1、Custom content for Alteryx by studioIDIncreasing Your Cloud ROI2/3The cloud opens up two possibilities:radical business outcomes,or radical costs.While companies might flock to the cloud to drive more business value,the ROI on their cloud migrations are often lacking.KPMGs 2022 U.S.Technology Survey

2、 found just over two-thirds of respondents had yet to realize significant ROI from cloud investments.Yet cloud adoption isnt slowing down.Gartner expects global public cloud expenditure to grow 21.7%from$491 billion in 2022 to almost$600 billion in 2023.Clearly businesses are investing a lot in the

3、potential for transformative business outcomes.But many fall short of that potential.How can organizations deliver on the promise of cloud without breaking the bank?Just over two-thirds of respondents had yet to realize significant ROI from cloud investments.2Why is cloud ROI falling short?GOING IN

4、WITHOUT A PLAN COMPLEXITYLACK OF VISIBILITYUNDER-UTILIZATIONINACCESSIBILITY3There are several pain points driving ROI disappointments:GOING IN WITHOUT A PLAN Businesses migrate to the cloud without a plan for managing costs.According to a 2021 Gartner investigation into cloud cost management,organiz

5、ations that dont include cost optimization plans in their cloud migrations end up overspending on cloud services by up to 70%without deriving the value they hoped for.A whole discipline,FinOps,emerged to cope with cloud cost management,but companies still have a long way to go in adopting this pract

6、ice.In its 2022 State of FinOps report,the non-profit FinOps Association found 45%of respondents considered themselves at the“pre-crawl”or“crawl”state of FinOps maturity.One of the clouds greatest benefits is also one of its threats friction-free onboarding.The ease of procuring cloud-based services

7、 makes it easier for business managers to take the reins,spending money on cloud services or applications that appeal to them.The problem is they often fail to check their purchases against ITs broader cloud strategy(assuming it exists)or to examine the existing software portfolio.COMPLEXITYInvestin

8、g in unnecessary cloud apps and services creates complexity that compounds the cost of cloud computing.This isnt just an application problem;it also affects other aspects of the cloud,like infrastructure as a service(IaaS).IaaS offers employees unlimited resources,but the downside is business heads

9、often use them without oversight.When a department with its own technical team spins up needlessly large virtual machines and then forgets to shut them down after use,or when it creates a new subdomain or virtual network segment,someone in IT has to manage all that and pay for it.This leads to needl

10、essly complex software portfolios with duplicate apps and services,driving up cloud costs.According to Ventana Research,on average,organizations work with more than five different technologies in their data stack while evaluating an additional seven technologies for use in the next 12 to 24 months.4

11、of respondents considered themselves at the“pre-crawl”or“crawl”state of FinOps maturity.45%LACK OF VISIBILITYIn many cases,it is impossible for IT to manage these cloud applications and services because they cannot see them all.Companies that dont control their cloud adoption across the board lack v

12、isibility into what they have,what it does,and who is using it.UNDER-UTILIZATIONCloud resources also often go unused.For instance,business departments purchase expensive cloud services,only to find the IT department isnt equipped to support them or integrate them with other corporate services,and ar

13、e left with shelfware the company pays for but cannot use.Apps and services unaligned with cloud strategy also make data the fuel that powers all cloud applications difficult to use.Users can only generate data they can access,leaving silos of data across unintegrated apps.A transformation that shou

14、ld break down barriers with information warehouses and data lakes ends up creating more of them.Data lies dormant in the organization,its value locked away.56The initiative reduced costs by$350,000 and saved 170 FTE hours each month,increasing productivity and leading to near-immediate value.$350kIN

15、ACCESSIBILITYComplex tech stacks and code-based tools,like a cloud data warehouse,can make it difficult for employees to get at the data they need,which means they cant contribute to getting value from data housed in the cloud.A complex,inaccessible tech stack means IT and data engineers must stitch

16、 that data together for employees,creating a divide between technical staff and the average user.For many companies,what was supposed to be a democratizing force that opens up data access to all ends exacerbates a traditional digital divide as non-technical users are left out.This erodes their moral

17、e and trust in technology.Faced with an expanding digital divide,Kingfisher plc,an international home improvement company based in London with nearly 2,000 retail stores in eight countries,adopted Alteryx.Kingfisher needed to automate HR data consolidation with Alteryx,which enhanced the ability of

18、the HR department to make decisions.The initiative reduced costs by$350,000 and saved 170 FTE hours each month,increasing productivity and leading to near-immediate value.Solutions to enhance cloud ROI7Organizations might be experiencing these pitfalls,but with the right strategies theyll be on thei

