Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 10 | Page 70

INDUSTRY WATCH sound strategy and a solid foundation of economic considerations prior to starting the journey. For a transformation to be effective, it requires an effective strategy with the overarching goal of minimising disruption while delivering maximum return. Cloud is no different. The disruptive nature of cloud demands tighter collaboration with business stakeholders and various functional units across the business — including finance, marketing, sales, sourcing, risk, compliance, and HR. Collaboration with these various functional units is a key to realizing the benefits of cloud. It is not uncommon to see cloud as an IT or technology-only effort. Cloud may offer increased IT capacity, but this is not the only motivating factor. Could service providers promise simplified management, high availability, variable environment options, and reduced deployment time. These offerings are compelling, but are often not sufficient in addressing business needs – remember the concept of “Necessary but not sufficient conditions” are true for a cloud environment too. To address these needs, a more holistic approach to cloud should be adopted. While cloud provides a business opportunity, it comes with a cost. …THE CAPABILITY TO INTEGRATE BETWEEN THESE ISLANDS OF INFORMATION TO DERIVE BUSINESS BENEFITS AND THIRD, THE CAPABILITY TO RUN ANALYTICS ON LARGE DATASETS TO GENERATE INSIGHT FOR BUSINESS LEADERS TO TAKE DECISIONS TO CREATE NEW OPPORTUNITIES 70 INTELLIGENTCIO It is often helpful if decision makers evaluate cloud using the same dollars- and-cents approach a CFO would use. This understanding is critical and encourages the behaviour that drives business results. How has Deloitte addressed the advent of Digital? Digital is really three islands on technology capabilities that need to work in tandem to derive business benefits. First, the creation of distinct ingress technologies, namely, marketplaces, IoT, physical analytics, data traffic inputs, and beyond. Second, the capability to integrate between these islands of information to derive business benefits and third, the capability to run analytics on large datasets to generate insight for business leaders to take decisions to create new opportunities. The crux of the matter is that the money moved to new age platforms. Paper money is no longer the primary means of exchange of goods and services. Payment methods grew from card based payments to e-wallets, www.intelligentcio.com