Getting Smarter About IT Risks

Information Technology (IT) has improved organisational efficiency and performance. It has helped to lower costs and to increase levels of innovation. IT has also allowed businesses to become more customer-centered, taking care of routine tasks and giving the consumer easy access to an unprecedented choice of products and services. However, this higher level of IT maturity comes at a price: increased complexity of networks and processes, the threat of financial losses caused by system outages, and growing vulnerability to hackers. All these translate into higher levels of business exposure to risk. The IT organisation will remain fully in charge of mitigating the emerging risks; what might change, however, is the way IT-related decisions are made within the companies.