Introduction

Adopting a comprehensive approach to managing technology assets and resources has never been more important. However, using disparate IT related information that spans across the enterprise and converting it into useful and meaningful information may not be an easy task by any means. Furthermore, in order to align the technology with business needs, IT departments need to have more commercial awareness in addition to their core technological skill set.

Key findings

• Current practice – According to research conducted by Lepus the dashboard is also used to escalate issues up the hierarchical chain, and is used by various stakeholders, i.e. departmental heads, senior management as well as the IT risk group.
• Technology – Banks have to continuously consider the buy versus build paradigm across their many business lines and functions, however, as far as the CIO Dashboard and toolset is concerned the latter seems to be the trend at the five banks that Lepus consulted for the purposes of this study.
• Organisation – Research has also found that in addition to a more consistent view, the reporting framework has been enhanced. The dashboard makes it easier to report to senior management and allows decisions to be made on the basis of more robust and readily available information.
• Future outlook – As far as future plans and initiatives for the CIO Dashboard are concerned, there was a split between the banks spoken to. Three of the banks are not looking to do anything drastic with their dashboard in the imminent future. However, one top tier European bank mentioned their aspiration towards a more integrated and holistic approach.

Conclusion

The majority of banks spoken to, do not have one specific tool in place that they call their CIO Dashboard. As far as the build versus buy model is concerned, all of the banks spoken to have taken matters into their own hands, relying on internal resources to develop and implement their tools and processes. Some of the main reasons for this were identified to be cost savings as well as flexibility. The CIO Dashboard leads to greater visibility, transparency, assisting and facilitating engagement with the key stakeholders in the organisation.

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Tagged with: 2009, CIO, technology, Technology Research Report