GOVERNANCE = CONTROL OF SERVICES

Governance is a term used to describe the management and control of services. So, for example, if the role of IT is to help a thriving company develop innovative products and services, the IT governance plan might include several new high-tech initiatives to help achieve this goal.
However, if a company is using technology to help it survive a downturn, IT governance is mainly concerned with efficiency, saving money, and sharing systems.

Aligning IT and Business Strategies

A business strategy contains the mission, vision and objectives of an organization. It also contains the organization's market strategy, unique value proposition, and distinctive value configuration.

An IT strategy contains information on applications and human resources. Details about the way IT is to be organized and the technical infrastructure itself are also included.

By aligning their business and IT strategies, organizations can achieve the best return on their IT investment.
An IT-enabled business strategy contains the business expectations the company has of IT. It also includes the company's future IT plans.

Globally Networked Customs (GNC)

Driven by the need to ensure that World Customs Organization (WCO) Members were well-positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of the global trading environment, the WCO Council adopted its Customs in the 21st Century strategic vision in 2008. It comprises ten building blocks, of which Globally Networked Customs (GNC) is the first.

To make GNC a reality, an Ad Hoc Working Group was set up by the WCO to undertake “a comprehensive analysis of the potential to rationalize, harmonize and standardize the secure and efficient exchange of information between WCO Members”.

Visit World Customs Organization (WCO) - Organization Mondiale des Douanes (OMC)

Shanghai train central station

Shanghai train central station from José Ferreiro

Lessons in Strategy

There is no one perfect strategy... That is why building up strategic thinking capability is so vital!

• TESCO built on founder Jack Cohen's "pile it high, sell it cheap" formula and willingness to experiment.

• SCHWEPPES cultivated "alternative coalitions" of managers who worked behind the scenes to anticipate changes.

• SMITH & NEPHEW overcame political infighting to develop respect between executives for different strategic viewpoints.

• PROCTER & GAMBLE taught executives that "strategic thinking capability" was essential to adapt to a shifting context.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) takes cloud computing tips from amazon

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has developed a private cloud to support its application development process, using Amazon best practices. The project has enabled RBS to determine running costs of its IT infrastructure and provide service-based pricing. The self-service cloud, which is available through a portal, allows developers to provision Red Hat Linux, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 to deploy servers for their applications. The service is being used by more than 100 teams. Adoption within RBS is being spread by word of mouth.

Source: www.ComputerWeekly.com

Business models: cloud-based vs cloud-enabled

A cloud-based business model is a business model that is completely aimed at, reliant on, and based on a cloud computing environement.
E.g. End-users applications are entirely hosted in a cloud. End users can access the applications or data they need simply by providing a username and a password.

A cloud-enabled business model uses some components of cloud computing to achieve beneficial results in terms of how the business operates.
E.g. use a virtual cloud server for data storage.