Leverage the COBIT 2019 Design Toolkit in an SME Context: A Multiple Case Study

Organizations today exploit IT to achieve business value and competitive advantages; it is the disruptive effect of digital transformation. However, investing in without proper control governance over enterprise (GEIT) can expose organizations cyber-risks project failures. This problem affects both multinationals small organizations. In particular, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle implement IT-governance also due complexity standard frameworks. this study, five case studies were conducted with manufacturing companies Italy whose headquarters are located Lombardy region investigate potential benefits for practitioners using COBIT 2019 Design Toolkit, an Excel spreadsheet that facilitates development a system. The results encouraging, appreciated Toolkit map resources issues, prioritize most important management objectives, align strategy. some criticalities emerged, instance, limited prescriptive power tool language, which sometimes difficult understand practitioners. It should be noted current implementation Italian SMEs appears very limited. Further, highlighted study was before ISACA issued “COBIT Small Medium Enterprises Using 2019” could already have positive impact on level comprehension.
 Keywords: 2019, IT-governance, frameworks, multiple