OpenText cloud experts, Kristina Lengyel, Vice President of Customer Solutions and Jon Schupp, Vice President of Cloud Go-to-Market, sat down for a fireside chat about how to achieve faster time-to-value when modernizing applications in the cloud. Emphasizing the many business benefits that cloud-native applications can deliver, including application currency and compliance, Kristina and Jon also discussed the successful outcomes that stem from modernizing in the cloud such as lower costs, increased reliability, and greater flexibility to innovate. If you missed the live conversation, check out the recording to learn more. Here are five key insights to get you started:
1. Define value in your own terms
As the customer, you need to set the priorities for your digital transformation – to focus on those deliverables most valuable to your business and your customers. Both Jon and Kristina agree on the importance of defining and prioritizing what drives value for your organization well before embarking on any application modernization effort. Because business priorities differ, no two organizations will have the same needs when it comes to embracing cloud. Kristina emphasizes that instead of best practices, organizations should work with a vendor who leverages “common proven practices” – approaches that have demonstrably benefitted companies facing similar challenges.
2. Realize that time to value is ongoing
Time to value is sometimes associated with achieving specific milestones on the path to digital transformation, such as the completion of onboarding or the migration of data into a new cloud solution. In this discussion, Jon and Kristina explore why cloud delivers value far beyond the initial migration. By providing access to innovation – in the form of new modules, new technologies, and new solutions – Kristina underscores that cloud delivers ongoing value. Beyond simply keeping applications up to date, cloud delivers a further benefit in that the day-to-day management of applications is outsourced to experts, freeing customers to grow their business by re-investing their budgets and talent elsewhere.
3. Invest in planning
Once you have defined your goals for realizing value from your cloud migration, Kristina emphasizes why you must carefully plan your move to the cloud. “You have to invest in planning, she explains. Partnering with a cloud services provider like OpenText can provide invaluable support during the planning process. Asking key questions that help customers assess their cloud readiness is a vital part of this process to identify your needs, avoid potential challenges, and ensure that you address all the necessary considerations to set you up for success.
4. Embrace change management
Post-implementation, Jon and Kristina explain that change management is an essential consideration for speeding up time to value. As Kristina puts it, “any change is disruptive”. Given the Great Resignation, both training and adoption are most likely to be ongoing rather than one-time initiatives. At the same time, engaging users to fully leverage new applications is critical to maximizing return on your investment. Kristina asserts that customers must be able to “leverage the technology and application to a breadth and depth you haven’t seen before.” In other words, value is not created by simply completing application modernization, but by ensuring that the modernization process drives deeper adoption, helping to optimize business processes and create real value for your organization.
5. Choose the right partner for your journey to cloud
When it comes to cloud, there is no one right path. Instead, Kristina emphasizes that there are “pros and cons to every decision”. For example, while a lift and shift may be efficient, it is unlikely to deliver maximum value to your business. Doing a cloud migration while also upgrading to the latest software release can help modernize legacy applications to deliver more value than lift and shift alone. Given the variety of choices available, seek out a vendor who can provide support at every stage of your cloud journey – from planning to migration, through to ensuring maximum value realization.
