The Doppler Quarterly Summer 2019 | Page 17

Innovation Culture Change People Technology Process Time to Value Figure 1: People, Process and Technology Intersections People, process and technology make up the WHAT of any transformation, including cloud adoption, but they are not the WHY. There are different WHYs you might identify, but the ones we have commonly seen over the years are: • Culture Change is at the intersection of people and process. Companies need to break away from the sta- tus quo and the “we have always done things this way” mentality. • Time to Value is realized by getting the best out of process and technology. It is not just about the auto- mation of software deployments but rather about improving the entire value chain. • Innovation is driven by people applying technology to come up with new ideas. Cloud certainly allows companies to experiment and innovate much faster than they were able to before. Make sure you are clear on WHY you want to go to cloud, before you embark on the journey. 3. Make Sure the Timing is Right Humans are creatures of habit, and change is hard. For some people, it is never the right time for change, and anal- ysis-paralysis is prevalent in a number of organizations. On the other hand, just because cloud might be the right answer for you, it might not be the right answer right now. For example, if you have a long-term contract with your data center provider and still have a few years left, now might not be the right time for cloud. Or, if you just made a significant investment in your on-premises infrastructure, you may have to wait a couple of years before taking on additional financial obligations. But the biggest reason the time may not be right is that the organization is not ready for the change. For example, you might be going through a number of changes already (acquisition, re-org, new ERP system implementation), and do not have the capacity to absorb more structural changes. Cloud transformation involves exercising every one of your organizational muscles, so you need to be truly ready to do that. The simple “sure, sure, we will just deal with it when it comes” approach is not going to work. You need to be truly prepared to face the challenges ahead. So, are you ready for change, and is everyone aligned with what it is? 4. Execute Well To do something well, you have to know what you are doing. These are the WHAT and HOW parts of the WHY, WHAT, HOW trifecta. You have defined what cloud means to you, why you want to do it and prepared yourself for the journey. Now, let us take a look at what you should focus on and the actual execution. SUMMER 2019 | THE DOPPLER | 15