Towards a Better Understanding of IT Cost Drivers of Asset Management Companies

Effectiveness and even more efficiency are substantial indicators of information technology (IT) performance management. Evaluation of an organisation’s IT performance relies heavily on benchmarking with other organisations. The comparability of IT key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical for resilient benchmarking results. KPI suggestions of established frameworks remain very generic. They are incapable of taking individual characteristics of different business models into account and impede, therefore, a sophisticated benchmarking. Such an occurrence can be observed frequently, especially in the environment of business groups. In the case of one leading international financial service business group, we analysed this problem and applied action research to identify IT cost drivers and develop specific KPIs for the group IT performance management. This article provides insights into a real-life example of evaluating IT performance and suggests a set of KPIs for IT cost efficiency benchmarking among asset management firms within a business group considering the firm’s different business models.