarily on technology issues.

If this is the case with your organization, it may be time to step back and assess what IT is doing and what you want IT to do.  An assessment will allow you to develop an understanding of how IT contributes to the business goals and determine how your business can maximize the value of IT in the achievement of those goals.

To perform an in-depth assessment of your IT group you will need to gather information from a number of areas that are not directly associated with IT as well as looking at all the areas that IT touches.  The assessment should begin by looking at your current business objectives.  Without a solid understanding of your business strategy, it is difficult to assess how well IT is contributing to those objectives.

Business objectives

These are the kinds of questions that you should answer to lay the foundation for understanding IT's role.

   1. What are your business strategy goals and objectives for the next 1 year? 3 years? 5 years?
   2. What are your biggest business challenges?
   3. What are your products and markets served?
   4. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
   5. Who are your customers?

Information Technology objectives

Once you have documented the current business strategy and environment you can then begin to gather information about how IT is contributing to those goals

Start with finding out from IT management the following:

   1. What are your IT goals and objectives for the next 1 year? For 3 years? For 5 years?
   2. What is on the list of current projects?
   3. How are projects going?
      a. Are they on time and budget?
      b. Do they have a clearly defined relationship to the business goals?
      c.  Does the management team get regular reports on project progress?
   4. What are your challenges in managing IT?
   5. Is IT organized to provide information or technology?
   6. Where are the bulk of IT resources being allocated (i.e. business value projects or technology support projects)

The IT Management team may find some of these questions somewhat uncomfortable, but it will help them understand how their organization fits into the overall business success plan.

IT governance process

One of the keys to utilizing technology effectively is controlling the allocation of technology.  That is done through an effective IT governance process.  You should examine your organization's process for allocating and approving resources for IT-related projects.

   1. What is the current process for governance of IT?
   2. Is there an effective IT advisory committee?
   3. Is there a project proposal and selection process?
   4. What factors are used to select projects for funding?
   5. Are there project management standards?
   6. Are projects managed well? On time? Within budget?

If you don’t have a well-defined and effective IT governance process, you’re letting the whims of department managers dictate what projects are given the green-light, whether they are strategically important or not.

IT applications

Looking at the applications that your organization is currently using will provide some insight into how the business is functioning.

   1. What are your major enterprise applications?
   2. How well are they working for the business?
   3. What are the challenges? Areas of shortcomings?
   4. How is executive information presented (e.g. reports, dashboards, etc)?
   5. Are there any business critical departmental applications and how are they supported?

If your current applications are not meeting your current business needs, that may be a clue as to why IT is not performing to your expectations.  If you can’t get the information that you need to make rational decisions you are flying by the seat of your pants and eventually you’ll crash.

IT policies and procedures

The policies and procedures that IT uses to run itself are crucial.  These policies inform the IT staff on the proper way to respond to daily crises and requests for service.

   1. What IT-related policies are in place (e.g. acceptable use, security, privacy, etc.)?
   2. How well are the policies enforced? Are there many requests for exceptions?
   3. Do you have any standard documented procedures for any IT-related tasks such as PC and server installation, virus outbreaks, etc.?
   4. Have the policies been updated recently?

If there are few policies or they are not enforced, you will have a serious risk of poor resource usage, not to mention the potential damage that might come from inappropriate or unauthorized system use.

IT performance and operational metrics

In order to ensure that you are getting the most value from the dollars that you spend on IT, you need to know what they are doing.  Setting metrics and holding IT accountable to meet those metrics will give you an objective standard to measure against.

   1. How is IT performance measured?
   2. Are there established service level agreements (SLAs)?
         1. What are the items measured in the SLA’s?
         2. How often are they reported to management?
         3. Is IT measuring up to the SLA’s?
   3. Are there tools for gathering availability and performance data for IT systems?

If you don’t have metrics, you can’t tell whether you’re getting better or worse.

There are many other areas that you should review when assessing your IT organization, but if you can comfortably document these areas, then you will have taken the first long steps toward focusing IT on providing business value and not just keeping the lights on.