IT Governance Blog on IT governance, risk management, compliance and information security.

In austere times, IT leaders need to be more radical if their organisations are to succeed – this book helps you change the IT Leader’s mindset.

Changing the IT Leader’s Mindset (eBook) Successfully balance Transactional and Transformational Leadership Understand the IT Leader stereotype and how to alter its perception Utilise tools like action learning and co-creation.

By employing key steps and reflective points, this book provides useful tools and sound advice to help you get to grips with balancing soft skills with hard techniques, letting you break out of the IT stereotype and bring innovation into the inner sanctum of your organisation.
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Time is running out to make the most of our August IT Governance Framework Toolkit – Special Offer. Purchase before the end of August and receive 4 free e-books!

IT Governance Framework Toolkit – Special Offer IT Governance: A Pocket Guide FREE! IT Governance to Drive High Performance: Lessons from Accenture FREE! ISO/IEC 38500 The IT Governance Standard – Pocket Guide FREE! IT Governance: Implementing Frameworks and Standards for the Corporate Governance of IT FREE!

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Below are the IT Governance Added Value Offers for August 2010:

September 2010 ITG Training Courses:

Foundations of Information Security Management According to ISO27001 Training – 07 September 2010 in Manchester Book this course during August and get a free e-book bundle, worth over £100! See the offer details here >>

PCI DSS – 1-Day Introduction, Implementation & Compliance Masterclass – 10 September 2010 in London Book this course during August and get a user licence for the PCI DSS Online Course, Staff Awareness Edition free! Call +44(0)845 070 1750 today.

BS25999 Business Continuity Management Implementation Master Class – 13-14 September 2010 in London Book this course during August and get a free BS25999 BCMS Implementation Toolkit (CD-ROM) – worth £395! See the offer details here >>

Computer Digital Forensics Training Course – 21 September 2010 in London Book this course during August and save a third! Pay just £395. List price £595! Call +44(0)845 070 1750 today.

September 2010 ITG Toolkit Offers:

Extra Value No 3 ISO27001 Comprehensive ISMS Toolkit Offer If you purchase this toolkit before the end of August (2010), we’ll send you a further 7 unique resources to help kick-start your information security programme – absolutely free! The 7 free resources include Staff Awareness Posters, an Information Security Risk Management e-book and 5 pocket guides!

IT Governance Framework – Toolkit Special Offer Order the ISO38500 IT Governance Framework Toolkit and receive 4 essential guides FREE! IT Governance: A Pocket Guide IT Governance to Drive High Performance: Lessons from Accenture ISO/IEC 38500 The IT governance standard – Pocket Guide IT Governance: Implementing Frameworks and Standards for the Corporate Governance of IT.

BS25999 BCMS Implementation Toolkit Special Offer Download the BS25999 BCMS Implementation Toolkit & Manager’s Guide before the end of August, and we’ll send you two additional guides FREE! Coping with Unplanned Absences, which looks at what you can do to ensure your employees fulfil their obligations and turn up as required. It gets to grips with the question of how your organisation should handle unplanned absences before and when they arise IT Outsourcing Contracts: A Legal and Practical Guide, which identifies some of the benefits and pitfalls that an organisation may encounter when outsourcing its IT.

September 2010 Distance Learning Offers:

PRINCE2 2009 Practitioner Silver Package (CD-ROM & Classroom Based, Includes Practitioner Exam) Buy this distance learning package during August and get the following 2 resources absolutely free: PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam Primer Passing the PRINCE2 Exams.

ITIL Foundation Computer Based Training Course (ITIL Version 3, CD-ROM Based, Including Exam) Buy this distance learning package during August and get a free ITIL Foundation Exam Primer (ITILv3, Single-User, CD-ROM)!

All these offers expire at the end of August 2010.

Call us on +44(0)845 070 1750 or e-mail servicecentre@itgovernance.co.uk

The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) last week fined the Royal Bank of Scotland Group £5.6m for ‘failing to have adequate IT systems and controls in place to prevent breaches of UK financial sanctions’. You can read more about this incident on Alan Calder’s IT Governance Blog where he states:

‘It always seems to me a pity that organisations have to be pushed, by substantial fines, to do things that have significant business benefits’.

The business benefits that Alan is referring to are particularly relevent right now as we face public sector spending cuts and struggle to recover from recession. You can read more about these benefits in a recent blog post: IT Governance and ISO38500 will help organisations during times of austerity.

Improve IT Governance in your organisation

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A string to any news reporter’s bow is the issue of social media and privacy. It’s rare that a week goes by without there being a news headline claiming that Facebook, Twitter, or some other social network has breached our privacy rights and are branded as immoral rouges who have set out to destroy the universe.

