ADS Advisors - Services

ADS Advisors

Assessoria em Gestão de TI

Services

reating an effective Information Technology area

Usually, the small and mid sized companies do not have an IT budget that can afford hiring a high level IT executive as a full time employee, who would be able to stablish governance processes to make sure:

the IT investments are perfectly aligned with business strategy,
the IT initiatives are bringing real value to the business
they are constantly monitored and measured to assure the expected benefits will be achieved.

We can provide experienced IT executives to help your company in the professional management of the IT function acting as IT advisors and Interim Managers at an accessible cost.

Our services are focused on the improvement of the Information Technology management processes in our clients. We can work in many ways:

1- Interim Management

We can work on a project basis for the improvement/revitalization of IT management processes, managing the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning applications.

We can act as Interim CIO's/Directors/Managers working part-time in your company. They will be advisors and consultants working on the improvement of the IT management processes with focus on the key elements for IT Governance. They will also help the client on the IT decisions.

The presence of our executive in the client can vary from a day per month up to 5 days per week, for a pre-determined period or renewed in a year basis, depending on the maturity level of the client's IT Organization and governance processes and the volume of the IT initiatives in place which will require more attention.

2 - IT Governance Processes Implementation

Value, risk and control are in the center of an IT Organization. The assurance that the IT investments will bring real value to the business, managing the inherent risks associated to the implementation of technology based solutions, and the increasing needs for control, coming from regulations requirements, are the key elements of an effective governance.

A ADS Advisors can help your company in the implementation of an IT Governance much more effective, where the role of IT is clearly understood in all levels of the organization.

IT Governance processes effectively implemented are fundamental for the optimization of IT investments.

IT Governance Focus Areas

• Strategic alignment focuses on ensuring the linkage of business and IT plans; defining, maintaining and validating the IT value proposition; and aligning IT operations with enterprise operations.

• Value delivery is about executing the value proposition throughout the delivery cycle, ensuring that IT delivers the promised benefits against the strategy, concentrating on optimising costs and proving the intrinsic value of IT.

• Resource management is about the optimal investment in, and the proper management of, critical IT resources: applications, information, infrastructure and people. Key issues relate to the optimisation of knowledge and infrastructure.

• Risk management requires risk awareness by senior corporate officers, a clear understanding of the enterprise’s appetite for risk, understanding of compliance requirements, transparency aboutthe significant risks to the enterprise and embedding of risk management responsibilities into the organization.

• Performance measurement tracks and monitors strategy implementation, project completion, resource usage, process performance and service delivery, using, for example, balancedscorecards that translate strategy into action to achieve goals measurable beyond conventional accounting.

3 - Mapping and Assesment of the Current Governance Processes

We can interview the executive leadership and the operational areas and develop a mapping of the way the company's IT area is being managed, evaluating the maturity level of the governance processes. We can identify the management problems that commonly exist in many organizations where the IT Governance Processes are not effective. We can define a roadmap for improvement.

The typical problems we find are:

• Failed IT initiatives

• Rising costs

• Perception of low business value for IT investments

• Significant incidents related to IT risk(e.g., data loss)

• Service delivery problems

• Failure to meet regulatory or contractual requirements

• Audit findings for poor IT performance or low service levels

• Hidden and/or rogue IT spending

• Resource waste through duplication or overlap in IT initiatives

• Insufficient IT resources

• IT staff burnout/ dissatisfaction