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Policies are often ineffective, often not understood, poorly managed, and represent more of a token gesture than a comprehensive and sustainable approach to risk management. Why are they so important? Policies not only serve as legal documents that protect the enterprise from liability, but they have also been used in court against the company if written, but not communicated or enforced equally. If that isn’t a wakeup call! There is often limited process in place to validate the effectiveness of business policies, a general lack of communication and little policy enforcement that leads to failures - one example is a company simply posting their policy on an intranet and hoping that employees both read and understand them.

In order for a policy to be effective, you need to be sure that employees understand the policies, and more importantly, are clear on the consequences of non-compliance. We also suggest that you have all of your employees sign an agreement stating that they will abide by them. Here are a few tips for effective policy management:

• Change your policies with your business- companies are constantly changing, don’t forget to update your policies to reflect that change
• Follow-through - with consequences in place, don’t let them slide. One employee getting away with non-compliance will diminish your policies credibility.
• Make sure your policy is clearly defined, understandable, and addresses what and why

We often run across clients who are sold by big brand technology companies on a software solution that is going to “do it all” for them and solve every problem they have. The reality check is that there is not a single piece of software out there that can do that, without due diligence being put behind it. Downloading a piece of software shouldn’t even be your first step, it should come somewhere in the middle of the process. Before you even begin to look at software solutions here are some key steps to take:

• Build a plan around business needs - past, present and future - to unveil your organization’s pain points
• Once your pain points have been determined, a clear cut plan must be establishes as to how these can be addressed
• Look for a software solution that will address your needs
• Modify that software to fit your needs (this almost always needs to be done for it to be successful, but it is much easier than building a program from the ground up)
• Implement the software with the support of your entire organization and also with established policies around that implementation
• Enforce said policies and procedures throughout the organization to ensure that your employees are both aware of what is happening and that they are not violating any policies

Nothing is cut and dry - if you are going to invest in technology, make the investment worth your while - don’t just implement and forget about it.

Organizations are accountable for many things: their products or services, their employees, financials, etc. Corporate Governance can mean so many things - we believe part of that definition includes IT Governance. IT Governance is a framework for organizations to adopt industry standards and ethical practices for a productive business environment. Its well know that well governed corporations run more efficiently and subsequently show more profits that those that are not governed properly. A big part of that governance is proper IT asset management. Without it, organizations face compliance issues and potential problems with regulators.

A majority of organizations in today’s business world rely on technology to function on a day-to-day basis. Businesses of all sizes with benefit financially from IT Governance. So we say, why not? There is no down side!

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