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necessary to produce or improve such information.
Consider a risk-and-performance approach founded upon
two complementary concepts: information demand and
information supply.
Information Demand – There is a demand for information
to support decision-making from all of an organization’s
stakeholders: customers, executives, employees, partners,
vendors, and others. Businesses need a framework with
templates to understand and document this demand.
Information Supply – Information is provided to satisfy
demand through an organization’s information supply chains,
which are composed of information technology, systems,
and services linked together to store, transform, and deliver
information when needed.
Organizations can analyze their ISC effectiveness and risks so
they can prioritize IT investments. Decision-makers’ demand
for information is virtually insatiable. Documenting the
factors that define the business value of decision-making
information is central to effective management of IT.
Financial professionals need to work more closely with IT
leadership to improve the enterprise governance of IT and to
maximize the business value from IT. To achieve this, financial
professionals should consider established frameworks, such
as Val IT, to provide a comprehensive guide to establishing
or improving three critical IT decision-making functions:
value governance, portfolio management, and investment
management.
In addition, it is critical to integrate the framework with
enterprise risk management by using an integrated risk and
performance management approach that provides a sharper,
more forward-looking understanding of risks and benefits.
John Alarcon, CPA, CITP, CTP, is vice president, finance, at ISGN in Bensalem and a member of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal Editorial Board. He can
be reached at john.alarcon@isgn.com. Jack Musgrove, CMC, CGEIT, is vice president, IT governance and professional services, at Aline GRC Software
Solutions in King of Prussia. He can be reached at jmusgrove@AlineGRC.com.
Reprinted with permission from The Pennsylvania CPA Journal, a publication of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
