Is your team ready for the cloud?

Is your team ready for the cloud?A perspective on cloud workforce implications for financial services organizations

A perspective on cloud workforce implications for financial services organizations 2A perspective on cloud workforce implications for financial services organizations 2

Cloud adoption is no longer just a business priority, but a business imperative. While many top-performing financial services organizations are at the edge of this digital disruption, fully integrating talent into a workforce that can deliver on the full promise of cloud remains a challenge.

Cloud-enabled workforce: A business imperative

Cloud-able ≠ cloud-enabled

Enabling your workforce for the cloud

Legacy workforce strengths can accelerate your cloud journey

Getting started

Looking forward

Contents

01

02

03

04

06

A perspective on cloud workforce implications for financial services organizations 3

05

4


Gaining momentum in the past five years—and accelerated by the seismic disruption to work, workforce, and workplace caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—cloud adoption is shifting from a business priority to a business imperative.1 And, although the market performance drivers in the financial services industry have remained consistent, top-performing organizations are increasingly at the edge of this digital disruption across the business landscape.

Now confident in the security afforded by public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures, leading organizations have accelerated their migrations to the cloud.2 For financial services providers, in particular, cloud adoption is enabling and accelerating the organizational agility, operational

speed, and next generation analytics that it will take to win in the market. Specifically, cloud gives financial services organizations the ability to:

• Allocate capital quickly, efficiently, and effectively

• Evaluate data to identify opportunities to capture return and price risks

• Bring innovative products and business models to market within a complex, shifting regulatory landscape

Cloud’s ability to accelerate the drivers of financial performance is the reason why the migration to cloud is well underway in the industry and why more firms will undoubtedly follow.In this new, cloud-based environment, cloud adoption by

06

05

01

04

02

03


5

In this new, cloud-based environment, cloud adoption by the workforce is no longer a nice-to-have. Indeed, building a cloud-ready workforce in this new world of work is a talent imperative. However, in the urgency and excitement generated by ramp-ups in investments and in new cloud infrastructure and services, even leading organizations are constrained by a limited ability to acquire, upgrade, and/or integrate talent into a workforce that can deliver on the full promise (and full ROI) of cloud adoption.

“COVID-19 not only accelerated digital adoption, but has also been a litmus test for banks’ digital infrastructures. Institutions that made strategic investments in technology came out stronger, but laggards may still be able to leapfrog if they take swift action to accelerate tech modernization. Across the board, digital inertia has faded, and more banks are pursuing technology-driven transformation, especially of core systems.“3


06

05

01

04

02

03



Cloud-able ≠ cloud-enabled

What to modernize, when, and how are all fundamental questions in an organization’s cloud journey, and executing a strategy that gets these questions “right” has never been more complex. Modernizing the right apps, retiring the right legacy infrastructure, and accurately planning data center exits means that everything will move faster. But moving at the speed of cloud means that your workforce must move faster, too.

What many organizations discover in their journey, even with expert planning of their tech stack, is that their cloud adoption is constrained by a lack of strategic planning for cloud’s new demands on talent and the workforce. Talent obstacles are abundant, even at the most technically sophisticated financial services organizations. These obstacles can include lack of technical know-how, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, limited coordination between business units, and failure to retain cloud-ready talent due to cultural practices and outdated ways of working.

However, realizing full cloud ROI is nearly impossible without a workforce that knows how to strategize, operate, and execute in a cloud environment. Today’s workforce, with today’s skills, cannot realize the full value of cloud investments without a strategic plan for developing cloud-ready, cloud-enabled teams enriched with the new skills and ways of working that will power the next generation of technology solutions in financial services.

06

05

01

04

02

03



Developing a tech workforce that is ready to adopt, operate, and execute in the cloud, and an enterprise workforce (including business leaders) that is fully aligned to the cloud vision, will generate more ROI from strategic tech investments in cloud infrastructure. Such a workforce can also enable businesses to fully realize the speed, flexibility, and efficiency that the cloud promises. But what defines a cloud-enabled workforce?

In cloud-native and cloud-mature organizations, the consistent indicators of workforce cloud enablement are represented by six key success pillars:

In cloud-mature organizations, IT includes defined, forward-looking cloud roles and has established a workforce planning strategy to source the needed talent.

What we hear from talent leadersIn this new environment, there are critical questions that cloud-native or cloud-mature organizations can answer, such as:

• How do I compete for top tech talent in such a competitive talent market?

