How could Sunlife's decision to adopt the AWS Cloud enhance technology value for the organization? (use best practices below)

Best Practices in Enhancing Technology Value It is widely agreed that IT is one of the most important enterprise mechanisms for the coherent execution of business strategy (Hunter et al. 2019). IT adds value through identifying opportunities, determining solutions, executing on these solutions, and delivering cost-effective ongoing services. The challenge for IT is connecting what it delivers with something the business recognizes as valuable. It is not enough for IT to deliver projects on time and on budget anymore; it must deliver measurable, quantifiable value that is linked to clear business outcomes (Hidding and Nicholas 2017). With this in mind, the focus group identified six best practices IT leaders should adopt to improve how the business views IT value: Articulate Business Strategy, Ensure Business Engagement at All Levels, Use Business Metrics, Manage for Value, Little Things Make a Difference, and Remember IT Operating Costs. A Value Delivery Failure We tried to implement a standard warehouse management system to replace our custom-developed in-house system that catered to how customers wanted to interface and staff wanted to operate. Although our president was on board, the rest of the organization pushed back hard, telling him we would lose business, and the new system was never implemented. We learned that we must must get buy-in from the business and that we can't sit in our ivory tower and tell the business what's good for it. - An IT Manager 1. Articulate Business Strategy When there is a clear business strategy, it is considerably easier to identify which IT initiatives fit with strategic objectives and which metrics are appropriate to measure them. Conversely, where there isn't a well-defined business strategy of it is too high level or vague to connect with specific IT initiatives, IT cannot use it as a framework for guiding its work (Alfreemy et al. 2016; Hunter et al. 2016). Research shows that where an enterprise strategy is clear and this is reflected in IT investment decisions, perceived value is most influenced by successful execution. This is because it is then apparent that what IT is doing is for the benefit of the enterprise. Conversely, with a vague unclear strategy, the business will perceive the value of IT as low, regardless of how well initiatives are executed (Hunter et al. 2019). It is also important to articulate a business strategy throughout the business so that everyone is focused on the kind of value the organization wants to create. This will help engage both IT and business people with the strategy and generate a variety of ways to achieve it. Although ultimately, it is the executive level that will determine the business value of IT, finding ways to engage all levels in a strategy and its implementation will lead to the greatest success. 2. Ensure Business Engagement at All Levels "When our projects are led by IT and not by the business, our business is not engaged with this work, won't make decisions, and doesn't consider itself accountable for results," said a manager. Studies show that when business is fully engaged, IT projects create significant value - much more value than that delivered by good governance and management practices alone (Mingay and Topham 2019; Alfreemy et al. 2016). Engaging the business means that IT must have a deep understanding of their work and speak in terms of business value and benefits, even for technology initiatives (Colella 2019). A manager stated, "We get most value when everyone is focused on business outcomes, not IT deliverables." "Once you begin to speak of architecture or platforms, the business switches off," said another manager. We must talk about the need without talking about the technology. I try to relate IT strategy to our business vision and the key capabilities the business needs to achieve them. From there, I identify the IT components that will be needed and tie a narrative to the vision in business terms and in business language showing them where they need to invest in technology. 3. Use Business Metrics There is a growing belief that the benefits of all IT work can and should be quantified. However, this cannot be done well until the story of what the IT organization is delivering is told in a way that the business will understand (Smith 2015). As one CIO declared, "Business numbers are what people understand at the executive level." On-time and on-budget delivery metrics are therefore not sufficient in and of themselves to demonstrate true business value (Hidding and Nicholas 2017). To develop business metrics, strategy should be broken down into specific business outcomes, said the group. For example, one company has a strategy to "delight its customers." This was broken down into an achievable goal that it should take less than three days to approve a loan. Many companies are also adopting customer-centric metrics that relate to IT, such as app usage and customer engagement, which describe value from their customers' point of view (Suer 2018). Even technical work can be linked to a business outcome, such as showing how the performance of the IT service desk affects employee engagement. The optimal business metric is money, either earned or saved (Smith 2015). And this kind of value is easier to articulate with greater cost transparency. Software-as-a-service helps considerably in this regard because usage costs are broken down by the vendor. "It's then easier to see and compare costs and this forces the conversation about whether or not a service is worthwhile, "said a manager.4. Manage for Value Traditionally, IT projects have been justified with a business case that is never looked at again and their success is measured by whether they are delivered on time and on budget. This is changing said the focus group, but slowly. Companies now use several different practices to ensure that valuable business outcomes are achieved, in addition to schedule and budget (Hidding and Nicholas 2017). Agile development helps by embedding the business in IT, having the business define what it wants IT to work on, and facilitating faster delivery and therefore greater perceived value. For larger projects, staged releases of funding, combined with an increasingly specific value story, enable the business to determine if what they are asking for will help deliver value. With either method, more value is delivered "because people understand they can make changes along the way," said a manager. Several companies also have a separate environment and staged process for experimental projects that help develop strong value stories before moving them into a more rigorous development process. A Value Delivery Failure IT took the lead on implementing and customizing a new technology. Its requirements became very rigid and people blamed IT. We didn't develop a clear upfront understanding of what was needed, and we didn't talk about the risks involved. We also could have used better change management and training and support for people. - An IT Manager Successful Value Delivery We handed over IT resources to our business units. This was very successful in delivering value and better than our prioritization process. We learned that there is much value in soft benefits because they deliver effectiveness, but management must be willing to listen. - An IT Manager Another way of managing for value is breaking large projects