The Cloud Is Key For Experience-Led Companies

There’s no denying the fact that “cloud” lies at the very heart of digital revolution and is key to creating an experience-led digital enterprise.

The Cloud Is Key For Experience-Led Companies

Digital transformation is being driven by the need for seamless end user experiences and better operational efficiencies. Enterprises industrywide are rethinking their business models with digital technologies at the core of these transformations. As a result, the cloud, AI, big data, APis, and cybersecurity, among others, are now part of their strategic roadmaps.

We recently concluded an independent research study of 340 global enterprises to explore the challenges of digital transformation, as well as to better understand the factors that contribute toward success and failure. Despite customers’ expectations for a seamless and consistent experience across channels, barely 50% of the organizations surveyed said they provided that. It is no surprise that digital transformation is fueling these heightened expectations, placing the onus on businesses to find a way to navigate the digital wave.

That requires them to be agile, with iterative innovation to support the need for continuous reinvention. But what does it take to truly become an experience-led agile enterprise?

Organizations would be well-advised to augment their digital applications and platforms strategy with a well-defined cloud-adoption strategy, whether through a public cloud provider or an on-premise software-defined hybrid platform.

Here are five key reasons why cloud adoption is one of the key enablers of digital transformation journeys:

1. Cloud native applications provide a seamless experience: By their very nature, applications that are cloud-native (hosted on-premise, hybrid, or public cloud) are built for a seamless and consistent experience across multiple devices and channels. Using web services and APIs to integrate across various application components, data sources, and third-party apps and services, enterprises can orchestrate innovative experiences quickly and effectively.

2. Cloud technology enables the integration of vendor and partner ecosystems: Whether they are logistics and drone companies, on-demand players such as Uber and food delivery companies, or even globally distributed fast-food franchises, businesses can achieve deep ecosystem integration by orchestrating the use of APIs and microservices to provide integrated experiences that both fulfill and fuel customer expectations.

3. Cloud native applications allow for scalability: Whether deployed on a public cloud or on-premises and supported by virtualization technologies, the key to digital app and platform success is to build resilience, scalability, and elasticity to power a consistent experience for consumers. Cloud-native applications are designed for this.

4. Cloud supports innovation: To be successful in the experience-led economy, organizations require both speed and agility to develop and advance new ideas, to continually enhance their products (iterative innovation), and to be responsive to changing customer preferences and trends. With adoption of the cloud as the method to deploy these new ideas, enterprises can “build fast, fail fast” and recover quickly to continue innovating.

5. Cloud enhances personalization: Many enterprises have stated clear goals to move toward a service-oriented approach. The cloud has become a key enabler of “as-a-service” business models, where enterprises can quickly create and deliver services that focus on creating personalized experiences for their customers and users.

For business leaders looking to start their own digital journeys, consider the following recommendations as a means to navigate the challenges of a digital, experience-led future:

• Think of the cloud as an enabler of digital journeys, not as an end goal. The cloud helps achieve digital outcomes by driving superior experience, agility, and innovation through the democratization of IT. It is a key component of any digital strategy.

• When you build your ecosystem of vendors, partners, customers, and employees, think about how you will integrate them to provide an experience that is, at once, superior, seamless, and consistent.

• Start thinking about digital applications and platforms in a manner so as to maximize your investments in the cloud. Use it to iterate through ideas, experiment through prototypes, and develop the ability to quickly scale when required.

There’s no denying the fact that the cloud lies at the very heart of the digital revolution and is key to creating an experience-led digital enterprise. We believe any digital strategy roadmap should include a well-structured cloud strategy roadmap as well.