Cloud Implementations Fail Because of People, Not Technology

After four decades in IT consulting, including 18+ years at Oracle, I've learned one thing: the technology is rarely the problem. The people are.

I work with organizations moving from on-premise to cloud architectures. We start by creating your Cloud Adoption Charter - not corporate fluff, but clear SMART objectives that define what success actually looks like for your business. This becomes your compass when the inevitable challenges arise during implementation.

Here's what most cloud journeys miss: you can deploy the perfect technical solution, but if your users don't adopt it, you've failed. The transition to cloud services isn't primarily about infrastructure - it's about getting your people ready, willing, and able to work differently.

That's why my approach focuses on business adoption from day one. We identify your key stakeholders early, assess how the change impacts them, and build communication and training strategies that actually work. Not templates. Not best practices copied from someone else's project. A strategy built for your organization, your people, your situation.

I also work with system integrators and solution implementers. You're facing increasing pressure - tighter timelines, more complex implementations, customers who expect flawless execution.

I support Cloud Adoption Teams to identify and manage key stakeholders effectively. Together, we define your Cloud Adoption Strategy covering communication, training, and user support. This isn't about creating documents that sit on SharePoint. It's about giving your teams practical frameworks they can actually use when they're sitting across from a sceptical business user or a resistant department head.

Your technical teams are excellent at deploying infrastructure. But the human side - managing resistance, building adoption, ensuring stakeholders feel heard - that's where most implementations struggle. I coach your teams to navigate these challenges, drawing on a proven implementation methodology used.

Every cloud implementation affects different people in different ways. The CFO cares about different things than the operations manager. The end users have different concerns than the IT team.

Stakeholder assessment identifies who will influence your implementation success - and who will be impacted by it. We map these relationships early, understand their concerns, and address them proactively rather than reactively.

This isn't about politics. It's about understanding the human dynamics that will either support or undermine your implementation. When stakeholders feel heard from the beginning, they become advocates. When they feel blind sided, they become obstacles.

Before your users can adopt new cloud services, they need to understand what's changing for them specifically. Not at an abstract level - at the level of their daily work.

Business impact assessment identifies these changes: What processes will work differently? What skills do people need to develop? What will be easier? What will be harder, at least initially?

This assessment gives you the foundation for everything else - targeted communication, relevant training, appropriate support. Without it, you're guessing about what your users need.

Communication during cloud implementation isn't about announcements and newsletters. It's about ongoing dialogue that addresses the questions people actually have when they actually have them.

Training isn't about system features. It's about enabling people to do their jobs effectively in the new environment.

I've seen organizations spend enormous amounts on generic training that doesn't address their specific business processes. Users sit through eight hours of training and leave still not knowing how to complete their most critical tasks.

Effective training is targeted, relevant, and available when people need it - not just at go-live, but throughout the adoption curve.

Go-live is not the finish line. It's when the real work begins.

Users will have questions. They'll encounter situations not covered in training. They'll need help translating what they learned in a classroom to what they're facing at their desk.

End user support addresses this gap. Not just a help desk, but accessible support that helps users become proficient and eventually independent.

Organizations that invest in robust end user support see higher adoption rates, faster time-to-competency, and fewer abandoned implementations.