18 Oct Develop a Business Case for Moving to the Cloud

Complex yet efficient business strategies are now possible and at a radically lower cost thanks to cloud solutions. This has been a game-changing innovation that is deeply transforming the way we conduct business in all industries.

Indeed, relying on efficient cloud-based services has become a forceful way to move ambitious business projects forward in a convenient, agile fashion while reducing operative costs.

Whereas the power that cloud solutions provide is remarkable to most organizations, one of the biggest challenges before adopting innovative technologies such as this one is to get all the stakeholders on board.

That’s why documenting the process can be highly effective to grant solid arguments to business stakeholders, who will deeply influence the decision and further results down the road.

Here is where the importance of developing a business case for moving to the cloud becomes relevant. Business modernization that is supported by cloud transformation can be driven by various motivations. 

In the following lines, we will address the steps in developing a business case to get stakeholders on board with moving to the cloud.

Defining the Decision

Documenting what’s involved in the decision is key for many reasons. First, you will have a better understanding of why this decision should be made, which is valuable to defend your arguments. This is also important to know who needs to be on board and which are going to be the first steps.

You must clearly define on paper what is motivating the business decision of moving a particular process to the cloud and what is going to be the outcome from the business’ perspective. For example, response to regulatory compliance change and improvement of IT stability lines up with business requirements to increase agility and preparing new technical capabilities for scaling in order to meet the market demands. Business outcomes must be described by including the priority, stakeholders involved, and KPIs. It’s important to understand this to be capable of measuring performance once the decision has been implemented.

Finally, knowing who are the influential stakeholders in the decision is key to craft a powerful business case. We cannot build an effective argument without knowing who is going to listen. Besides, moving to the cloud is probably going to affect workflows within the company. Therefore, it’s important to have teams in mind.

Planning the Move

Now motivations and drivers are clear, it’s time to plan in practical words how the move to the cloud is going to get done.

First, you must begin by assessing the organization to define its digital estate. This means documenting which technologies are currently implemented and being used by teams. Evaluating all operative technologies in the business process is paramount to prevent issues and to choose the right cloud solutions.

Then, you must review the organization alignment (who is responsible for what). This step serves two purposes: identifying who is going to interact with the cloud-based technologies to be implemented and determine if this professional has the skillset to fulfill his/her new responsibilities on the role.

Adopting the Cloud

The business case that will support your cloud transformation strategy must include a practical outline of how to get things done. It isn’t enough to just propose the move and provide a few reasons why the company should do it. Beyond these points, which are still important, it’s essential to address the practical details.

This starts by explaining the first adoption project. The goal of this project is to align all motivations and arguments in a pragmatic, realistic direction. This is the actionable part of your business case.

The first adoption project will serve as a guide for the technical team to implement the new cloud technologies in case of being approved by decision-makers. It should include post-implementation workflows and where to go from there.