IT governance rising up the agenda

One in three companies worldwide are applying IT governance procedures in a bid to assess the performance and security of their IT systems.

The IT Governance Global Status Report 2008 canvassed the opinions of around 750 senior executives from 23 countries.

Europe and the US lead on IT governance adoption rates with half of respondents indicating that they had either implemented IT governance initiatives or were about to do so.

South America emerged as the IT governance laggard with barely a quarter saying that initiatives were under way.

"The bottom line is that many organisations around the world are needlessly sacrificing money, productivity and competitive advantage by not implementing effective IT governance," said Lynn Lawton, international president of the IT Governance Institute.

"Well-governed enterprises have been shown to provide better returns to stakeholders, and the same goes for governance over IT."

Some 40 per cent of respondents singled out CIOs as the best candidates to lead company-wide IT governance initiatives. A quarter thought that the chief executive should lead the way, followed by the chief financial officer and IT manager.

The report was commissioned by the IT Governance Institute and is conducted every two years.