• Do I need product owners, and where do I find them?

• Do I have agile experts in my organization, and do I need to reimagine their roles?

7

06

05

01

04

02

03

KEY CHALLENGEThere’s an opportunity for organizations to better understand the job families and critical future-state functions play in a cloud-ready IT workforce.

Roles

Roles

Operating model

Teams

Governance

Leadership

Skills and human capabilities


“We can’t build cloud fluency pathways in an HR vacuum. They must be co-developed by the business and technology organization.” – Chris Thomas, Cloud Leader, Banking & Capital Markets

At cloud-mature organizations, roles have been examined, resulting in a strategic prioritization of financial services product and business acumen, cloud skills, and human capabilities—and a structured approach to build them.

What we hear from talentIn cloud-mature organizations, key questions that organizations answer include:

• What skills, tools, and platforms does my workforce need to include?

• What skills and capabilities do I build, buy, or borrow?

“A lot of organizations do not realize they have skills and development gaps. The do-it-yourself approach to upskilling, especially critical cloud roles, has not worked.” – Jib Wilkinson, Cloud Leader, Investment Management & Real Estate

8

KEY CHALLENGEDespite prioritizing cloud skills and human capabilities, some organizations lack a structured, strategic approach to ready, upskill and develop their workforces to both innovate and operate successfully in the cloud.

Skills and human capabilities


06

05

01

04

02

03


“Your current IT organization can get you started in cloud adoption, but with tremendous effort and usually only in silos. Adopting in silos is a huge risk—it will plateau adoption efforts in the long term and deplete your ROI.” – Akash Tayal, Cloud Leader, Insurance

Cloud-mature and cloud-native organizations have reimagined their operating models to support cloud adoption. Accompanying the new operating model are leaders in the right position to execute it.

Cloud-enabled organizations are able to answer key questions, such as:

• How do we keep the organization from adopting cloud in silos?

• How do we scale cloud operations excellence across business units?

Mature, cloud-enabled organizations have teams that have adopted collaborative, innovative, and efficient working styles. They use cloud platforms to automate and innovate. They also often leverage pod-based delivery teams, working cross-functionally, to achieve outcomes.

In cloud-mature organizations, proper controls and guardrails are established to create a purposeful cloud governance structure that drives the organization forward in realizing its full cloud investment.

Leadership across cloud-native or cloud-mature organizations understands both the capabilities of cloud and cloud’s impact on their areas of the business.

9

Operating model

Teams

Governance

Leadership


06

05

01

04

02

03


Like all businesses, financial services organizations face many challenges on the journey to cloud adoption. However, the IT organizations in the vast majority of these businesses have long-established strengths they can harness to accelerate their digital transformations: speed, analytics, efficiency, and innovation. Indeed, the characteristics that define the industry are also the benefits of cloud. Bottom line: Because of its strengths, financial services is an industry particularly well-suited to thrive in the cloud.

Organizations seeking momentum in their cloud adoption journeys can harness:

• Native analytics expertise, understanding the importance of using analytics to capture value. Cloud will infuse these workforces with new techniques, faster and more robust data tools, and new connections.

• Talent brands that can compete with Big Tech, for highly skilled cognitive talent who are open to learning new skills quickly and likely have some experience in cloud already. It will be easier for financial services organizations to infuse new IT talent, even if it is only pass-through.

• An IT workforce that has a strong culture of compliance, process, and procedure, which will be a strong asset once an adoption strategy is defined and mobilized.

• Established learning organizations and available on-the-job experiences to help groom current practitioners into future cloud leaders, specifically for roles like site reliability engineer and full-stack developer.

06

05

01

04

02

03

Legacy workforce strengths can accelerate your cloud journey



Developing a cloud-enabled workforce involves six key steps organizations can take to help them recruit and retain the talent they need to help them navigate their cloud journey.

11

06

05

01

04

02

03

Getting started

1Align leadership. To fully realize the ROI on cloud, make changes collaboratively. While the efforts of a cloud endeavor may be siloed, its impacts are not.

2Redefine and reimagine critical cloud roles and build a workforce plan around them. Roles should be redesigned for cloud, and these efforts should be collaborative—an effort between both IT and HR. With greater collaboration comes greater clarity around the workforce needed and the ability to build a tailored workforce plan for talent sourcing.

