07.12.2022

Envisioning: It all starts with a “Why?”

Understanding the value of cloud adoption.

When negotiating their way through the jungle of enticing offers by innovative cloud services, companies tend to get lost in the underbrush of possibilities. The low barriers to entry tempt IT and specialist departments to launch new proof of concept initiatives – which, in the worst case, lack overarching game rules and transparency for individual projects.

Activism not only entails financial risks: We too often observe that unsuccessful cloud adoption projects launched by customers not only fail to add value, but also ultimately increase resistance within the organization. Employees question how reasonable the suddenly such urgent launch of rolling out so many different cloud services is. This leads to growing resentment.

At the same time, new technologies have already started to become a liability, with companies facing a whole series of well-known challenges to get their employees up to speed.

Avoiding the situation described here requires a roadmap. Such a roadmap clearly lays out the cloud initiatives as well as a procedural model for how to achieve them.

The roadmap also defines the motivation for taking the path to the public cloud, as well as the cases when it is recommended or even necessary – and the cases when it is not.

Consequently, the motivation must be defined at the beginning by asking this question: Why should I and how can I use cloud adoption to create added value for my organization?

We recommend addressing this question in a what is referred to as an “Envisioning” phase. This should take the form of a dedicated project with a clear scope, objective, and end date in order to avoid prolonged periods with no results.
Envisioning is a way of addressing a company’s own goals and challenges while also considering external developments and trends. The following factors are particularly important to bear in mind when designing a successful Envisioning phase:

1. The Team

The goal is to assemble an interdisciplinary team from different departments (e.g., business and IT) and varying hierarchical levels in order to include as many different perspectives from within the company as possible.

2. Project character

Ein definierter Zeitplan und ein klarer Scope sichern den Erfolg der Envisioning-Phase (und verhindern ein Verrennen in Detaildiskussionen in Domänen wie Struktur, Netzwerk oder nutzbare Services). Als Ergebnis steht die Vision der Cloud-Einführung und damit ein gemeinsames Verständnis davon, welchen Wert A defined timetable and a clear scope ensure the success of the Envisioning phase (and prevent discussions from getting bogged down in details about such areas as structure, network, or usable services). The result is a vision of cloud adoption and therefore a shared understanding of the value it offers for the company. diese für das Unternehmen bietet.

3. Inspiration from outside sources

Cloud service providers and IT consultancies offer targeted workshops for learning more about trends and cloud technologies. This also allows contacts from specialist departments to gain a better understanding of which capabilities the cloud provides and which it does not.

4. Communication

A vision filed away in an office cannot create added value. As soon as the envisioning team has worked out a concrete objective, it should be carried over to the organization. One option is to present the topic in general meetings, town hall meetings, or intranet postings and give employees the opportunity to interact. Acceptance and understanding within the overall organization are essential for the following phases of the cloud journey to start successfully.

In the next article, we will take a look at the concrete design of the cloud roadmap and the advantages of a structured approach.

Authors

Simone Eichler

Head of Cloud Platforms

Timo Gouthier

Senior Consultant

Additional links

Cloud center of excellence
Moving into the public cloud