Walsall Housing Group and Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust have both been award the National Computing Centre’s IT Department Accreditation (ITDA).
The ITDA is a business improvement programme which examines an IT department’s performance against over 100 common controls, enabling the department to compare and understand its own strengths and weaknesses and make improvements if necessary. The ITDA is also an accreditation scheme, so those IT departments who demonstrate excellence are awarded with a recognised accreditation to the NCC standard.
Phil Pettifer, information systems manager, Walsall Housing Group, said, “Having made significant IT changes over the last few years, I felt it would be a good time to hone our overall processes and procedures so that the organisation was deriving maximum value from IT. I wanted to be reassured that we were doing the right things well and I wanted to give the business that reassurance too.
“We looked at ISO standards such as 27001 as a route to good practice in security, and it is good but by its very nature its scope is narrow. The ITDA is a perfect fit for us as it isn’t just a one-off audit; it is a continuous improvement programme that gives you a blueprint for the future.”
Rick Smith, IT manager, Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust, said, “The IT function has performed well over the last five years, and although we have reached a satisfactory level of maturity, it was time to get a second opinion to make sure that we were developing our IT functions in the right way and operating effectively. Some areas of IT are very specialised and it was good to bring in an organisation which could provide independent oversight on technical issues.
“It is one thing believing that everything is being done properly and that we have the appropriate governance is place, but it is much better when a respected third party says that we’re good too.”
