This pocket guide provides you with an insider's detailed description of Accenture's IT governance policy and details its governance structure. It will show how effective IT governance links IT strategy and IT decisions to Accenture's business strategy and business priorities.

Following the best practices approach set out in this pocket guide will serve as an excellent starting point for any organisation with ambitions to achieve high performance.

Benefits to business include:

•Boost productivity
How hard do you work in other areas of your business to cut costs and improve efficiency? In testing economic times, is the absence of a clear strategy for your business's IT governance still a realistic option? Learning from Accenture's proven approach will enable you to increase your organisation's competitiveness over the longer term.


•Coordinate your operations
To ensure effective decision-making and align your IT function with your broader business goals, you need to make the structure of your IT governance fit your overall corporate governance structure. That way, you can make your IT work for your business.


•Manage change effectively
IT is crucial for realising the changes you want your business to make. For this reason, you cannot afford to have these changes treated merely as IT projects that have been foisted on the company by the IT department. By bringing top management on board, and giving business leaders a formal role in the IT governance of your organisation, you will make the success of any project with an IT component much more likely.


•Keep a grip on budgets
The costs of IT projects are notoriously prone to overrun, while some IT development programmes have promised more than they ever delivered. The Accenture way of doing business is different. Following the Accenture approach means ensuring that your IT investment is backed by a solid business case, and measuring the return on investment following project completion.
High performance

Chief executives now put high performance IT among their top strategic objectives. So, if you are looking to improve IT governance in your own organisation, finding out what Robert E. Kress has to say is as good a starting point as any.

This book will show you his company's best practice approach to the subject. Whatever business you are in, there is nearly always a clear link between the performance of your IT function and your company's overall results.



The bottom line

Robert E. Kress, the writer of this pocket guide, is someone who gets things done. As Executive Director of Business Operations for Accenture's IT organisation, he manages a $700 million IT operation for a company with employees in 52 countries. IT is critical to Accenture's success as a management consultancy and technology services provider. IT governance matters to the bottom line, so Accenture insists on clear accountability for IT decisions and delivery. The capacity of Accenture's IT function to stay focussed on the needs of the business is one reason why Accenture has succeeded in doubling its revenue and racking up profits. Between 2001 and 2009, Accenture's operating profits nearly trebled to reach $2.6 billion.