19、r way to more value.Its time for companies to level up their cloud strategies to unlock the value theyre leaving on the table by ensuring everyone in the organization can benefit from the cloud.1.UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS CASE2.EVOLVE GOVERNANCE MODELS TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE3.IMPROVE IT RELATIONSHIP

20、S WITH BUSINESS PARTNERS4.MAKE VISIBILITY A PRIORITY5.SIMPLIFY ACCESS TO DATA AND APPLICATIONS TO DEMOCRATIZE ANALYTICS6.MAKE SERVICES VISIBLE7.INNOVATE WITH INFORMATION SHARINGThe first step in a high-return cloud strategy is to agree on long-term business cases.Far too many companies adopt a lift-

21、and-shift approach to cloud migration that simply replicates existing systems in cloud-based virtual machines.This purely cost-based approach misses the fundamental transformational appeal of the cloud.A mature cloud transformation is tied to what your business cares about,focusing on the business v

22、alue you want to extract.McKinsey breaks this value extraction down into three broad stages:rejuvenation,innovation,and pioneering.In the rejuvenation stage,companies can focus on initial cost optimization,along with improved business resilience and digitized operations.This creates a platform for i

23、nnovation that empowers companies to create new use cases while using efficient cloud processes to accelerate product development.Finally,the pioneering stage enables companies to adopt emerging technologies that supercharge multiple facets of their business.AI is especially relevant,given its appli

24、cability to data analytics.8UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS CASE1That governance regime requires the right organizational structure.Explicitly designate someone as a product owner and make them accountable for their commitments regarding the software they want to buy.Hold these product owners accountable fo

25、r their pledges.While the IT department might be able to help,it is ultimately up to them to deliver to the users.A FinOps team is a linchpin in a cloud governance program to crunch the numbers and hold business product owners accountable.At Alteryx,the ROI on our internal IT FinOps practice is up t

26、o 30 x our investment in it.This tight focus on business cases must be strategic,driven by IT in collaboration with business management.Departments must give CIOs more oversight into their proposed purchases so IT can help evaluate them through a strategic lens.New cloud software and services should

27、 align with predefined use cases and come with an ROI plan.Business managers should be able to tell the CIO what key performance indicators they will measure the product against and what its expected performance will be.One such KPI might be monthly active users(MAU),which is a common metric used in

28、 consumer software to show usage rates.In an enterprise context,this can be a good indicator of software adoption,helping the CIO to understand how far a software service reaches into the business.9At Alteryx,the ROI on our internal IT FinOps practice is up to 30 x our investment in it.30 xEVOLVE GO

29、VERNANCE MODELS TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE2Navigating this governance journey can be a tricky political exercise,as it depends on the CIOs relationship with the rest of the business.It requires trust and respect to balance empowering business leaders in their use of IT while setting boundaries for the

30、m.CIOs should approach these discussions as partners with the business.Both parties should understand that effectively integrating cloud-based software and services and extracting value from them is a team sport.Building these relationships is a long-term discipline rather than a discrete project.Ac

31、hieving a mutually beneficial relationship between IT and business functions also requires robust negotiating skills.It might involve financial sweeteners from IT but should revolve around educating business managers that IT isnt free.Integrating and supporting software and services the business wan

32、ts requires a contribution from the business budget.If all else fails and a CIO cannot negotiate directly with lines of business,then they can call for influence from the rest of the C-suite.Summarizing the entire software spend in a report to key decision makers,along with metrics about cloud softw

33、are usage(or the lack of it),will focus their attention.The employees using these services are often left out during these discussions.The IT department must encourage business managers to engage their users,understanding their pain points to see how cloud-based software and services can improve the

34、ir work routines.Seek out and listen to feedback from all users before and during cloud migration to help secure their support for new products and services.10IMPROVE IT RELATIONSHIPS WITH BUSINESS PARTNERS3To hold product owners accountable for their softwares performance,IT must have visibility in

35、to its usage and other KPIs,along with renewals of software and services.Technology tools are crucial for transparency in software usage.They can help identify metrics,including MUA for applications,while also spotting cloud services and software the IT department didnt know about.Tools from cloud s

36、ervice providers can address IaaS usage,while visualization tools can track log-ins and usage of SaaS applications.11MAKE VISIBILITY A PRIORITY4IDC research shows analytics outpaces other software spending,which means analytics spend has an important impact on cloud spend.The same report found more

37、than 90%of organizations fail to utilize their employees analytics skills,which means investments in data infrastructure like the cloud data warehouse go unused.Data democratization is key for getting more ROI from a cloud data stack.This means CIOs must build an information governance strategy that

