Why Automation Is the Cornerstone of Your IT Strategy

As a child, you roamed around your neighborhood on a bike, scooter, or skateboard. And that did the job until you grew older and wanted to roam to other towns. So, you levelled up and bought a car. In effect, as you matured, you moved from using a tool that performed a simple task to one that provided better connections and experiences on a broader scale.

Like your childhood experience, a primary benefit of IT automation is its scalability. From tactical and local use to crossing IT functions and siloes. As a result, automation has become invaluable for forwarding thinking organizations.

As organizations grow and evolve, IT becomes essential to business success. Your IT team is charged with maximizing availability, performance, and flexibility while minimizing cost and risk. To meet these challenges, successful IT leaders have turned up the automation dial with more companies piloting projects. According to our 2021 State of Service Management report, 56% of respondents ranked automation as their number one goal for the year.

Starting with tactical blocking and tackling of simple service desk tasks, automation can scale to orchestrate IT operations providing the foundational element for transformative initiatives.

Automation approached holistically becomes the cornerstone on which to build out your IT strategy.

Starting with tactical blocking & tackling of simple #servicedesk tasks, #automation can scale to orchestrate IT ops providing the foundational element for transformative initiatives. This blog explores. #ITSM Share on X

Tactical automation supports daily demands

In its simplest use cases, automation provides tactical advantages for service desks. It opens opportunities to optimize processes, inspect tasks in the flow, remove inefficiencies, mature processes, and free resources.

Tactical automation dramatically improves service desk process handling that valuable IT staff are doing manually now. It eradicates repetitive, time-consuming tasks that are prone to human errors. In doing so, automation manages daily demands with greater efficiency and allows teams to focus on more purposeful and challenging work.

And there is an added benefit. Skilled IT professionals are expensive to recruit, hire, and retain. Eliminating repetitive tasks protects IT staff. Your team is more likely to stay engaged and experience greater work satisfaction.

Let’s look at how tactical automation can be used.

This blog takes a look at how tactical #automation can be used on the #servicedesk to eliminate repetitive tasks – helping to keep your team stay engaged & to experience greater work satisfaction. #ITSM Share on X

Tactical automation at work

Take service desk tickets. I’m sure you want to improve your service level agreement (SLA) targets. Automating the journey of a ticket simplifies and speeds ticket tracking and management.

Ticket assignment and prioritization both benefit from automation. Think of the many and varied applications. In healthcare, for example where the patient is the number one priority. Any ticket that prevents a clinician from providing healthcare must not sit in a queue awaiting prioritization by a technician. Instead, these tickets can route as a high priority automatically. In an education setting, tickets could be routed automatically based on who submits the ticket, either teaching staff or a student, without the need to look up submitter details. Ticket escalations are also a prime candidate to ensure faster resolution or service delivery.

And that’s only the start of the ticket journey.

Automating notifications and reminders safeguard tickets from being forgotten by your overstretched staff. And, automating end-user notifications reduce the number of inbound status inquiries and improve the end-user experience.

Let’s not forget your number one cause of ticket queues. The routine, repetitive nature of password resets means they’re an everyday use case for tactical automation. Automatic resets reduce ticket volumes, improves experiences, and curtail service desk costs.

Even routine change management tasks may qualify. With the appropriate rules in place, change processes benefit from automated approvals that speed up execution.

However, automation of tasks within service desk processes and tools only scratches the surface of the power of IT automation.

Automation of tasks within #servicedesk processes & tools only scratches the surface of the power of IT #automation... This blog looks at how it also supports transformation. Share on X

Orchestration supports transformation

At the other end of the spectrum is automation that permeates IT infrastructures. We’re talking about transformative automation that streamline processes and bridge different systems. It creates efficiencies, seamless, superior experiences, risk reduction and innovation opportunities.

Here’s why this is important right now.

Enterprise-wide digital transformation and innovation are the hot topics for C-level executives in leading organizations today. In the CIO Outlook 2021 report, no less than 77% of CIOs and IT organizations rated digital transformation as the top priority for the year.

Yet, transformation and innovation often lack resources and the necessary agility to execute. Savvy technology leaders are investing in automation to drive operational efficiencies and agility as a foundation for innovation and transformation projects.

Did you know that cross-IT automation can take a request through the whole process from ticket submission to fulfillment? This blog shares examples. #ITSM #automation Share on X

Automation at work

Earlier, we touched on automating tasks in processes such as requests. Cross-IT automation can take a request through the whole process from ticket submission to fulfillment.

Imagine an end user enters a new software request through a self-service portal. Following the proper approvals, the software deploys to an end user’s device automatically, which involves:

1. The request categorization, routing, and prioritization within a service desk tool.
2. The checks for license availability.
3. The software deployment by your endpoint management tool

Importantly, this all takes place seamlessly without human intervention. The orchestration across systems improves delivery time. It eliminates manual hand-offs between stretched IT teams and in doing so, it also reduces friction and communication gaps.

Branching out from core processes, consider the automation of event monitoring. Monitoring tools send out hundreds of alerts. While some are informational, others need action. How beneficial would it be if alerts requiring action triggered the creation of a ticket? Without human intervention, the ticket can be escalated or even resolved and closed automatically based on specific rules. In this case, automation identifies a signal in a stream of event alerts that can take days to wade through.

Have you considered the automation of event monitoring? Offboarding processes? Software requests? This blog looks at how it works in practice. #ITSM #automation Share on X

Automation may start at the service desk, but it can be used across the enterprise, for example, within the HR process of onboarding. Onboarding a new employee often involves many actions stemming from a single request. Activities include setting up a laptop, creating an Active Directory account, and granting network access rights. The request may also cover the security team provisioning an identity pass and a request to Facilities for a workspace. Various departments must coordinate delivery to ensure a new employee has a great first-day impression. Replacing paper-based or manual steps with cross-departmental system automation ensures nothing falls through the cracks. The process becomes faster and more efficient. Plus, the new employee benefits from a great experience.

Even more important is the automation of your offboarding processes. Revoking access to applications and corporate information is easy to forget or is deprioritized in busy working days. Automating offboarding processes means your organization isn’t left open to unnecessary security risks.

There are many more use cases for automation and service orchestration. Spin up virtual machines, scan for vulnerabilities to update security patches, deploy containerized applications, or support continuous delivery for example. The possibilities to transform are endless.

The bottom line? Using #automation holistically, IT teams improve speed, accuracy, consistency and experiences that can make a difference across the organization. #ITSM Share on X

The bottom line

Automation delivers quick wins and handles routine, mundane tasks resulting in time and cost savings. Yet, automation can also manage complex orchestration. It provides an opportunity to scale operations and create an environment for innovation.

Businesses today are demanding IT innovation, agility, speed, and scalability. Using automation holistically, IT teams improve speed, accuracy, consistency and experiences that can make a difference across the organization.

From incremental improvements to digital transformation, these are the foundations for IT strategy success, and today’s automation capabilities deliver on both.