Sky’s the limit for leaders who see cloud as a ‘Continuum’

Cloud computing is not about technology. It should be managed as a strategic business transformation, and thus must be on top of every CEO’s agenda.

While European business leaders have led by example amid COVID-19 by migrating companies to the cloud – catching up their American and Asian peers – many have not focused enough on the bigger picture.

That picture has become clear: the cloud is a game-changing strategic opportunity to transform operations for a new era of global competition.

Chief executives in the U.S. and China have realised this, and are leveraging the cloud to reinvent the way they work, enhance customer value, speed up time to market and accelerate their sustainability agenda.

But Accenture research suggests their European counterparts need to adopt similar strategic aims.

Our global survey of nearly 4,000 executives found many European companies are still chasing the promise of cheaper data centres or being held back by regulations, privacy concerns, security and compliance risks, and misaligned IT and business aims.

This is reflected in investment: European companies lag their peers in using the cloud to achieve ambitious business goals such as sustainability and better customer experience.

Continuum Competitors

The good news is that an elite cadre of business leaders in Europe are reaching inspirational strategic heights – with a massive impact on costs, workers, and carbon footprints.

These pioneers do not see the cloud just in terms of cutting costs – but as an entirely new way of working that offers a seamless means to interact with customers, partners and workers, make and sell products, design IT, and reimagine data.

The visionaries envisage the cloud as a “Continuum” of capabilities and opportunities to shape new business models, sharpen agility, innovate faster, launch new services at speed and scale, and enable sustainable growth.

They are turning their companies into “Continuum Competitors” for whom the cloud is integral to success.

French multinational Schneider Electric, for example, has launched its own cloud platform called EcoStruxure to deliver IoT-enabled solutions at scale for homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure and industries. By leveraging advances in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics and cybersecurity, the platform enables clients to connect every aspect of their enterprise, collect and analyse critical data, and act based on real-time information and business logic. The result is enhanced safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability.

Cloud defined IKEA’s response to the pandemic. The Swedish furniture group, which started its own digital transformation efforts several years ago, responded to the pandemic-fuelled online shopping frenzy by instantly transforming its technology infrastructure, converting closed stores into fulfilment centres, and enabling contactless ‘Click & Collect’ services while increasing the capacity to manage large web traffic volumes and online orders. Cloud technologies allowed IKEA to achieve in weeks what would normally have taken years or months – and the group has now put it at the heart of a permanent reinvention of operations.

By envisioning the cloud as a new operating realm, Continuum Competitors reap rich rewards – slashing costs three times more than migration-only peers, humanising workplaces, and achieving twice the reduction in carbon footprints.

Now, more business leaders need to follow suit – data indicate that so far just 1 in 10 European companies are “Continuum Competitors”.

In short, when it comes to strategic thinking, it pays for chief executives to have this time their heads in the cloud. Read our full report here.