38、 puts access in the right hands at the right time.Building a robust information fabric where data flows freely is one part of the data democratization process.This is where a unified platform can help,making access to information more seamless instead of switching between multiple disjointed tools.T

39、he Alteryx 2023 State of Cloud Analytics report found respondents prefer a single,comprehensive analytics platform(60%)rather than switching between specialized point solutions(40%).The other is simplifying user access through effective interfaces.Craft these interfaces to reduce friction as much as

40、 possible in areas such as information sharing and service access.12This friction reduction begins with authentication.Tools such as single sign-on(SSO)make logins easier by reducing the need for employees to manage and maintain credentials for different services,making them more likely to access a

41、variety of applications.This has another upside:SSO systems can deliver valuable data on application usage.Another important friction reduction technique is the use of self-service interfaces,such as a low-code,no-code interface.These make it easier for non-technical employees to access data themsel

42、ves,with faster time to value,since employees can get up to speed more quickly.They boost ROI by expanding engagement among non-technical employees to increase productivity and preempting IT support tickets to reduce overhead.Preparing self-service options to answer popular questions will save non-t

43、echnical users from having to stitch together data from different sources themselves.These could be questions such as:What does the full customer journey look like?What is their total lifetime value?Connecting your business questions with your data platform will drive more value.CIOs can enhance clo

44、ud ROI even further by providing easy access to popular business metrics on a near-real-time basis.Data-driven indicators that move daily or even hourly represent a big productivity hike for many business users.SIMPLIFY ACCESS TO DATA AND APPLICATIONS TO DEMOCRATIZE ANALYTICS5Those data and applicat

45、ion self-service options only work if users know about them in the first place.All too often,software and services can go unused because business users are not aware of them.This is an area where CIOs can innovate.A self-service catalog with an easy query mechanism for non-technical users can provid

46、e a single point of reference to find the software theyre looking for quickly.The opportunity for innovation in service visibility is huge.CIOs can employ marketing techniques similar to those used in consumer software,such as regular notifications describing new cloud apps and services platforms.So

47、ftware platforms can prod users with reminders and tips after their initial engagement to foster and expand their product usage.To protect ROI,they can also set policies to turn things off if employees do not continue their engagement after a set period.AI can take service visibility a step further.

48、At Alteryx,we are working on an internal virtual agent that non-technical users can query to find out about software and services they are licensed for.13MAKE SERVICES VISIBLE6Employee training has always been a feature in any successful cloud migration,but CIOs and business managers face challenges

49、 persuading busy users to fit training sessions into their schedules.This is another area where they can innovate by creating more flexible information-sharing mechanisms that increase software and service engagement.Software vendors now often provide bite-sized content in the form of videos,animati

50、ons,or FAQ entries that make users more effective when using cloud software.IT departments can help cloud product and service teams use modern collaborative tools such as Teams or Slack to share these snippets.Some cloud applications also include prompts within the software interface itself that exp

51、lain how to accomplish certain tasks.This is the most effective tool of all,as it delivers targeted guidance precisely at the time and location the user needs it.14INNOVATE WITH INFORMATION SHARING715CONCLUSIONA successful cloud architecture is about striking many balances:Between security and self-

52、service,between investing in future innovation and managing present budget challenges,between under-utilization and overspending.An IT strategy thats aligned with business strategy and empowers non-technical users will maintain the right balance.Ultimately,the key to increasing non-technical,enterpr

53、ise-wide user engagement with cloud-based software and data is to make the technology itself disappear.When users dont have to think about the software tools when the interface becomes practically transparent they can achieve a state of enhanced productivity and flow with access to all of the data t

54、hey need at their fingertips.When companies mature enough to map software purchases against mature business use cases,collaborate with IT to buy and integrate that software,and then support it with usage tracking and low-friction access,they will have positioned themselves to claim the ROI that the

55、cloud always promised.NEXT STEPS Take the Data Scorecard to receive a personalized report of your organizations data maturity with insights into how to maximize your analytics ROI.Alteryx(NYSE:AYX)powers analytics for all with the award-winning Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform.With Alteryx,enterpris

56、es can make intelligent decisions across their organizations with automated,AI-driven insights.More than 8,000 customers globally rely on Alteryx to democratize analytics across use cases and deliver high-impact business outcomes.LEARN MOREstudioID is Industry Dives global content studio offering br

57、ands an ROI rich tool kit:Deep industry expertise,first-party audience insights,an editorial approach to brand storytelling,and targeted distribution capabilities.Our trusted in-house content marketers help brands power insights-fueled content programs that nurture prospects and customers from discovery through to purchase,connecting brand to demand.LEARN MORE