Accenture Case Prep

Problem/Issue Statement

• Whether or not Accenture should upgrade their IT governance to COBIT 5 IT standards  
• COBIT has the potential to enhance its business standards, and also can lead their IT system to be more efficient and also allow for a better quality information for decision making
• However there is potential risk associated with regulation and compliance to the laws.
• The scope of this issue is the all the Accenture operations are all supported by their IT systems, so they would all be affected by any change made if COBIT 5 is implemented

Situation Assessment

Accenture has in the past completed a holistic overhaul of their IT practices and have been able to maintain and even enhance it. This was performed based on principles such as

-Running IT like a business within a business rather than as a cost center

-A single-vendor approach to meet application needs through economies of scale

-Reduced technology costs by implementing a web-enabled enterprise technology solution (SAP through Microsoft technologies)

-A new IT governance system where high-level management and senior IT staff ;prioritized projects on the basis of ROI and corporate strategic objectives

The proposal of implementing COBIT after 5 years is to improve the IT governance and management by meeting stakeholders needs, covering the enterprise end-to-end, applying a single integrated framework, enabling a holistic approach and separating governance from management.  It recognizes seven categories of enablers that are integral to the realization of these 5 principles.

Principles, policies and frameworks are at the core of implementing COBIT 5 since they are the medium by which strategic objectives can be converted to specific daily processes.

Decision criteria:

• IT valuation and effectiveness of the project
• Cost Effective
• Technology skilled employees
• easy access to knowledge and information
• Regulatory Compliance

List of Plausible Alternatives Courses of Action and Evaluation of Alternatives

Maintain Existing IT Management Framework:

By constant improvement of its already successful restructuring.  Through this system, Accenture has been able to reduce its overall IT expenses by 57 percent of its net revenue and by reducing its spending per employee by 60 percent

Accenture could decide to continue its IT strategy of leveraging its global presence through the use of the personnel policy that relies primarily on outsourced staff proficient in their own portion of the global chain. Accenture can still maintain their image if they continue using their current system and governance, and even enhance it 

Adopt COBIT 5 Framework:

Another alternative is to implement a COBIT 5 framework. The process of implemetation would require Accenture to alter existing controls, IT enterprise architecture, project decision methodologies, applications and general IT processes to satisfy the COBIT 5 standards.  COBIT has the same goals and objectives with their current IT such as the connection of IT processes to business procedures and the application of a single integrated framework through a holistic approach.  There are significant tangible cost associated with implementation of COBIT, however the most important cost here would be the time and energy that would be lost due to the interruption of integrating a new IT model and any failure in IT processes accompanied by such a complete reformation.

Recommendation

I would recommend that Accenture should not adapt COBIT 5 standards because the company has already "achieved operational excellence" or "optimize the cost of IT services" as the ISACA website promises. COBIT would have been the ideal thing to do in for instance 2001, when the company has not accomplished any of these goals but now they have done so through their own internal development procedures, it doesn't really make any much difference. In addition, if COBIT is fully implemented at once, it would threaten the operational efficiency of Accenture

Reflection

The presentation simply affirmed my initial conclusion therefore, I still insist that Accenture should continue using their current IT governance and management framework. Their current system already addresses almost all the main principles of COBIT, and also Im skeptical of implementing a system that the company does not entirely need because even after the presentation, I still was not convinced that their would be a significant difference between the current system and COBIT except the fact that COBIT would require a decentralized system of governance which we all know would greatly disrupt Accenture's entire business process considering that their IT governance framework has been successful as customized framework.

In conclusion, it has supported the company’s growth, and it seems that it will keep supporting it in the future, without the rigid constraints COBIT 5 would impose.