Businesses are constantly extending their use of technology into new areas to provide a strategic benefit such as applications aimed at customer intimacy and data mining, or through the streamlining of operations by the use of integrated systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)packages.

With this huge growth in activity, there is an increasing realization by organizations on the need to secure and maintain confidentiality of data assets. Indeed, there is a growing demand from the business community and consumers alike to establish trust in the organizations they conduct business with and to know that any shared information will be kept safe and secure.

KPMG's IT Advisory practice assists businesses to create and maintain a secure IT environment, that is becoming increasingly vital to ongoing and successful growth. From the provision of an independent assessment of your IT infrastructure, to assisting in the design and implementation of an enterprise security architecture, KPMG's IT Advisory practice has the skills and experience to help your organization achieve its objectives.

Continuous advances in technology have shortened the development time and increased the complexity of information system development projects. This complexity and the time pressures brought on by the need for a faster "speed to market," bring additional risk.

KPMG can offer you practical advice and assistance to enhance your processes and controls so that you can manage these risks and potentially improve the likelihood that a project will meet its objectives. We are able to help you realize the value of the often huge investment being made in major software package implementations or custom-built packages.

Increasing competitive pressures means you have to look carefully at your IT investments to ensure that you're getting what you pay for. We can provide you with independent feedback on how your investments compare with those of your competitors and the marketplace.

And we can help you manage your use of IT so it is effective in delivering a competitive advantage.

As more and more organizations move their business online, the requirement for continuous availability of services increases dramatically. Having reliable systems, with high availability and the means to quickly recover should anything serious go wrong, is becoming a key differentiator in the e-business world. Things other than the traditional "disaster" can impair service capabilities, including inadequate change management plans, hardware failure, virus attack, or telecommunications failure.

KPMG can help you plan for these events through risk analysis, network and system design, and recovery planning - to improve the availability, reliability, and recoverability of the key information systems that you and your customers rely upon.

Today's internal audit departments are facing a constant challenge in hiring the IT audit skill sets they require and, once hired, retaining and motivating these individuals. In addition, the cost of acquiring IT audit tools and access to current methodologies and techniques is an additional burden.

At KPMG, our approach to IT control, security and auditing issues is one of the core foundations on which our internal audit work is based. With extensive experience in IT audit, we can offer progressive advice to help you tackle today's IT challenges successfully.

We can provide an outsourced IT audit function that can work with your overall internal audit function. With our detailed knowledge, structured methodologies, and extensive experience, we can perform IT risk assessments, prepare and execute IT audit programs, and provide training to your internal audit staff.

Our main lines of business include

• Information Protection and Business Continuity Advisory
• Information Security Testing Services
• IT Strategy, Performance & Governance Services (including IT Management systems and frameworks)
• IT Audit
• IT Risk Management and Benchmarking
• IT Project Advisory
• Business Intelligence & Reporting
• IT Sourcing Advisory
• IT Architecture & Infrastructure
• Managed Security Services
• IT Attestation