By Stephanie Arnette, Managing Director, Accenture
Companies that built their business around a patchwork of cloud apps are rethinking their strategy. More and more companies are taking a holistic approach and integrating their apps and data on a single enterprise cloud platform. And it’s paying off with better data integration, greater agility, and faster innovation.
But what’s the best way to move to the new enterprise cloud? As a mom with small children, I find myself doing a lot of alphabet games. So I came up with this simple “ABC” formula for enterprise cloud success with a slight modification: don’t forget the “D.”
A – Acceleration
With the arrival of cloud, the days of long, drawn-out implementations and endless waits for benefits are gone. With cloud apps, you’re off and running fast, and quick wins are the norm. For example, we’ll often show the customer how to leverage cloud automation and mobility to achieve high-priority objectives early on, thus building momentum for the whole project.
Of course, customers have different priorities. Some just want to cut IT costs, and most cloud platforms fit that bill. More often, customers want to transform their enterprise and unlock maximum value from their move to the cloud. In those instances, we approach the engagement more holistically, taking the time to help the company define its business objectives and how to measure success.
B – Business Case Definition: Make It a Joint Effort
Think of the business case as the “why” of your initiative. Because a lot of money is at stake, you need to have a clear understanding of the value your effort will create. Frequently, Accenture will take the lead in identifying such opportunities. Other times, the client will drive the process. Yet at the end of the day, both sides need to agree on the business case.
The joint effort should also include your technology provider, such as Oracle, which brings critical technical expertise, especially around next-generation cloud applications. We recently worked with an enterprise banking company and all three parties – the client, Accenture, and Oracle – got in a room together to define the business case, roadmap, and prioritizations. We called the joint effort our “three-legged stool” since each party provided essential support.
The jointly defined business case also serves as a “North Star” to help guide major decisions, such as customizations or costly integrations. Do these efforts feed into your business case? Sometimes they don’t – and could even prevent you from achieving early wins. A good business case also dictates how you measure success on the back end and determine whether you actually achieved the benefits you were seeking.
C – Change Management
One thing we’ve learned from hundreds of enterprise cloud projects is that change management cannot be an afterthought. Moving to the cloud can dramatically change the way people work, so preparing employees for the shift should start early in the project. The other lesson: You need leadership to drive the change and adoption from the top down.
A good example is the CIO of a products company we helped migrate to an Oracle cloud platform. His mandate was simple and clear: “This is the way we’re going to operate going forward,” he told the organization. “We’re all on the same boat.” This might be an extreme approach, but it worked. I’ve also seen yearlong consensus-building work as well. But regardless of how you get there, by the time you go live, leadership at the highest level needs to be actively supporting the change and driving adoption across the company.
How do you get everybody on board? Techniques vary, but in the case of the products company, the CIO gathered other top execs offsite in a creative setting to incubate the plan and make sure everyone clearly understood – and fully bought into – the vision. Rather than sending out a pro-forma email, the company turned the process into a fun, engaging activity.
D – Don’t Forget Data!
Early wins, great business cases, and solid change management are all keys to enterprise cloud success. But if you forget about your data – its security, quality, and more – you could run into show-stopping issues at the end of your otherwise well-executed enterprise cloud initiative.
You absolutely must take the time upfront to understand your data landscape. Where does your data reside? Where is it replicated and accessed? If it’s shuttled across multiple systems, you could run into app-integration and performance troubles when you turn on your cloud platform. This alone could be a deal breaker, because even if you have a really cool application, if it’s painfully slow, nobody is going to use it.
The same goes for data quality. If your people can’t retrieve accurate data from your application interface – no matter how beautiful it is – don’t expect robust adoption rates. In fact, each one of your “ABCs” will suffer. You’re unlikely to accelerate your business and get quick wins when people are turned off by poor data on day one. Your business case won’t fly if you haven’t thought through data quality issues. And change management will be really tough if people don’t trust the data in your new system. All of this is why Accenture and Oracle have worked together for years to perfect the art and science of enterprise data management.
Learn more at www.accenture.com/oracle.