Ict governance

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1. ICT Governance Name Name of Institution March 11 TH , 2016

2. 1.0 ICT GOVERNANCE The ability to direct and control the firm or organization’s use of Information Technology resources in line with its strategic goals. ICT governance also address the description and implementation of structures, processes, and relational mechanisms in a firm in order to enable both business and IT professionals execute their function in support to business-IT alignment and in the creation of business value within all IT enabled business investments.

3. ICT Governance

4. ICT Governance With relevance to the above diagram, it is clear that ICT governance acts as the center pillar to standardizing business process and operations such that they all align to the internal and external business regulation regulations and standards. ICT governance; Manage performance and creating value Specifying the decision rights and an accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in the use of IT

5. Compliance Officers They promote ethical conduct and compliance with regulations, rules, and standard processes that govern how technology-based services organizations should conduct business They provide real time monitoring and correction of employee conduct and operations. Within an organization, compliance officers are specific to a unit of operations such as the ICT department.

6. Compliance Officers: Roles and Responsibilities Compliance officers ensure there is an utmost focus on value creation efforts and to better manage the performance of those responsible for creating this value in the best interest of all stakeholders. They have to ensure that business is conducted with full compliance to the national and international laws and regulations within a specified industry or unit of operations. All professional standards, internal standards, and the accepted business practices must be followed.

7. Compliance Officers: Roles and Responsibilities The responsibilities of a compliance officer can be defined within two levels of operation: Level 1: Compliance with the external rules that are imposed upon an organization as a whole Level 2: Compliance with internal systems of control that are imposed to achieve compliance with the externally imposed rules.

8. ICT Compliance Officers: Roles and Responsibilities Within these different levels of operations, the ICT compliance officers are expected to effect the following within the ICT department: Monitor adherence to policies and report on compliance activities Work with the business to remediate incidents of non - compliance Maintain regulatory awareness Develop policy to support compliance

9. ICT Governance and Compliance Officers When ICT governance is assigned with a mandated officer, this person is referred to as the ICT compliance officer. Within his clearance level, the ICT compliance office gains some operations powers which include: Inspection Investigation powers Surveillance powers The imposition of corrective or remedial action The imposition of penalties These powers cut across all organizational processes that use and comprise information technology.

10. ICT Governance and Compliance Officers Therefore, the ICT compliance office is always on the look for risks to all IT-based operations in order to impose the appropriate mitigation strategies. The officers always match and contrast the following operations’ factors whenever searching for risks: The nature of the operation The diversity of its operations The complexity of its business The scale of its business The volume of transactions The size of the transactions

11. Value Creation by Compliance Officers The roles and responsibilities of ICT compliance officers define their absolute efforts in creating value within the organization. The diagram below define the absolute position of an ICT compliance office within the corporate governance structure.

12. Value Creation by Compliance Officers

13. Value Creation by Compliance Officers Second to the corporate managers, the ICT compliance officers are responsible in supervising the efficiency in all IT-based organizational processes. Therefore, any task completed by an ICT compliance equals to added value to the overall operations of the organization. These value creation practices include but not limited to: Reporting institutional compliance with external business standards. Ensuring both internal and external business standards are effectively implemented. Timely reporting on risk assessment and risk mitigation measures. Ensuring organizational awareness to both internal and external business standards. Maintaining a hierarchical and confidential flow of information within the organization.

14. Value Creation by Compliance Officers For this reason, the ICT compliance officers should bear the following skills: Ability to conduct governance, risk and compliance sessions Excellent written and verbal communications skills. Ability to feedback on governance, risk and compliance issues in a structured manner Demonstrated initiative and commitment for results and the ability to set priorities and manage multiple initiatives. Ability to adjust to changing priorities while multitasking effectively. Time Management Solid work ethic with attention to detail

15. Monitoring and Measuring Value Creation The corporate managers or corporate governors are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of ICT compliance officers in affecting their roles within the organization. All the value creation practices assigned to the compliance officers are superseded by the managers and implemented by the compliance officers. Similarly, all milestones made in value creation are reported and approved by the managers.

16. Monitoring and Measuring Value Creation Measuring the ability of ICT compliance officers to affect value creation by other corporate employees is based on the ability of these officers to efficiently complete their tasks. These include: To maintain a low probability of insolvency. To maintain a low probability to any consequential loss to an organization's ultimate customers To ensure the resolution of the position of any organization whose viability is impaired, while protecting the interests of their customers to the maximum possible extent.

