“are we there yet?…. are we there yet?….”
In vacations past, this was the back seat cry heard by many young parents as they sought the refuge of a far-away campsite or holiday house in search of some peace and quiet after a hectic and busy year. Clearly, 2020 was no normal year and it takes the prize for giving us the single biggest reality check for generations. Our near and mid-term futures whilst cautiously optimistic are still shrouded in a degree of uncertainty and we should still expect some unsettling times. When will be able to say we have arrived at our destination, the end of COVID, and no longer be faced with the lingering “are we there yet?” back seat cry?
For many we invested in keeping as much of our operations as normal as we possibly could – we saw immediate investment in better working from home solutions and in expanded video-conferencing and collaboration tools and techniques, but not every business was well suited to implementing these new practices. In some cases, we had great foundations to build from, in others it just needed to be done. But at what cost and has it truly delivered what is needed?
For many, new programs of work were put on hold or cancelled altogether. Top line revenue pressures forced many to introduce drastic cuts in operational expenditure, tough decisions were made. When thinking about 2021 and beyond we should continue to expect that “there will be less, little or no new money for projects – and savings will need to be found to pay for reforms”
What programs of work did you put back on the shelf because there was no resources or there was no longer any money in 2021?
Do you know how much an application truly costs and how much cost can be attributed to a “function” or “team” within your business?
Do you fully understand the cost and resource impact of change and will your CFO believe you?
Do you have the detailed financial awareness of different deployment options (on-premise, cloud, IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.
Are you giving consideration to where the next level of IT investment should be made – and when?
Do you need to rebuild the business case and demonstrate benefit and cost with confidence?
Do you know when you will arrive at your chosen destination – …are we there yet?
We were tackling these questions with cloudstep before our worlds were completely up-ended – and it seems to me the answers that cloudstep can provide are more important to a business than ever before.
cloudstep helps CxO’s understand the financial impact of past, current and future IT investment decisions. It helps you compare different deployment scenarios and provides a month by month cashflow model of your total cost of reform and ownership.
To be fair – its not always about cloud – its about being better informed of the financial impact of future choice.
If you are reimagining your IT plans in 2021 and need to demonstrate value in change – not just the tech speak – then ask us or your IT partner about cloudstep. Are we there yet?
daryl knight | partner at cloudstep
