A view from CIOs: How to lead on cloud and analytics

Genpact's study, Digital transformation insights from CIOs for CIOs, shows that 82% of CIOs are building a culture of data-driven decision-making – powered by cloud and analytics. Despite this, nearly 70% say their teams are not fully prepared to withstand a significant business disruption.

Here, we'll explore how CIOs can build a cloud and analytics strategy that supports agility, collaboration, and resilience and lays a foundation for other technologies like generative AI.

Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation. Almost all (98%) of the CIOs in our study agree that their companies make data-driven decisions to realize business value. Of course, all this data should live in the cloud. As enterprise leaders try to get closer to customers by building resilient, purpose-led organizations, they realize that moving data to the cloud can unlock the actionable insights they need.

But to generate insights at scale, enterprise leaders must unify all their data sources in one place – a colossal task that calls for industry expertise. Building a data-driven culture is also critical. Employees need the ability to process, analyze, and extract insights from the treasure trove of data at their fingertips.

As a result, employees are suddenly seeing that the decisions they make, the processes they follow, and the metrics they value are not just 'their' metrics. They're starting to understand that the actions they take have implications for others, and sometimes those decisions make it harder and harder for other teams to do what they need to do.

So, as data becomes an integral part of every function, all employees need access to the tools and skills to unlock its power. "Being a data-led organization is absolutely imperative to our success," says Rogan Moore, chief digital and information officer at Livekindly. "We can't be an intelligent, data-driven business if our data is fragmented and inaccessible."

At Genpact, for example, we launched DataBridge, an initiative to embed data literacy across our organization and shift employees away from transactional projects and into insight-generating roles. By democratizing access to data and learning, we ensure all employees have a fair shot at advancing their skills and apply that knowledge to serve clients better.

Nonetheless, these efforts will only deliver results with a reliable cloud foundation.

So, how can CIOs harness the power of analytics? Here's our checklist:

• Remove silos and organize your data – this needs to happen before the cloud transition
• Seek industry and functional expertise – then build data-driven cloud solutions specific to your business needs
• Upskill your workforce to embrace a data-driven culture – employees can then rely on facts to make business decisions
• Enhance accessibility with cloud – so all employees can use data-driven insights to get closer to your customers

Let's not forget that new technologies, like generative AI, emerge all the time. The crème de la crème of generative AI applications are built on foundation models trained in a self-supervised way on unlabeled data to identify underlying patterns. But this is only possible if you give people access to the right data at the right time.

The most innovative CIOs follow a cloud-based data strategy. This undertaking involves modernizing cloud infrastructure to maximize the value of data and analytics.

With their data on the cloud, CIOs can make the best use of their talent – their employees – and can build a culture of data-driven decisions. And it's not just employees who benefit. CIOs can also use data to make informed decisions on new products, services, and customer experiences.

Of course, every cloud strategy will look a little different. In our Conversations on cloud series, Genpact's global leader of cloud and technology services, Vikrant Karnik, stresses the need for a bespoke approach. "Leaders must develop a cloud strategy that fuses industry expertise with process expertise. They must focus on what they're trying to achieve and how they can leverage the power of engineering to deliver better business outcomes."

Cloud and analytics are also crucial for building business resilience, ensuring organizations stay ahead of the competition. In fact, about 40% of CIOs thank migrating data centers to the cloud and advanced analytics for helping them adjust to changing business conditions.

In summary, investing in cloud technology is only the first step. A solid framework for putting data into the cloud will help CIOs and technology leaders thrive.

So, how can CIOs make the most of the cloud? Here's our checklist:

• Connect your data to your cloud strategy – cloud and analytics should be intrinsically linked
• Modernize operations with cloud – migration alone doesn't deliver innovation
• Transform with talent – embrace new ways of working and a collaborative cloud culture
• Develop a bespoke transformation strategy – fuse industry and process expertise with the power of engineering

Almost all of the CIOs in our study (98%) also agree that their responsibilities will evolve over the next two years, prompting them to become more strategic and collaborative with other business leaders. This partnership will be crucial to help their enterprises withstand the next significant business disruption.

Despite shifting roles and an ever-changing business landscape, CIOs can look to the future with confidence – if they have a comprehensive strategy for cloud and analytics, Only then will they have a solid foundation for technologies like generative AI to boost agility, resilience, employee satisfaction, and profits.