Business
IT Governance – howzat?
Alison Holt is founder and director of Longitude 174 Ltd, a company specialising in information technology (IT) governance. Her insights into IT governance, investment decisions, competitors and IT governance, and words of advice, make interesting and thought-provoking reading for directors and managers in organisations of all sizes, in both the public and private sector.
Article kindly reproduced with permission from Boardroom magazine, the journal of the Institute of Directors:
I am a cricket umpire and company director and I see a lot of similarities between the two roles. If a cricket umpire loses concentration on the game in hand, for even the briefest moment, the results can be disastrous, and so it is with being a company director. Some decisions are very straightforward to make and give – ‘no brainers’. Some decisions are very easy to make (you know the batsman is out) and difficult to give (and now his team have lost). Some decisions are difficult to make and to give. Most leg before wicket (LBW) decisions fall into this category. I was told that in my first season as a cricket umpire that if I didn’t give a single LBW, I’d be right 95% of the time.
And thus, it is with IT investment decisions – hard to make, hard to give, and often based on such woolly assumptions that saying ‘no’ to an individual appeal, however loud and threatening, might be the right decision. So, why is this?
...[more]
ISO 9001 quality management system Standard – new edition published
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has just published ISO 9001:2008, the latest edition of the international Standard used by organisations in 175 countries as the framework for their quality management systems (QMS).
AS/NZS adoption of ISO 9001:2008 to be available in December
Standards New Zealand and Standards Australia will be adopting ISO 9001 and plan to publish this in mid to late December. No changes will be made to the international Standard for local adoption. To be notified when the adopted Standard is available, subscribe to our ‘Keep me up to date’ service.
First published in 1987, ISO 9001 has become the global benchmark for providing assurance about the ability to satisfy quality requirements and to enhance customer satisfaction in supplier/customer relationships.
ISO 9001:2008 contains no new requirements compared to ...read more [opens in new window]
Fast-tracked IT Standard ISO/IEC 38500 to be maintained by Standards Australia
Standards New Zealand is pleased to announce that the first published international Standard in the Corporate governance of information technology, ISO/IEC 38500, fast-tracked by New Zealand through an ISO/IEC Study Group, has been handed over to Standards Australia for ongoing development and maintenance.
The New Zealand-chaired International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) working group, chaired by Alison Holt, will continue to explore new areas of information technology (IT) governance including the IT governance of operations. The working group plans to expand the scope of the work to new areas of commercial interest – exploring the development of Standards for the governance of cloud computing, and addressing enterprise interoperability.
The working group is meeting at Standards New Zealand on 3 – 5 December this year and a celebration to mark the publication of ISO/IEC 38500 is planned for that week.
(Adopted) Compliance programmes Standard – public comment
DZ3806 is available for you to comment on. The closing date for comment is 20 January 2009.
Download a free copy of DZ3806.
The draft Compliance programmes Standard is a modified adoption of the Australian Standard, AS 3806:2006. The adopted Standard will be known as NZS/AS 3806:2006 Compliance programmes. It will be of particular interest to accountants, organisations concerned with public record keeping, the legal profession, advisors, those responsible for investigating and certifying compliance, and managers in public and private organisations.
The Standard provides principles for the development, implementation, and maintenance of effective compliance programmes, within public and private organisations. These principles help organisations identify and remedy deficiencies in their compliance with laws, regulations, and codes; and develop processes f ...read more [opens in new window]
Office open XML formats – new information technology Standard
The International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission have just published a joint international Standard, Information technology – Document description and processing languages – Office open XML file formats , ISO/IEC 29500. This is a Standard for word-processing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that is intended to be implemented by multiple applications, on multiple platforms.
The Standard aims to ensure the long-term preservation of documents created over the last two decades using programs that are becoming incompatible with continuing advances in the field of information technology.
It comprises four parts, covering fundamentals and markup language reference, open packaging conventions, markup compatibility and extensibility, and transitional migration features. The complete Standard is also available on a single CD-ROM.
To order this Standard, call our customer services team on 0800 782 632.
Integrated use of management system Standards – ISO book and CD
The integrated use of management system Standards, a book and CD by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides organisations with advice on how to make integrated use of management system Standards. They distil the experience and expertise of an ISO task force of 16 members drawn from business organisations representing many countries, sectors, Standards bodies, and academia.
This book and CD provide a good mixture of theory and practice for beginners, as well as for the experienced. They form a bridge between the increasing number of ISO management system Standards and the user organisation’s unique management approach.
ISO management system Standards (MSS), such as ISO 9001 for quality management, and ISO 14001 for environmental management, are among the most widely used international Standards. New ISO MSS for food safety, supply chain security, and information security are also gaining ground.
To order a copy ...read more [opens in new window]