Creation of a Unified Cloud Readiness Assessment Model to Improve Digital Transformation Strategy

Abstract

Digital transformation can disrupt any organization in any industry, but few organizations have successfully transformed. For an organization to transform digitally, a firm must adopt new technologies that enable it to change how it creates value. One of the most crucial new technologies organizations need to facilitate digital transformation is Cloud services. Cloud-based technologies are necessary for digital transformation because they allow a firm to cost-effectively obtain needed infrastructure capacity, processing, and developmental flexibility to support advanced analytical tools and methods. Implementing and adopting cloud services can be challenging and requires firm leaders and transformation teams to have an effective strategy that requires understanding a company's cloud readiness. Multiple organizational factors can impact cloud readiness, and depending on a firm's strengths or weaknesses, each element will support or hinder the adoption of cloud services. Understanding a firm's cloud readiness has been shown to improve an organization's adoption of cloud services, but assessing readiness can also be challenging since different assessment models determine readiness in varying ways. Readiness assessment models range from generic technology adoption models to specific cloud services readiness models, and a unified approach is needed that combines the strengths of each model to create a more comprehensive assessment model. A meta-analysis of current readiness assessment models was conducted to identify what crucial factors of an organization need to be assessed. The findings show that there seems to be significant agreement that a company's strategy, current technology, existing operations, and external factors are crucial readiness factors. More recent assessment models also identify gaps in past models, especially on human capital capabilities, system flexibility needs, and security. A more unified cloud assessment model is proposed based on the analysis showing that a firm's readiness should be based on seven crucial factors: strategy, technology, current operations, external requirements, human capital, system flexibility, and security. The new proposed assessment model provides a more comprehensive assessment of a firm's cloud readiness and enables organizations to create an improved adoptions strategy that will better support a company's digital transformation.