The Doppler Quarterly Fall 2018 | Page 91

Lessons Learned Of the four stories we discussed, this insurance com- pany did the best job of changing its culture to accommodate a cloud initiative. The company set reasonable goals and engaged with experts to help plan out a project to meet those goals. It assigned people to specific tasks and gave them the time and expert resources needed to do their jobs well. Even though the organization operates in a decentralized manner, it set up a clear path to manage tasks, report on process and escalate issues to the right people. Being new to the cloud, the client set reasonable, achievable goals and therefore accomplished them. Even though this company’s cloud journey has only just begun, it has set itself up for success. It has the right processes and the right governance model in place. It has also established a communication strat- egy to frequently provide updates and share the suc- cesses of its cloud program throughout the enter- prise. It continues to transform its workforce culture to adopt new ways of thinking and building agile solutions while growing a cloud skills pipeline of organic talent. And when new challenges present themselves, this organization will be ready. Get the Most Value from Your Cloud Transformation Every cloud project is different. Therefore, there are no cookie-cutter approaches to success. But there are best practices which companies can follow that will help them deal with challenges that may crop up along the way. The best move companies can make is to be open to changing the way they operate, to align with the needs of cloud projects. Take a step back and plan. Support a culture of cloud learning and provide opportunities for people to take on new cloud roles. Open up new lines of communication to get depart- ments thinking along the same lines. Understand your cloud maturity baseline and then plan from there. Clients may be challenged by a lack of resources or leadership support, but a transformation program, coupled with a prescriptive approach from an experi- enced partner, can help on all these fronts. Cloud initiatives can be challenging to pull off. But with a little ingenuity, the right people in the right roles dedicated to the effort and a prescriptive meth- odology, cloud initiatives can indeed succeed. FALL 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 89