As the economy grapples with recessionary indicators, it is critical that ICT leaders understand their obligations under the King III code of conduct, irrespective of budgetary pressures that may be present. In particular, sustainable computing and its alignment with business strategy is becoming increasingly important.
ICT governance is covered in King III and a good summary of a CIO’s obligations are as follows:
- A strategic alignment with the business and collaborative solutions, including the focus on sustainability and the implementation of ‘green IT’ principles
- Value delivery: concentrating on optimising expenditure and proving the value of IT.
- Risk management: addressing the safeguarding of IT assets, disaster recovery and ensuring continuity of operations
- Resource management: optimising knowledge and IT infrastructure
It could very easily be argued that traditional “green IT” technologies and strategies such as virtualisation, storage consolidation, power management, collaborative computing, cloud and enterprise print management, the pillars of a green ICT strategy all conform to the general principles above in some form or other. Over and above this, any technologies that are geared to identify and eliminate IT waste fall squarely within the remit espoused by King.
Delivering an efficient IT service is paramount in ensuring sustainability and as governance structures and accountability filters down, CIO’s need to ensure that the correct strategies are in place to fulfill these risk and compliance requirements.
CIO’s and their delivery teams need to take cognisance of these corporate governance principles. The King III code, which became effective in March 2010, applies to all companies, private entities, public entities, private companies and all other forms of business
CIO’s that fail to comply with these corporate governance principles could find themselves out with the bathwater by failing to implement and embrace them.