Digital transformation pitfalls – Leveraging the Cloud for Digital Transformation
Digital transformation pitfalls
There are many more ways to fail and not as many ways to succeed. There are, however, common patterns to how digital transformations typically fail. Let’s review some of them.
Lack of commitment from the C-Suite
Even when the CEO says they are committed to completely transforming their business, they may still clearly delineate a vision and the path to success or fail to provide the necessary resources for the transformation to succeed.
Not having the right team in place.
It is difficult to know what you don’t know because you don’t know it. It may take reading this sentence a couple of times before it can be understood, but the important takeaway is that you should engage people that have performed similar digital transformations to the one you are trying to attempt. Why reinvent the wheel if someone else already invented it?Many reputable consulting companies specialize in cloud migration and digital transformation. Your chance of success increases exponentially if you engage them to assist you with your initiative. They understand the challenges, and they can help you avoid the pitfalls. AWS has a large partner network that can help you migrate to the cloud.These resources may come with a hefty price tag, and engaging them may not always be easy. Many digital transformation initiatives fail because of a failure to engage the people with the right expertise to perform them.
Internal resistance from the ranks
With many of these transformations, there may be an adjustment in personnel. Some new people may join the team, in some cases permanently. Some consulting staff may be brought in temporarily, and some staff may become obsolete and need to be phased out. It is important to consider the friction these changes will create and deal with them accordingly. When moving workloads to the cloud, some of the on-premises administrators may no longer be required, and you can fully expect that they may be a roadblock to the completion of the migration of these workflows.Specifically, it is not uncommon for infrastructure and system administrators to resist cloud adoption. They often sense that some of their responsibilities may disappear or change. And in many instances, they are not wrong. Properly communicating the objective, how the migration will occur, and delineating new responsibilities are key to a successful migration.
