Workshop Facilitator Profile

The course facilitator is the President and Principal Consultant of an organisation that for 30 years has been devoted solely to consulting, training, publications, research and development. Prior to this, the course facilitator was a Managing Associate at Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young), CIO at Cabot Corporation Worldwide, and Corporate Planner and Economic Evaluation Analyst and Information Systems Manager at Atlas Chemical Industries (now Astra-Zeneca). His experience includes a broad array of activities in industrial operations, corporate planning and economic analysis, IT management and IT auditing and internal control, corporate and IT governance and contingency planning as well as business continuity.

As a Principal Consultant and Lecturer for his firm, the course facilitator has provided advisory services globally to prominent organisations in banking, insurance, and government. Additionally, he has organised or restructured Internal Audit and Control, Information Technology Audit, Security and Quality Assurance functions for dozens of enterprises. The course facilitator has also conducted management reviews of IT departments, advanced systems, communication networks, and assisted in developing contingency and business resumption plans. He has developed and audited corporate policies, IT management and performance standards for many organisations and IT departments.

The course facilitator has authored four books on SLAs and SLA related topics based on his experience in developing SLA programs for clients and previously for his own IT shop as a CIO.

The course facilitator has written or co-authored over 40 books and manuals on:

• Corporate and IT Governance and Compliance
• Internal Control Design and Assessment
• Information Technology Audit and Security
• Systems Auditing
• Internal Controls Assessment
• Testing and Security
• Critical Process Business Continuity
• Network Auditing and Controls
• Guidelines for Outsourcing

The course facilitator has lectured worldwide in conferences and seminars for major auditing, banking and professional organisations, including the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), The Information Systems Audit & Control Association (ISACA), CICA, the Netherlands Institute for Registered Accountants (NIVRA), Bahrain Banking Institute, National Banking Institute of India, Government Accountants Association, IAT and others. He has also led courses for many other international associations and advanced technology training institutes in Australasia, Malaysia, India, North Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East.

The course facilitator is the recipient of the John Beveridge Achievement Award of the New England Chapter of the Information Systems and Control Association (ISACA).

Key benefits for attending this event:

• ESTABLISH firsthand the need for SLAs and the difference between contracts and an SLA package. 
• RECOGNISE that the SLA package is a pre-requisite to write contractual agreements and a basis for a formal understanding between service supplier and service receiver of the mutual obligations that each party has to make the service agreement a success that benefits both parties.
• APPRECIATE that developing a sound set of SLAs is based on sound risk management so that SLA developers can use the same thinking and tools of risk analysis and management to arrive at a good set of SLAs.
• UNDERSTAND that having a sound set of SLAs forces both service provider and receiver to search for practical solutions to “meet” the SLA requirements. In many ways, the statement of SLAs is analogous to defining rational and logical “business objectives” for IT aimed at providing the basis for sound “Service Management”.
• REDUCE downtime and costs which includes savings from avoiding unnecessary downtime, errors, elimination of unnecessary amendments and repairs and expedite maintenance when needed total reducing operating costs.
• INCREASE IT productivity for key processes as well as user productivity
• BOOST revenue from the reduction in the number of IT and network outages and  improve sustainable service to IT users.
• IMPROVE communications between IT service providers and IT service users.

Who Should Attend

VPs, Directors and Managers of IT | CIOs | CTOs | IT Specialists | Service Purchasing/Procurement Authorities | Contract Managers/ Legal Department Representatives | IT Service Product & Delivery Managers | Personnel from IT organizations that provide IT Outsourcing Services – IT Services Sales Managers/Business Development Managers/Customer Liaison Officers | Service Desk Managers | Any professional who needs to establish a sound basis for achieving effective IT services whether internal or outsourced