Information Technology governance — A case study of the applicability of ITIL and COBIT in a Portuguese Private School

The COBIT - Control Objectives for Information and related Technology corresponds to a structure that embraces all the activities related to the “informatics” for the Information Technology (IT) governance, while the ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library helps in the definition of the processes associated to the IT services which complements the initiative of businesses processes. In general, the ITIL is centered on the best practices in order to ensure the delivery and support of the IT services. These two frameworks (or guidelines) are widely recognized by their complementarity for the IT governance. In this context, after the applicability of the certification of quality services (in particular the ISO 9001 standard) in a Portuguese Private School of the basic and secondary levels, this work was centered in the study, implementation and use of ITIL and COBIT frameworks with the purpose of management and control the IT and in this way, ensure the IT and Information Systems (IS) governance in the institution. The implementation of these frameworks in the institution made possible the management and control of the IT and IS, bringing advantages in terms of performance and efficiency of the quality of the services, as well as a more efficient monitoring in the control of the technological infrastructure, namely through the reduction of 23% in the number of time spent on the accomplishment of tasks; in the reduction of 25% in the number of incidents that were solved and closed by the several information technology services, as well as in the reduction of 10% in the number of reopened incidents.