I&T, what is that?

We all know what IT stands for. It is Information Technology. It is easy. Of course, each of us understands something different behind it. Some people think just about technologies like HW and infrastructure. Some people think about systems like CRM, ERP etc. as well. And some people add communication technologies like telephony and video. In all cases, it is something that can help us to collect, process and provide information. But we somehow forget the information itself. That is the reason why COBIT® 2019 introduced the abbreviation I&T. And what is that?

I&T stands for Information AND Technology. We have to deal not only with the technology but with information as well. Does not matter if we have the information in an electronic form or paper form. We have to manage it. We know how to manage technologies because we have ITSM (IT service management) and ITIL®. But what about information? Here we come to COBIT. In the latest version COBIT 2019, we can read that I&T has become crucial in the support, sustainability, and growth of enterprises. Why? Because through I&T we can create the value. IT is not enough, it should be I&T.

To be able to create value through I&T, we have to realize the benefits. Information will provide benefits only in case we use it. It does not make any sense just to collect information and do nothing with it. But you need resources for it. The resources must be optimized. Neither too many nor too few. And when you start to use resources, there is always a risk that something goes wrong. So it must be under the control and optimized as well. COBIT 2019 can provide the tool for it. It is COBIT Core model and goals cascade. Through that, we can identify what kind of objectives we should achieve. And for those objectives, we can identify what processes we need and what best practices can help us to define them. We can say that COBIT serves as a framework for frameworks. The result is that we have I&T under control, they serve us and bring the value we expect.

If you want to know more, come to the presentation at our conference ManDay.it. I am looking forward to discussing how to build the framework for all your frameworks.