To maximize the value of cloud investments, organizations need to change, not only how IT works – but how IT partners with the business. CIOs can use the modernization that occurs post-migration as a golden opportunity to move IT’s positioning from cost center to business partner.

Modernization is a critical moment where the real business value of being in the cloud begins to shine through. Up until migration, value creation can be hampered by legacy environments with outdated data structures and quarterly release cycles. Cloud can literally change the game, offering the potential for dramatically increased agility, scalability and innovative capability.

But simply recreating legacy systems in the cloud does not deliver the paradigm shift businesses are hoping for. High levels of digital transformation, and high levels of value, only occur when you start modernizing your IT estate.

As IT works through the process of helping the organization to create and maximize value from the cloud, it has important early opportunities to engage with the business in a different way.

Use outcome-led data modernization
Having data accessible and organized in the cloud is central to digital transformation. Cloud computing and modern analytic tools offer organizations the ability to bring data together from across business units and geographical boundaries to take advantage of machine learning and AI and learn more about their business, customers and industry.

But first, IT must be able to get insights from data to support decision making and identify actions. As a starting point, this involves aggregating, simplifying and validating massive stores of data. Next, is accelerating the value of the data that surrounds every transaction, process and system that flows through the business.

Getting actionable insights from data and creating business value requires IT to understand the outcomes different parts of the business are targeting. This will prompt technologists to have deeper conversations with the business. To ask not, “What do you want to put that into the cloud?” but, “What are you trying to achieve?” To work together to figure out how to do that – and to find new possibilities and opportunities.

With a value-driven approach that’s grounded in business outcomes, data modernization can become the core of better decision-making and the fuel for innovation. It can drive everything from new and improved customer experiences to new digital business models and intelligence-infused ways of working.

As this occurs, the process of getting access to data and understanding business needs allows IT to have higher level conversations with the business. To build closer, more collaborative relationships where IT plays an important role in helping the business to achieve its goals.

Drive business value when modernizing apps
Moving apps to the cloud provides access to an abundance of new tools that enable modernization, including automated patching and scaling. For example, in the cloud, developers can visualize every customer journey. Providing this higher level of insight helps the business understand when users are dropping off and identify opportunities to optimize the customer journey based on historical data.

This level of helpfulness is not what the business has come to expect from legacy IT departments. Moments like this can be a game changer, leading to the business actively seeking other opportunities where IT can open up further insights and help to create value.

Become a strategic partner
The cloud enables IT to not only keep the lights on, but also to add value powered by data and new functionality. Every step of modernization in the cloud offers opportunities to build better, different, outcomes-focused relationships with the business.

Done well, it will change the way the business views IT, understanding that IT teams are the architects of the value being delivered from the cloud.

Need to accelerate your cloud journey but unsure how to drive business value? Register for a personalized workshop and we can help you to rethink your cloud strategy and create a roadmap for your journey.