Cloud migration sounds intimidating. Moving your organisation to a new, more modern system is a big step, but one that’s well worth making. It’s one of the most impactful ways to drive efficiency and reduce costs.
It’s hard to know where to start – we understand completely. This page will walk you through the typical cloud migration process. Feel free to contact us for any clarification or to ask further questions.
1. Appointing or hiring a project lead/consultant
Before you get started, you need to choose and appoint a project lead. This could be an individual or a team. They will establish the necessary connections and contacts and assemble a project overview. Of course, you’ll need to trust them implicitly since they’ll have access to departments throughout your organisation.
During this phase, it’s also vital to identify the help you’ll need. For digital transformation, you’ll need specialised ICT skills. Your ICT department is often made up of hard-working individuals with generic skills. This means they can assist your organisation across many different areas. However, it’s often more cost-effective to hire a consultant than a skilled employee when it comes to specific projects like this.
2. Identifying the areas where digital transformation will help
Your new digital system doesn’t necessarily have to revamp everything. In many cases, merging your existing programs into your developments is more sensible.
The key is understanding how many manual processes and legacy systems each particular area of the business. These both create heavy burdens on staff, so offer the most opportunity to modernise through digital transformation.
Digital transformation’s most compelling feature is speeding up your processes. For example, document collaboration is much more time-efficient than emailing back and forth. The leader’s first job will be to identify these processes that can be sped up with a new cloud-based system.
3. Creating a digital transformation strategy
With the major targets identified, it’s time for a digital transformation strategy. This should be all-encompassing, including aims, deadlines, hardware, implementation, training, cost and so on.
This stage of digital transformation often makes or breaks an organisation’s project.
Most organisations are good at either building a strategy or paying someone to do it. The problem comes when they attempt to start implementing that strategy and the project flounders through lack of the right resources (people). Or, the supplier not delivering on what they have promised but the customer not knowing enough to identify the problems early enough.
Anything could go wrong if you don’t put the required effort in here. Sometimes, these are catastrophic enough to completely derail the project. They could lead to your final costs being far too high and your system being unsuited for the end-users. Overall, a digital transformation strategy is the crucial first step.
4. Implement your strategy
With your action plan to hand, it’s time to apply it. Take a deep breath and trust that you’ve taken all the necessary planning steps in your strategy. This is where a dedicated professional can help. You’ll find reassurance that your plan is fully comprehensive and has considered all reasonable circumstances.
Our main piece of advice is to stick to the plan but be willing to change the fine print. Put the effort in while developing it (as we’ve mentioned above), and you’ll have confidence in what you’re doing. Do all you can to meet the deadlines and targets set out in your strategy.
Of course, things happen. It’s never completely smooth sailing. Extra complications will inevitably mean certain things get delayed or cost more than expected. Again, not to worry. Your leader should be skilled in project management techniques (such as PRINCE2) and subsequent software. While it isn’t possible to predict the future, an efficient consultant can make reasonable allowances in the planning phase.
However, lack of project management staff might not be the only problem. So, too, is the misunderstanding of the fact that digital transformation or cloud migration is not a single project, but a group of related projects calling on the same staff. Having a single project manager doesn’t guarantee you have correctly sized the work required and the resources needed to make progress. In this instance, if you get that but wrong, it will impact everything else that follows.
Can AMDH Solutions Ltd help you?
AMDH is a team of dedicated ICT consultants. We’ll join forces with your organisation, integrating with specific groups and departments. We’ll help you identify where digital transformation will have to most impact. Following that, if you’d like our help, our PRINCE2-familiar specialists can help you design and apply hour digital transformation strategy.
Interested? We’re always happy to have an obligation-free chat to discuss your organisation and how a cloud-based switch will help. You can reach us using the form below.
We look forward to hearing from you.
