Day 5: Corporate leadership (Governance, finance, contracts)

IT governance for managing IT organizations.

We start day 5 with an overview of the IT governance necessary for managing IT organizations. This has been developed by IT Leaders over several years and incorporates best practice, while avoiding the complexity associated with many governance models. It provides an insightful way of managing IT performance and ensuring IT to business alignment.

The next module focuses on some finance techniques required to run an IT business. We start with preparing IT budgets, looking at capex (investment) and opex (expenses) and identifying some of the pitfalls to avoid. We then take a look at business cases and return on investment calculations. This section looks at how business case formats and how best to present the results to senior management.

The second session looks at contracts, vendors and negotiation. Key techniques and skills are discussed here and case studies and role play is used to reinforce these. IT Leaders have developed a unique method for reviewing technology contracts and associated spend and this is presented for delegates.

The third session looks at outsourcing, in-sourcing and off-shoring and how to get the balance right. The last ten years has seen major changes in the way organizations handle their information technology and it is important to understand the dynamics at work. This module discusses each of these items in turn. To close off our contract management and sourcing work, we look at negotiation skills, illustrated with a number of IT case studies.

The final module takes participants through a typical day of a senior technology leader and identifies where the key opportunities are, using lessons from extensive research
You will learn about different leadership styles, understanding your own style and that of other managers.

In conculsion, we summarise the work we have covered on the course. It looks to highlight the key skills that individuals need to develop. Participants are encouraged to complete action matrices during the course, to ensure that the material taught and key knowledge gained is applied in real life environment and not just left as printed words in the binder.

Course topics

• The key elements of technology governance and how to put a simple framework in place to achieve it
• Review of setting IT budgets including capex, opex and the linkage between them
• Developing business plans and measuring return on investment
• Managing vendors and contract portfolios
• Outsourcing, in-sourcing and right-sourcing
• How to negotiate individually and with teams
• Applying the leadership course to individuals’ work environment

IT Training Resources | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
IT Leaders Ltd, Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 3AU