Strategic IT Transformation at Accenture Reflection

Reflection:

Memo

Dear Mr. Andersen,

After having the meeting with consultants from Cosulcube LLC regarding whether Accenture should acquire new IT Governance system through COBIT 5 or maintain its current IT governance system, my vision regarding COBIT 5 has further clarified.  Before attending this meeting I believed that our current IT governance system is sufficient and we should keep it as it is. But I was overwhelmed by the comprehensive but complicated framework that COBIT 5 offers to assist our firm in achieving its objectives.

While clarifying the five principles of COBIT 5 namely; 1) Meeting Stakeholders’ needs, 2) Covering the enterprise end to end, 3) Applying the single integrated framework, 4) Enabling holistic approach and 5) Separating Governance from Management, the consultants pointed out that we have already adopted four of these principles with our current IT governance system. Similar to COBIT 5, our current system is based on principles such as streamlining business goals with IT goals, building an IT strategic plan, Analyzing programmed portfolio and managing project and building IT tactical plans. It may be unnecessary to introduce COBIT 5 since there are not many differences between the two frameworks.

Consultants explained what consequences we can face if we adopt COBIT 5. They mentioned COBIT 5 will increase expenditure in terms of training and material costs and consultant fees. It may also cause loss of productivity and employee dissatisfaction while the COBIT 5 framework is applied.

One of the factors we discussed during the meeting was that none of our competitors such as IBM and HP Enterprise Services have utilized COBIT 5 for their IT governance yet so we cannot realize the real benefits of accredited COBIT 5 framework as our current system of Accenture is built in-house and is not accredited.

After analyzing the aforementioned and factors contributing to decision criteria such as meet regulatory compliance, cost efficiency, effective risk management, business process management, readiness for immediate use and control flexibility, I suggest that we should keep the current IT governance system as it consists of steering committees, project sponsors and ROI analysis and auditing process. The current system is very cost effective and has reduced overall IT costs significantly. This system is specifically designed for Accenture and all of the employees are efficiently using this system and overall company’s productivity and revenue has increased.

With best regards,  

Frank Modruson

Chief Information Officer