Written by Ambe Tierro, Technology Lead of Accenture in the Philippines
Technology Lead of Accenture in the Philippines
Before the pandemic, “cloud first” only signified an aspect of digital transformation for some businesses. With COVID-19 creating an inflection point, however, cloud is no longer just an option, it is a business imperative. Every business must now dramatically accelerate their cloud migration to enable end-to-end transformation.
But just because cloud migration is essential now doesn’t mean it is easy to implement and maximize the full value. The road to the cloud’s transformational benefits is complex. It includes rethinking your strategy, technology, skills development, business processes as well as organizational design.
According to Accenture’s “Cloud Outcomes 2020” research, only 37% of companies globally are achieving the full value of cloud investments. This is a mere 2% increase since Accenture’s first report back in 2018. In addition, one in four organizations always or usually run into unexpected complications during cloud migration.
Understanding barriers to achieve cloud expectations
In the same survey, Accenture asked business and IT leaders across 11 industries from 17 countries to identify and rank the barriers to their efforts in driving their cloud agenda and achieving their goals. Data revealed that low cloud adopters were most concerned about a lack of skills, security and data sovereignty matters. Moderate adopters’ top concerns included security, legacy infrastructure, application sprawl and misalignment between IT and the business. Meanwhile, high adopters ranked security, complexity of business and organizational change, and misalignment between IT and the business as their top issues.
It is important to note that the barrier most frequently cited by respondents – whether they were classified as low, moderate or high cloud adopters – was “security and compliance risk” (46%). It was also the most frequently mentioned top barrier at 21%. This was followed by “legacy infrastructure & application sprawl” and “misalignment between IT and the business” at 40%.
Cloud adoption is seen growing in every region but some are hit harder with obstacles that hinder their best efforts. According to Accenture, Latin and North America are considered as high adopters and have been able achieve their expected cloud results. APAC and Europe, however, are trailing behind.
By now, companies have realized that the cloud is an essential component of their transformation as digital enterprises. It requires the adoption of new ways of working, shifting to new operating models and developing new roles and skills. Accenture recommends four areas that business leaders continuously address as part of their “cloud first” agenda:
- Business value focus: develop an optimal cloud strategy anchored on comprehensive economic business cases to identify revenue upside and cost efficiency opportunities while aligning goals and putting company leaders on the same page.
- People and culture change management: implement new upskilling and talent readiness programs, along with new operating models, to help transform and enhance how people work so they can better meet rapidly changing needs.
- Data and AI: unlock industry- and function-specific data insights and intelligence trapped in legacy systems with the power of cloud data models.
- Partnering for success: leverage the skills and experience of strategic partners to expand and enhance the organization’s existing capabilities. Cloud-managed services are often an option for companies looking to access the right skills while maintaining cost efficiency.
Accenture Cloud First
As a company that is already 95% in the cloud, Accenture understands how businesses can operate, compete and create value for all their stakeholders with a “cloud first” mandate. Recently, as demand for cloud computing skyrocketed due to the pandemic, Accenture announced a $3 billion investment over three years through Accenture Cloud First to help clients across all industries rapidly become “cloud first” businesses. Powered by 70,000 cloud professionals around the world, including here in the Philippines, Accenture is committed to help clients shape, move, build and operate their businesses in the cloud and realize the cloud’s business value, speed, cost, talent and innovation benefits.
In the Philippines, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) recently amended its Cloud First Policy to provide clearer instructions that will help local companies transition to the new normal. The country’s Cloud First Policy promotes cloud computing as its preferred technology to deliver government services to Filipinos amid COVID-19.
Despite being in an era of socially distant workplace environments, the ongoing pandemic has also created digital intimacy where opportunities abound for more collaborative and meaningful solutioning between Accenture and its clients. With its commitment to raising the technology quotient of its workforce, through continued learning and upskilling initiatives, Accenture is leading more businesses to
deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity.