Adebayosoye Awonaike: Tackling Cloud Modernization Challenges at Legal & General Capital

The Business of Data Podcast

Adebayosoye Awonaike, Head of Data at Legal & General Capital outlines his cloud transformation journey at the investment company

Over recent months, investment firm Legal & General Capital has undertaken a cloud transformation journey to democratize data within the organization.

In this week’s Business of Data podcast, Legal & General Capital’s Head of Data Adebayosoye Awonaike, talks about his experiences leading this transformation, and the challenges faced along the way. The company’s data strategy requires readily available and usable data throughout the organization.

He says: “We needed to centralize data, that’s really driven our conversations over the last few months because we had to shop across a range of suppliers. Ultimately, we decided we were going cloud because that’s just what would work for the business.”

Finding The Right Partner for Cloud Transformation

As cloud adoption continues across organizations and industries, finding the right solutions provider needs the transformation leader to be aware of their business’s unique needs.

One of Awonaike’s initial challenges was in finding the best cloud partner to undertake the journey with. He based the decision on the alignment between Legal & General’s strategic direction and the vendor’s own roadmap and ambitions. Next, he focused on developing his team’s skills to maximize the benefit of the initiative.

“It was really about building a team to deliver this solution, a team with a wide range of skills, from solutions architects to testers,” Awonaike says.

He also cultivates his team's storytelling abilities to increase cross-functional engagement.

“While a business product owner could reach out to just the scrum master, I would rather have the data engineer tell the story through his demo than for him to just do the technical bit,” he continues.

Don’t Stop Reiterating Business Value

Even with the cloud solution in place, data leaders still have to prove value in their investment. Awonaike finds that regular scrum sessions between his team and the rest of the organization ensure the transformation unfolds in line with evolving business needs.

Awonaike explains: “Business requirements can be volatile. You can’t hear the requirements once and never check back in with business. You need to keep the engagement going, so we have two-week sprints that basically let us fail very quickly then get things right.”

“No business leader wants to throw away money. So, the question is what value are you adding? If you're able to paint the picture of what value is, whether it’s tangible, in terms of revenue or intangible, there has to be a value the business can connect with.” he concludes.

Key Takeaways

• Finding the right cloud provider. The ideal solutions provider has to meet your business's unique set of needs

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