When companies transition their IT operations from an on-premise platform to a cloud environment, it isn’t just the technologies in question that need to be upgraded. The skills of the organization’s IT department and its line-of-business units may have to change, as well.

That’s because managing and using cloud-based services presents a different set of responsibilities and challenges than on-prem IT, which in turn means new expectations from everyone from system admins to senior managers. To understand how, imagine replacing a legacy ERP system with an Oracle Cloud solution:

• Once the new platform is in place, many of the workflows that were once so important to the old ERP way of doing things — for example, managing disparate versions of Java, scheduling customization projects, applying patches and updates on an ad hoc basis — no longer apply. Accordingly, a lot of workers will need to redefine their roles.
• Indeed, the cloud service provider (CSP) now handles many of the tasks that once fell to in-house IT teams, including pushing out and applying routine updates, securing critical infrastructure within the stack and configuring databases. Some skills and responsibilities will no longer be as vital, while others will suddenly be in much higher demand.
• Handling these major changes to what IT personnel and other employees do may require rethinking how the whole organization is structured, not to mention the ways in which it communicates. New executives and/or decision-making bodies could be necessary for successfully navigating the cloud journey.

Oracle itself has grouped all of these trends under the umbrella of organizational change management 2.0, or OCM 2.0, but we’ll simply call it organizational change. The term “digital transformation” may also apply, since implementing cloud computing services means that key processes that were once mostly manual, highly siloed and predominantly offline are now more automated, integrated and conveniently accessible via IP networks.

How are teams rising to the occasion? Let’s dive into a few examples of how some of their specific roles and requirements are evolving in the context of organizational change.

 

ERP experts: The importance of analytics

It’s no secret that certain types of technical expertise are in short supply. A Manpower Group survey found 45% of global companies struggling to fill pivotal roles. For ERP specifically, a big hurdle is securing talent who have competency in data analytics.

More specifically, these personnel need to be able to glean insights from large datasets while also being knowledgeable about key emerging tech such as chatbots, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. External consultants are often brought in to fill these gaps.

However, it’s usually more efficient to strategically retrain and redeploy current IT personnel if possible. By learning to leverage the power of SaaS and PaaS solutions, these workers can contribute to cloud success.

In older ERP paradigms, business analysts oversee extensive customization to plug functionality gaps in those systems. The flexibility of cloud alternatives means that such adjustments are no longer as important.

Business analysts: Less customization, more strategic vision

In a cloud world, business analysts instead will need to redeploy their energies in areas such as improved testing and de-siloing of certain processes. Regarding the latter, the effective use of “soft” skills for better communication and collaboration will be pivotal.

Overall, the new role for the business analyst is one that’s more strategic and less tactical — i.e., more focus on how the cloud solution is setting up the organization for success, and less on how any given customization project is proceeding.

Application developers: Integrations take center stage

App developers once needed to be especially proficient in areas such as database triggers and the use of development tools like Oracle Forms. Such on-prem skills are not required to support cloud. Instead, skills to integrate various frameworks and digital services into the cloud platform are now much more important. Technologies like Hadoop and competencies such as building RESTful APIs are central to supporting a modern cloud implementation.

We’ve only scraped the surface of what organizational change and digital transformation will mean for IT and line-of-business roles. To learn more, be sure to view our full-length webinar on this topic.