Mission
In today’s leading and profitable organisations, effective IT Governance (ITG) structure is a top business priority (Gartner, 2013). Organisations that have effective ITG structures could earn 20% more profit than those who do not (Weill, 2004). Effective ITG enables such superior business performance as they promote effective and efficient resource allocations (Weill, 2004). ITG permits an IT manager to focus on three essential requirements: reducing risks, controlling costs and extending the value of the information system (Tsai et al., 2015).
In university settings, studies like Creasey (2008) discovered a positive relation between effective ITG and organizational performance in Universities. As a consequence, ITG is key for Universities. However, and in spite of the importance of the topic worldwide, with relevant actors like, for instance ISACA, the penetration of IT Governance in universities is still scarce.
Organisational dependence on information technology in developing economies is increasing (Gartner 2013). In the specific case of the African continent, the penetration of IT Governance is weak. As mainstream IT Governance -related researches tend to focus more on developed economies, the viability of these established IT Governance structures in developing economies is unclear as they might be generic and might require considerable effort and cost in customising to a specific context (Nfuka and Rusu, 2011). Taking this into account, any framework must be tuned in countries, for instance, in HEI from Tunisia.
In previous and recent studies like, for instance Jairak et al. (2015), the three main obstacles in IT Governance implementation in Universities are 1) Lack of clear ITG principles, 2) Budget limitations and 3) Lack of method for selecting the ITG framework.
This project aims to tackle the three obstacles by providing a set of experts from HEIs with previous experience on the topic, by getting some budget to develop the framework and by providing a framework developed by the consortium.
For Program Countries, this project is a way to expand their research testbed implementing their research in a new environment. Apart from that, EU Partners, i.e. P1, P2, P3 and P4, are aimed to improve their networking among them and will the rest of the members of the consortium. For Partner Countries the project is a way to improve their institutions, implementing ITG can improve the overall performance of these organizations. But in the research side, it is also a way to expand their research activities in a European project that is needed to develop this project with the support of leading HEIs and top researchers in the field. Finally Tunisian Partners, i.e. P5, P6, P7 and P8, are aiming to expand their networking and collaboration with European HEIs.
The project is linked with Regional (South-Mediterranean countries) and National priorities. Thus, taking into account that this is CATEGORY C project it is connected with subject area of Governance, Strategic Planning and management of HEIs for the REGION 3. Focussing on Tunisia, and for the CATEGORY C project we find Governance as one of the Subject Areas for this country. To recap, the project is aligned with priorities at Regional and National levels.
References
Gartner (2013) “Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending on Pace to Reach $3.8 Trillion in 2013”, Available at: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2394415, Accessed [20 January 2015].
Jairak, K., Praneetpolgrang, P., & Subsermsri, P. (2015). “Information Technology governance practices based on sufficiency economy philosophy in the Thai University sector”. Information Technology & People, 28(1).
Nfuka, E., and Rusu, L. (2011). “The Effect of Critical Success Factors on IT Governance Performance”, Industrial Management & Data Systems (111:9), pp. 1418-1448.
Tsai, W. H., Chou, Y. W., Leu, J. D., Chen, D. C., & Tsaur, T. S. (2015). Investigation of the mediating effects of IT governance-value delivery on service quality and ERP performance. Enterprise Information Systems, 9(2), 139-160.
Weill, P. (2004). Don't just Lead, Govern: How Top-Performing Firms Govern IT. MIS Quarterly Executive (3:1), pp. 1-17.
ITG4TU - A project of the Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education
![]() | 561614-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP Call: EAC/A04/2014 |
Disclaimer
This project (Project number: 561614-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of its author(s), and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.