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4 Enterprise Data Governance

is a real story taken from a conversation with the head of IT
systems of a large industrial company. This CIO was
explaining to me that his IT systems were performing well,
all the production KPIs were good, with a good capacity to
respond to the needs of the business thanks to centralized
operations and fixed price outsourcing, based on certified
quality procedures. The contribution of IT to the quality of
the system was a sure thing in the mind of this CIO, who
was convinced of its success. Very impressed by this
viewpoint, I wanted to find out more:

“How can you measure this contribution?”, I asked.

“I put an IT management control system in place that
measures the global costs for each project. At the start of the
project we sign a contract with our users that covers the
commitments in terms of planning and return on
investment”, answered the CIO.

“You are the director of IS and IT systems. Do you not
find it odd that your management control, i.e. your P&L
(Profit and Loss) does not correspond with your function?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, surprised.

“Instead of only having an IT management control, you
should have an IS management control, in agreement with
your role as head of IS and IT systems. If you measured the
costs, the planning, and the rate of IT return you would not
be as convinced as to your contribution to the IS and IT
system. Truth be told, you have no indicators to prove this.”

“I don’t understand? What should I be measuring?”

“Your assets! What are they?”, I insisted.

“We have computer hardware, software licenses,
subcontracts and operating contracts. We already take those
into account in our management control.”