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The adoption of IT governance by Maitland plays a vital role in ensuring that its business and ICT goals complement each other thus leading to the achievement of business value. High business values that Maitland has attained since it adopted COBIT in 2004 have been through aligning the framework of IT governance with best practices. Such practices and frameworks are composed of a variety of tested structures, processes and associated mechanisms. Today, its key practices in IT governance encompasses IT strategy committee, standard IT balanced scorecard and risk management (ISACA, par 3). Businesses are normally governed by accepted best practices whose assurance is derived from specified controls. These practices have provided Maitland with direction on the use of available resources in performing certain activities.

Maitland is an international firm which is privately owned (Hyslop 10). Since its inception, it has continued to serve its private and international clients with wealth services. Besides, the enterprise has successfully been able to manage the wealth of its clients, create and preserve commercial success of its clients using responsive and proactive approaches. Its governance has been a major application and the results of its activities have been measured and reports obtained used to provide vital input in the modification and maintenance of controls (Hyslop 10). Measurement of IT in organisations involves the use of numerous models which depend on size and structure of organisations and the resources available (Fichman and Rosenbaum 219).  Maitland IT governance is tailored along best practices which focus on ensuring the organisation’s information and associated technology support the business objectives, business value is delivered, risks are properly managed and that performance is measured adequately.

Strength and weaknesses of Maitland IT governance

One of the strengths of Maitland IT governance through use of COBIT is the improvement in value that the framework brings to the organization. A Cobit framework comprises of important business values which include corporate risk reduction, excellent accountability, and compliance increment (Wernham 87). This has proved to be a useful tool in establishing a baseline regarding process maturity. However, the application of Cobit by Maitland has several weaknesses. One of the main weaknesses of its COBIT framework includes its inadequacy in establishing responsibilities and procedural alignment with its business strategy. Incongruence has also been found to exist within Cobit, where objectives are not being adequately mapped to the business process areas, as well as not aligned with the business requirements. Consequently, Cobit does not provide an option for partial implementation, as well as not assisting efficient data collection.

Cobit as an IT governance framework has also been effective in bridging the gap between Maitland business risks, control requirements and technical controls (ISACA par. 3).  The Cobit framework equips the Maitland management with a supportive toolset that enables them to mitigate weaknesses associated with its business processes to reduce the overall cost of running its functions. It enables the development of clear policy and best practices for IT controls throughout the entire organisation.

Maitland Cobit framework comprises guidelines focused on providing assistance to organisations on ways of increasing and realising business value associated with IT (Hyslop 10). With regards to its origin which involved improving auditing in organisations, its use in Maitland provides a platform for internal IT control, performance measurement guarantee, risk management and value creation. It is therefore considered a de facto standard on matters concerning finance in the organisations. Therefore, Cobit forms the best option due to its comprehensive and detailed guideline concerning the financial control and generating the necessary remedies in bridging possible gaps for higher profitability (IT Governance Institute 16).

Needed improvement
The provision of holistic business processes is not a functional part of the COBIT framework found in Maitland. However such a weakness can be eliminated by implementation of a Balanced Scorecard Framework (BSC). This framework will make Mitland’s functional areas and business units to drive strategies on basis of goal definitions, performance measurement and business financial targets. BSC will enable Maitland to focus on the entire business rather than on specific areas which are considered critical to the business. Considering all the processes ensures overall improvement in the entire operations and activities of the enterprise.

Importantly, like the Cobit framework, BSC framework with its principles, can fill financial gaps that enable an organisation to focus on extended factors with greater emphasis on financial control, productivity and profitability. The book COBIT Quickstart, 2nd Edition indicates that by viewing all aspects of the business enterprises, it is easy to generate the correct cost benefit analysis that determine the most effective method of meeting the highest target with minimal costs (IT Governance Institute 16). BSC framework comprises of guidelines which ensure integration of IT into the business processes when tweaked. The framework provides a tool to the management that enables them to view the entire business operations in a holistic manner rather than focus on specific areas within the organisation. Besides, it provides organisations which a comprehensive and more detailed perception regarding the enterprise thus paving the way for organisations to put in place measures that provide long term benefits.

Finally, the application of both frameworks can increase the probability of attaining the organisation’s strategic and operational objectives. If the achievement of set objectives is not gained in spite of having rigid internal controls then there may be some other factors outside the organisation, such as competition or technological innovation. These factors are outside the scope of internal control; therefore, effective internal controls can only provide the feedback on progress towards the achievement of operational and strategic objectives, but cannot guarantee their achievement.

Works Cited

Hyslop, Maitland. Obstructive Marketing: restricting distribution of products and services in the    age of assymetric warfare. Burlingtin, VT:Gower.2014. Print.
Fichman, Pnina and Howard Rosenbaum. Social informatics: past, present and future. Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholar Publishing. 2014. Print.
ISACA. COBIT 5: A business framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT.  Rolling Meadows, IL: IT Governance Institute. 2007. Print.
ISACA. Developing a governance framework for the global support organization at GlaxoSmithKline, using COBIT. 2015 Retrieved from
http://www.isaca.org/Knowledge-Center/cobit/Pages/COBIT-Case-Study-Developing-a-Governance-Framework-for-the-Global-Support-Organisation-at-GlaxoSmithKline-Using-COBIT.aspx.
IT Governance Institute. COBIT Quickstart, 2nd Edition. Rolling Meadows, IL: IT Governance   Institute. 2007. Print.
Wernham, Brian. Agile project management for government. West Hampstead, London:    Maitland & Strong. 2012.Print.

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