17. Reference List Burton, P., Wu, Y., & Prybutok, V. (2010). Social network position and its relationship to performance of IT professionals. IEEE Computer Society, 7 , 121-137. Dillardm, J. (2015). The data analysis process: 5 steps towards better decision making. The big sky associates, 2 (1), 1-18. Henderson, K. J. (2012, April 30). Small Businesses: the Disadvantages of Information Technology in Business . Retrieved March 11, 2016, from Demand Media: smallbusiness.chron.com /…advantages-information ...

18. 2.0 COMMUNICATION IN ICT GOVERNANCE Strategic communications planning refers to the process of driving alignment between the communications function and the organization’s core objectives. The core relevance of the communications function is to contribute to the organization’s strategic value. Therefore, effective communication strategy planning also lie as function of ICT compliance officers.

19. Stakeholder groups in Organizational Communication The compliance officers need to adequately learn and understand their audience if at all the communication strategies are to work effectively. Any group influential individuals to the organizational matrix is considered as stakeholders. Whenever possible, the stakeholders should be involved in the planning process.

20. Stakeholder groups in Organizational Communication To better review and understand the strategic position and influence of each of the corporate stakeholders, they are categorized into the following groups: Political stakeholders. Economic Stakeholders. Social stakeholders.

21. Stakeholder groups in Organizational Communication d The stakeholder groups can be divided into:

22. Principles of Effective Communication Planning The communications strategy is basically the heart of strategic communications planning. This implies that the ICT officers will require sound guidelines to guide them while developing effective communications strategies. Below are the major governing principle in developing sound communications strategies:

23. Principles of Effective Communication Planning Communications should be designed to deliver a measurable result. Effective communications does not happen by accident but by planning. Communications should be focused on results rather than on activity. Communications is a support function and thus must support and propel organizational objectives and mandate. Communications should be planned from inside out.

24. ICT Compliance in Effecting the Communications Strategy ICT compliance officers are tool to effecting value creation in the best interest of all stakeholders. This makes creating and overseeing effective communications strategies their primary concerns. Below are some of the best practices that ICT compliance officers may engage in to ensure that the communications strategies are on point to organizational value creation:

25. ICT Compliance in Effecting the Communications Strategy Set clear and measurable objectives. Initiate and drive alignment. Set oneself up for success. Focus on the audience. View messaging as the core product. Design and implement the tactical mix strategy. Measure, refine, and report on the effectiveness of the various communications strategies.

26. Steps in Effective Communications Planning Based on the above principles, the figure on the side can summarized the primary steps involved in developing effective communications strategies (Henderson, 2012).

27. Messaging in Communications Planning Fundamentally, communication is all about bringing the organizational message to life. Compliance officers should invest more time in crafting a powerful message architecture. The message should be deliberately crafted through audience-centric approaches with an outside-in thinking structure. Therefore, the officers must clearly know and understand their audience or the stakeholders.

28. Key Communication Messages to Address Key messages include what the stakeholders should know and understand about the organization. Identifying and clearly defining the key messages help avoid confusion within stakeholders in understanding the organization. Key Messages should be repeated in all organizational communications and to all stakeholders.

29. Key Communication Messages to Address Given the above requirements, the key messages should be: Flexible. Such that they are easy to adapt in a campaign situation. Persistent but respectful. Clear and concise. They should be sent out along with clearly written executive summaries and factsheets.

30. How to Message the Stakeholders Given the diversity in stakeholders base, the compliance officers need to select the most appropriate communications strategy. The strategy should be comprehensive enough. It should feature a diversity of audience-appropriate programs and resources. Below include some of the models that can be used on a real-life situation to achieve the highest stakeholder coverage during organizational communication:

31. How to Message the Stakeholders Leverage the media to provide editorial coverage of the issue and the ongoing programs Outreach to grassroots organizations and nonprofit groups with a vested interest in OST programs Use key influencers to help deliver the messages, through community forums, media opportunities and organized events Create direct mail pieces that can be distributed to your target audiences Leverage the internet for outreach to and education of your audiences Use local businesses that reach the community to help deliver messages

32. Conclusion Organizational communication is a very crucial element in ICT governance . Communications planning should be done to effect successful ICT governance. The communications strategy is basically the heart of strategic communications planning. The compliance officers need to adequately learn and understand their audience if at all the communication strategies are to work effectively.

33. Reference List Carillo, J. (2013) “IT Policy Framework based on COBIT 5”, Governance and Management of Enterprise IT, ISACA Journal p.24. Dillardm, J. (2015). The data analysis process: 5 steps towards better decision making. The big sky associates, 2 (1), 1-18. Lallana , E. (2010), ICT for Development policy, process and governance, Briefing Note 2, United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for ICT for Development, January 2010. Miller, K. (. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Process (Sixth edition ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Wadsworth.