System and method for information technology assessment

• US 20060242261A1
• Filed: 04/21/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: IMRC Incorporated
• Original Assignee: IMRC Incorporated
• Inventors: Martin, John G., Baschab, John D., Piot, Jon C.
• Application Number:
  US11/408,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242261A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

According to the present invention system and method, an assessment of IT resources is made utilizing a comprehensive approach to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of IT departments and/or IT resources. One or more assessment professionals, perhaps utilizing (or replaced by) various software modules, formulate an assessment by combining information derived from series of personnel interviews, systems analysis, and acquisition of relevant internal and external data. This assessment is then manually, dynamically, or automatically generated utilizing one or more algorithms. A master scorecard can be used to track and score each of a number of categories related to IT. The raw scores may be (often automatically) subjected to one or more formulae to produce the final assessment.

Claims

1. A method of assessing information technology (IT) comprising:

collecting IT information about operations of an enterprise; and

generating an IT assessment based, at least in part, on the collected IT information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting IT information about operations of the enterprise at least partially comprises automatic collection of the IT information.

3. The method of claim 2, the automatic collection comprising:

identifying certain data associated with the enterprise;

dynamically generating at least one of a document request and a questionnaire based, at least in part, on the identified data; and

electronically transmitting the dynamically generated request or questionnaire to the appropriate recipient.

4. The method of claim 3, the certain data comprising a company name, a logo, and an IT organizational structure.

5. The method of claim 2, the automatic collection comprising receiving at least a portion of the IT information from enterprise management software associated with the enterprise.

6. The method of claim 1, at least part of the IT information comprising data involving third party operations associated with the enterprise.

7. The method of claim 1, the enterprise comprising a governmental entity.

8. The method of claim 1, the IT assessment comprises an assessment approach, an executive summary, budget and opportunity analysis, long-term recommendations, near-term recommendations, and a scorecard.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the scorecard comprises a summary portion and a detailed portion and is generated by:

scoring each of a plurality details about the operations based on the collected IT information, each of the details associated with one a plurality of categories; and

aggregating the scores of the various details for each category.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

utilizing a pre-assessment checklist prior to the collection of the IT information; and

utilizing a post-assessment checklist to verify the generation of the IT assessment.

11. Software for assessing information technology (IT) operable to:

automatically collect IT information about operations of an enterprise;

bundle the automatically collected data with manually collected IT information that is received from a client; and

generate an IT assessment based, at least in part, on the collected IT information.

12. The software of claim 11, the automatic collection comprising:

identifying certain data associated with the enterprise;

dynamically generating at least one of a document request and a questionnaire based, at least in part, on the identified data; and

electronically transmitting the dynamically generated request or questionnaire to the appropriate recipient.

13. The software of claim 12, the certain data comprising a company name, a logo, and an IT organizational structure.

14. The software of claim 11, the automatic collection comprising receiving at least a portion of the IT information from enterprise management software associated with the enterprise.

15. The software of claim 11, at least part of the IT information comprising data involving third party operations associated with the enterprise.

16. The software of claim 11, the enterprise comprising a governmental entity.

17. The software of claim 11, the IT assessment comprises an assessment approach, an executive summary, budget and opportunity analysis, long-term recommendations, near-term recommendations, and a scorecard.

18. The software of claim 11, wherein the scorecard comprises a summary portion and a detailed portion and is generated by:

scoring each of a plurality details about the operations based on the collected IT information, each of the details associated with one a plurality of categories; and

aggregating the scores of the various details for each category.

19. The software of claim 11 further operable to:

receive inputs based on a utilized pre-assessment checklist prior to the collection of the IT information; and

receive inputs based on a utilized post-assessment checklist to verify the generation of the IT assessment.

20. An Information Technology (IT) assessment for an enterprise comprising:

an assessment approach;

an executive summary;

a budget and opportunity analysis;

a plurality of recommendations; and

a scorecard, wherein the assessment is at least partially generated based on collected IT information about operations of an enterprise.