INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SELF ASSESSMENT

Need help with your IT organization?

For less than the cost of two hours of Big Four consulting fees you can have a detailed self assessment of your IT organization.

 

With over 30 years of multi-industry best practice consulting in IT we have been able to compile a very comprehensive and detailed template of questions in an interactive spread sheet format that will quantitatively let you determine the level of proficiency of your IT organization.  It is comprised of questions designed to be completed by someone with working knowledge of internal IT operations. The questions cover all areas of IT that when combined will allow you to quickly and easily determine the strength and weaknesses within your IT group.  The questions are straight forward and are modeled after practices generally found in most well managed IT organizations.  This assessment will also give you insight into issues surrounding various certifications such as SOX, SAS 70 or HIPAA compliance. 

The cost for this is only $550.00 USD which is only a fraction of the cost incurred by the typical approach of initially engaging an outside consulting firm.  The advantage here is that rather than engaging a consulting firm upfront to determine the areas that need further attention YOU can determine ahead of time the specific areas that you want reviewed thus significantly limiting the scope of work if and when you chose to engage outside consulting assistance.

 

Illustrative examples of typical IT problem areas: are:

  • Do you have confidence in your IT function?
  • Can it get you where you need to go?
  • Is the IT budget predictable, affordable and under control?
  • How much are you investing in the function?
  • How does that compare with industry trends?
  • Is the investment being allocated and applied to the right initiatives?
  • Are you getting your money's worth?
  • Is the IT organization operating effectively and efficiently?
  • How is IT organizational performance measured?
  • Do you know, for example, your percentage of uptime by system and what the trends are?  Or how fast, on average, trouble calls are resolved?
  • Is your Help Desk effective and efficient with high first call resolution rates or is it sometimes referred to as the Helpless Desk?
  • How satisfied are the IT customers with service quality, promptness and cost?
  • Are performance metrics tied to service agreement objectives for routine performance reporting?
  • Are IT strategy and project priorities linked to, and consistent with, your business strategy?
  • Are any IT projects showing signs of being out of control; taking too long; costing too much?
  • Is your IT business continuity plan current, complete, and validated through regular testing? 
  • How effective are changes introduced into the IT environment?
  • Are technology initiatives driving the business or business initiatives?
  • Is the IT environment safe and secure?

About the Author

Mr. Shillow has over 30 years experience in the field of information technology; 22 in the financial services field at the Chief Information Officer (CIO) level and 8 in the health care industry as the senior executive responsible for managing large computer operations for Fortune 200 companies.  His experience has included strategic technology and automation planning, programming, data communications, data center operations, distributed computing and customer service.  Mr. Shillow also has considerable international banking experience as well as experience planning and developing large-scale financial systems in support of the United States government in Washington, DC.  He has been a member of the Society for Information Technology (SIM) and served as chairman of the Tri-State Chapter (VA, MD, DC) from 1988-90.  Mr. Shillow also chaired the Washington Area Financial IT group from 1987-89.  Additionally, he served on the board of directors for James Martin Assoc. NA.  During his career he has been engaged to publicly speak on many occasions and has done a number of interviews in several leading industry trade releases on various IT issues.  His undergraduate work was completed at Villanova University and his MBA was awarded at Shippenburg University.  James Shillow 1301 Ewing Street Nokomis, FL 34275 Tele: (941) 486-8681

Don't blindly move forward with expensive IT consulting.....

 

To order your IT self assessment guide please send us a company purchase order to: James Shillow 1301 Ewing Steet Nokomis, FL 34275 Tele: (941) 486-8681. Or send an email to:

  jshillow@juno.com Please include appropriate billing name and address information in the email.