Poorly managed development of IT systems and software may result in catastrophic events, loss of lives or severe financial damage to businesses. Today, software is a key factor for efficiency in most disciplines. It assists people in critical tasks and increases the human ability to provide data for decision-making purposes.
Most international regulations today have a dedicated section covering IT: for example Sarbanes-Oxley has one for financial business, food and drug administration regulation, avionics and the automotive industry. Companies are extremely careful about the principles applied by their suppliers when software dependent systems are involved.
The IT engineering environment has become increasingly complex. Efforts involving more people than ever – and crossing corporation boundaries – must adhere to continually tougher implementation schedules to meet customer needs and heightened expectations. The way in which engineering work is performed has evolved. Cross-disciplinary teams, concurrent engineering, highly automated processes and international standards have all affected engineering practice.
Striking the right balance
DNV possesses the expertise which the international community requires to identify, assess and manage risk and thereby help companies to safely and responsibly improve their business performance. That is why DNV has established a new business area – IT Risk Management – which will give high priority to the integrity and reliability of business and safety critical IT systems and software. The objective is to achieve international recognition through IT-centred services delivered by professionals. We take pride in our ability to strike the right balance between risk and profit and between quality and cost, and to optimize overall IT efficiency.
We will combine DNV’s high professional skills in risk management, the IT-recognised experience of Q-Labs and other DNV acquisitions. Q-Labs currently has operations in France, Sweden, Germany, the US and UK. The next office to be opened will be in China. With the acquisitions of CIBIT in the Netherlands and Tireno in Germany, DNV IT Risk Management will take a leading position in Europe, and has similar ambitions for Asia and the USA.
The service portfolio covers the following four dimensions:
- The organisation: IT governance and IT strategy
- The processes and tools: effectiveness, security, lean processes
- The applications, products and services delivered: meeting quality, safety, cost and time targets
- The people and teams: load versus capacity, skills management, knowledge management.
DNV IT Risk Management consultants provide a complete offering including assessments using different de facto standards – such as CMMI, SPICE – followed by recommendations and action plans, process solutions, safety analysis, independent verification and validation, as well as software acquisition and outsourcing support. In all cases the improvement of business efficiency and the decrease of risk level are highly measurable.
Concentrating our efforts on the safety and reliability of systems and software, information security and efficient IT service management, our differentiation lies in our risk-based approach. By combining our forces we have a good chance of actually shaping this emerging market.
Date: 2006-06-19