The reality is often very different and social media, when used correctly, is a fantastic way to communicate, share and build relationships. The very nature of social media, and what makes it so powerful, is the ability to engage your audience in one-to-one conversations, rather than the more traditional broadcast communication.

Here lie the ‘not so obvious’ risks:

Quite often, an organisation will jump into social media without a proper strategy. In order to ‘test the water’, they may create a Facebook page, sign up a new Twitter account and encourage sales and/or marketing staff to use their LinkedIn accounts to spread the word and prospect for potential leads.

As the number of followers grows, and before the organisation begins to see the benefits to using social media as a bone-fide marketing and communications channel, you could be risking your brand reputation and/or posting inappropriate content without even realising.

Organisations need to create an effective governance structure around their social media activities. They will need to identify appropriate social media objectives, as well as assign roles and responsibilities.

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Our Training schedule for September 2010 is outlined below and I thought you should see it as early as possible. Spaces on these courses are limited and sell-out very quickly, in fact, a few of these courses have just been added to meet demand as we have turned people away from previous course dates!

Why book an IT Governance Training Course?

• Strength of experience: Our trainers are subject matter experts who have unrivalled experience within their field
• Association with a leading brand: Align your organisation, and your career, with the leading name in governance, risk and compliance. Receive a training certificate from a name that will be recognised globally
• Ease of booking: Speak to one of our advisors directly on 0845 070 1750, email servicecentre@itgovernance.co.uk or simply book online via our website at www.itgovernance.co.uk/training.aspx
• Quality course material: Receive practical tools and resources to use throughout your learning
• Specially selected training venues: Learn in a comfortable training environment. Our training locations are selected based on facilities and standards of service and ease of access.

Call 0845 070 1750 to discuss your requirements or to book today!

See our full range of training courses >>

When you buy the IT Governance Framework Toolkit before the end of August 2010, we’ll send you the following 4 eBooks free:

1. FREE! IT Governance: A Pocket Guide
2. FREE! IT Governance to Drive High Performance: Lessons from Accenture
3. FREE! ISO/IEC 38500 The IT governance standard – Pocket Guide
4. FREE! IT Governance: Implementing Frameworks and Standards for the Corporate Governance of IT

The IT Governance Framework – Toolkit & Book Special Offer provides you with:

A single integrated framework that enables you to get the best out of: CobiT, ITIL, ISO27001/ISO27002, ISO20000, Prince2, PMBOK, TOGAF, IT Balanced Scorecards, the Zachman Enterprise Architecture, IT Portfolio Management, IT Dashboards and so much more,

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If Information Technology is a part of your business, governance now extends to and includes information and the IT infrastructure that supports your business. Shareholder expectations of boards, and of the individual directors on boards, are clear:

1. The board of directors will actually direct the management of the company, including strategic and IT business plans and fundamental structural changes
2. The board will see to the hiring of competent and honest business and IT managers
3. The board will understand the business of the firm and develop and monitor a business and IT strategy
4. The board will monitor the managers as they carry out the strategy and the operations of the company
5. When making a business decision, the board will develop a thorough understanding of the transaction and act in good faith, on an informed basis, and with a rational business purpose
6. The board will operate with basic honesty, care, and loyalty
7. The board will take good,faith steps to make sure the company complies with the law.

These IT governance expectations demand an appropriate IT governance framework. That can be difficult and time consuming to do from scratch.

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As the UK enters its new age of austerity with public sector organisations finding draconian budget cuts, organisations must ensure that its IT function acts an enabler of business, and must be fully aligned with business objectives.

ISO/IEC 38500:2008 provides guiding principles for directors of organisations on the effective, efficient and acceptable use of information technology (IT). These principles are designed to be used within their organisations.

Key benefits of ISO38500:

• The first international standard for IT governance
• It provides an efficient, well-thought-through and effective framework for IT governance, leading to better alignment of IT with organisational decisions
• Written in a generic manner, meaning that the advice and guidance in this standard is applicable no matter the size or type of organisation or whether it is in the corporate, public or not-for-profit sector
• Advice and guidance that is provided is not only applicable to directors, but also to their associated members of staff
• It provides essential guidance on the appropriate governance of IT to all key members of staff.

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Social Media is now a mainstream communications channel. Sharepoint is also a widely used colloboration and information sharing tool for organisations. We have launched toolkits which help organisations to put a framework in place to reduce risk and get the most of of these new technologies:

Social Media Governance Toolkit Eight out of 10 UK businesses expect to increase their budget in social media activity! The ITG Social Media Governance toolkit help organisations to create an effective governance structure around their social media activies. Social media is, for many organisations, a critical part of how they speak to customers, partners and stakeholders; for others, social media are a dangerous distraction. The ITG Social Media Governance Toolkit contains a comprehensive suite of documents and templates that will help you develop, implement, monitor and improve social media activities across your organisation.

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