4 Ways To Maximize Cloud Investments While Keeping Innovation in Mind
CEOs have a lot on their plates today. The constant search for business advantages across industries has created a competitive culture where adopting new technologies and optimizing existing ones is critical for continued success. Companies need to stay agile to keep pace with rapidly changing markets. If CEOs can take advantage of the right cloud technologies at the right time, they can match—even outpace—these market changes.
This is one reason cloud technologies are becoming a critical infrastructure investment for successful companies: greater revenue. An MIT research associate looked at companies from different industries and calculated the return on investment for those that adopted cloud technologies for at least 10 years. Not only did the analysis show that cloud adopters saw a significant boost in business, it revealed that companies that adopted cloud technology saw their revenues grow between 2.3% and 6.9% higher than non-adopters.
Investing in cloud technologies using a strategic approach encourages a forward-looking company culture that is not slowed down by traditional methods, helps meet business expectations, and ensures that implementing these solutions builds resiliency, improves operations, and boosts the customer experience — all of which are building blocks for agility and innovation.
The following tips can help CEOs make stronger, more-strategic cloud investments that increase agility and pave the way for greater business value.
In today’s dynamic business environment, success hinges on being intentional and strategic about adapting to new IT opportunities. The best way to do this is to ensure your IT strategy enables the business to react quickly to the changing landscape. This involves understanding your organization and customers and staying abreast of technological developments.
Staying informed about the latest cloud innovations and their benefits will make it easier to take advantage of any new opportunities in the cloud as they arise.
AI, cloud, quantum computing—these are all great technologies that will surely have a huge impact on the technology landscape and how business is conducted for years to come. But how can you, as a CEO, know whether a given technology will benefit your company or not?
An important place to start is talking to your CISO. The CISO of your company is critical in evaluating modern technology solutions. Before implementing any new technology, CEOs need to consult the CISO to review any new features, architecture, and design and to assess potential risks.
On the other hand, business leaders need to develop an understanding of the technology that enables their business — not at a detailed technology level but at the business level. Ask questions like, what will the technology provide? What is the cost of adoption? How much debt will be created? Who are the major players providing the technology, and what is the life cycle of the technology? CEOs should also understand how the business uses data to benefit the company. Knowing how the company already utilizes data also helps to determine the effectiveness of the new technology in relation to existing practices.
To really understand if technology will benefit the company, CEOs need to strategize what the company will need in 2-3 years to differentiate itself from competitors and what technology is needed to achieve the strategy. This is where using a consulting organization can add big value by providing an unbiased understanding of business objectives and the technology required to achieve them. Technology partners can also define gap solutions and determine if it makes sense to invest in the new technology.
For example, our team at Wipro worked with a mid-sized bank that was interested in modernizing its IT landscape with new technologies and wanted to be sure all security risks were properly addressed. We collaborated with the bank’s business, security, and technology teams to assess the new and existing cloud, network, data protection and monitoring operations to identify gaps in the security. The teams were then able to recommend how to close those gaps and developed an implementation roadmap for a smooth remediation.
According to The State of Cloud Cost Intelligence 2022 Report, only three in 10 organizations truly know their total cloud costs. Having messy or hidden finances is never beneficial.
One of the easiest ways to manage cloud costs is to rightsize cloud resources. Depending on the amount of cloud processing your business needs, serverless and managed services, such as Azure SQL, might be a better cost fit than solely using on-premises cloud processing resources. Businesses can also optimize their cloud costs by setting up automated scaling. This method uses automated load-balancing to adjust the resources being used and, in turn, make sure your business is paying for only what it needs.
Once you fully understand your total cost of ownership, the benefits of well-managed cloud economics go beyond stronger agility. You can also look forward to cost savings, better efficiency, and flexibility.
While moving to the cloud and optimizing your investments is the next step in the evolution of business success, choosing innovative technologies that boost agility and solve problems will ensure the benefits ripple throughout your entire organization.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