3Reexamine skills and capabilities; build a structured approach to developing them. With the desire for a more innovative and skilled workforce also comes the need for a redesigned learning approach. How can we use the cloud to grow these skills in the workforce?

A leading global insurer created a top-down mandate for driving cloud, with each unit assigning cloud adoption goals to business and IT leaders. The goal for driving cloud was not just measured in terms of the number of applications migrated, but also in the reduction in mean time to change for business capabilities, as well as new capabilities delivered—hence driving the true value of cloud in a collaborative manner.

A global investment management firm composed future role and skill profiles with a cross-business think tank to understand both enterprisewide and business-line-specific needs for future hires.

A national consumer credit and banking company established its own “tech college” to attract, retain, and develop top technical talent, establishing priority disciplines aligned to core business strategy. These disciplines were led by “deans,” who were respected technology business leaders.


4Reorganize the operating model. In reorganization, it’s essential to ensure that leaders in place understand the power and capability of cloud. Legacy operating models must be reimagined and redesigned to fit the new ways of developing and operating cloud applications and managing cloud usage patterns.

5Revamp governance. A cloud-based governance pays homage to a traditional governance while being updated to match the innovative speed generated by a cloud system.

Many organizations today are implementing controls and guardrails through patterns and code versus traditional governance methods. The guardrails help drive an accelerated and less onerous governance, with only exceptions requiring manual interventions.

6Look beyond the walls of IT. As agile teams continue to become the norm beyond IT, it will be imperative that the enterprise workforce, business leaders, and business partners across the organization be comfortable with new norms and new ways of working. Up-front planning for these changes will mitigate adoption risks and avoid adoption plateaus.

Getting started

One regional bank developed a video series to introduce the business to agile and “new ways of working.” The video prepared business leaders and teams for increased collaboration and teaming with the IT organization.

A leading global insurer stood up a “fit-for-purpose” centralized cloud operations team to support individual business units. This team provided certified cloud services, security, and architectural guardrails, while enabling business flexibility. Services ranged from “zero-touch” to “white-glove” depending on needs and skills maturity.

06

05

01

04

02

03

A perspective tions 13

Looking forwardIn the midst of unprecedented disruption, cloud adoption has soared, and

succeed will leverage their existing strengths, to be sure. They will also realign and reimagine operating models and leadership. Most importantly, though, they will reimagine and reinvent their enterprise talent model to help them take full advantage of the cloud’s transformational promise.

Let’s talk

Joshua HaimsCloud Enabled Workforce Leader, Financial Services | Deloitte Consulting LLP [email protected] | +1 215 246 2577

Luca GiuratrabocchettaITALY

Cloud FSI Leader | Deloitte Consulting Srl [email protected]

Massimo MilantaSystem Engineering Leader| Deloitte Consulting Srl [email protected]

Martin KamenCloud Enabled Workforce Leader, US | Deloitte Consulting LLP

[email protected] | +1 415 783 5696

Greg DracosCloud Enabled Workforce, Financial Services | Deloitte Consulting LLP


Akash TayalCloud Leader, Insurance | Deloitte Consulting LLP


Chris ThomasCloud Leader, Banking & Capital Markets | Deloitte Consulting LLP


Jib WilkinsonCloud Leader, Investment Management & Real Estate | Deloitte Consulting LLP [email protected] | +1 617 437 2073

www.deloitte.com/us/cloudworkforce-operatingmodel

A perspective tions 13

06

05

01

04

02

03

mailto:jhaims%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:mkamen%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:gdracos%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:aktayal%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:chrthomas%40deloitte.com?subject=

http://www.deloitte.com/us/cloudworkforce-operatingmodel


Endnotes

1. Deloitte Insights, “The future of cloud-enabled work infrastructure: Making virtual business infrastructure work,” September 23, 2020.

2. Ibid.

3. Deloitte Insights, “2021 banking and capital markets outlook,” December 3, 2020.


https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/cloud-infrastructure-strategy.html/?id=us:2em:3na:4di6855:5awa:6di:MMDDYY:&pkid=1007406

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/cloud-infrastructure-strategy.html/?id=us:2em:3na:4di6855:5awa:6di:MMDDYY:&pkid=1007406

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/financial-services-industry-outlooks/banking-industry-outlook.html

This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional adviser. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.

Copyright © 2021 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Documents

Is your team ready for the cloud?