up into chunks of value. "This speeds up time-to-market and simplifies training, " said a manager, "and when you have an app that does one thing really well, it's clear what the value is."With this approach, "full value" is never delivered because business expectations change from a "big bang" to multiple smaller pieces of value, often based on strategic themes. Reluctantly, some companies are also recognizing that they need a "value realization" phase for IT initiatives where tweaks are made to technology and processes and problems are rooted out to help the organization realize expected value. There is greater recognition that, for larger initiatives, it can take up to 18 months to convert short-term moderate value into high value (Mingay and Topham 2019; Seagars and Chatterjee 2010). One IT function was told by its CEO that, even though its delivered technology worked well, its project wasn't complete until business usage reached a level where the company could realize anticipated benefits. It took an additional 18 months of working with business units around the world to achieve this goal (Smith and Watson 2019). Some organizations are therefore taking a more serious look at the change management component of delivering technology by creating a special subset of the project team devoted to it. "Change is not really a strong IT competency but it is hugely important and takes a deliberate effort," said a manager. "People and culture management are not always considered, and yet we increasingly recognize that they are essential to the delivery of true value." 5. Little Things Make a Difference One CIO shared the following: During my first week on the job, I was presented with a list of "all the problems with IT." When I reviewed it, I found that they were just a bunch of niggly things that could be easily fixed. This is indicative of the nature of the IT value, that is, small pain points can easily overwhelm some fundamental IT achievements. Successful Value Delivery Our business found an application and tried it. Once they were satisfied, IT helped them through the assessments that were needed. The business was happy and IT was an enabler. We worked in partnership with joint responsibility for success - An IT Manager A Value Delivery Failure We planned to move to a different technology, but the effort involved was not thought through at all. We estimated it would take eight weeks and it took two years. We learned we must manage the currency of our software without making huge leaps. We needed to take incremental steps. - An IT Manager Another CIO told us of accomplishing a major strategic initiative to great acclaim from the business and with a huge increase in stakeholder satisfaction only to find satisfaction levels dropping significantly the following yearWhen I went out to the field to investigate, I found they were having problems with their cell phones! Everyone had forgotten about last year's huge deliverable! The focus group agreed. "We regularly send people out to work in the field to identify complaints with IT. Often, it's a little thing that's bothering them, like the "blue screen of death' on their PC." "We don't value people's time when they need simple technology fixes, like resetting passwords," said another manager. "These things don't result in huge dollar savings, but there's a huge benefit in how people perceive IT value." A third company has created a "genius bar" for these small problems and "people love it." A CIO told us that because today's business processes are more technology intense and everyone's dependent on productivity tools, simple problems can cause huge irritation. He said, "I've established a VIP service for executives' productivity tools; otherwise, when technology impacts them directly, they call me for desktop support!" Similarly, IT facilitation of business-led IT (a.k.a. "shadow IT") can alleviate pent-up demand for technology services and responsiveness while maintaining control of the security, compliance, and regulatory environment (Mingay and Topham, 2019). 6. Remember IT Operating Costs IT managers often focus only on the value of the "change" side of IT work rather than the operating and services side, but the value of all IT, including compliance, infrastructure, renewal, and operations can and should be addressed as well (Smith 2015). Typically, new projects only account for between 20 to 40% of IT budgets. And many CEOs and CFOs don't understand where the rest of IT's money is spent and often feel some of it is wasted (Solnaki et al. 2018). In these cases, companies can put too much pressure on reducing operating costs at the risk underfunding technology foundations, operations needs, and future value delivery. There are several ways to demonstrate value in these areas. For example, per capita cost and consumption trends can be highlighted. One CIO makes sure annual operating costs are continually declining on a per capita basis. "This way, our CFO knows that we are always paying attention to the cost side of the IT value equation so he doesn't have to," he said. Downtime can also be linked to business costs. One retailer links downtime to missed sales to make these connections for both business leaders and IT workers and has been able to convincingly show that these costs are declining without having to resort to complex operations metrics. "If you think about what you do every day in IT and how it affects customer experience, you can clearly make these connections, " said a manager. Conclusion Our understanding of how we move from technology to value is evolving. In the early days of technology many believed that value came from simply implementing it on time and on budget. Gradually, however, we have learned that delivering true business value is a much more complex undertaking. First, it involves the optimal combination of people, processes, and technology and delivering them well at various levels in the organization. Second, it requires an ongoing commitment to leveraging value, often in unanticipated ways, over time. Third, different audiences may perceive different types of value depending on their expectations of IT and their most recent pain points. Given all this, it is no wonder that IT experiences many challenges in delivering business value with technology. Yet. IT is getting more adept at demonstrating its value, particularly in linking its work to business outcomes, working more closely with the business, and speaking business language. New development methods where value is delivered in smaller chunks are also helpful. Nevertheless, value is also a moving target not only because of changing technologies but also due to rising expectations about the types of value IT can deliver. The evidence shows that IT needs to do more work with the business in articulating compelling value propositions and supporting them with metrics that illustrate how technology impacts business capabilities and links to business strategy. IT still struggles in this area, particularly when justifying new infrastructure costs. As technology extends its reach into organizations and beyond, doing this becomes the work of everyone in a business. It should no longer be left to IT to justify itself, the use of technology is a business decision, and business leaders must take responsibility for the delivery of business value from IT. The best business value from technology comes when business strategy is clearly articulated and when business and IT work collaboratively to deliver it