IT Process Automation

IT process automation: benefits and where to start

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IT operations represent one of the most fundamental infrastructures of an organization, like the engine of a ship. When that engine is running strongly, the whole ship operates smoothly. And when you want the ship to perform even better, you start by looking at how to improve the engine. CTOs, CIOs, and heads of IT are always asking: are there any IT tasks that we are spending more time on than we need to on? Does 80% of our effort go to 20% of our problems? Can I free up my team’s time for more strategic projects? To answer these questions, many organizations look to IT process automation to make their IT operations run more efficiently, ultimately helping them to focus on higher level tasks, improve team retention, and fulfill services faster.

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Where to start on IT process automation (4 key questions)

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We have identified 4 key questions to start with that will help you and your team identify opportunities for automation:

Where are my repetitive, predictable processes?

Where do I have manual processes that follow a predictable workflow and occur frequently? For example, requests that come to the IT team that always follows a specific procedure, such as password resets, software updates, network, and device access issues. Are there documents we always end up referring our employees to that are the most helpful guides to a problem, and we would rather divert people to these documents first before coming to the IT team to troubleshoot further?

How is our future budget looking?

Is our IT department’s budget increasing next year, or decreasing? Is our plan to hire more full-time, part-time, or contract employees? Or is hiring decreasing for our team in the coming financial years, even though performance expectations are the same or higher? Financial pressures often force us to innovate—and bringing automation into the team can provide a cost-effective solution to amplify a team’s productivity or re-allocate your team’s resources to different projects as your needs evolve.

What do we currently outsource?

What IT services are being outsourced from beyond our organization? Can some of these be brought in house and automated? This may also represent a savings for the organization. Some organizations outsource their helpdesk and IT agents, and bringing this in house can not only impact budget but also increase employee satisfaction. Also, outsourced IT services tend to be fluent in their own programs and policies, not always yours. Bringing this in house through automation can have services trained on your unique programs and systems, improving your mean time to resolution.

How can I improve my team retention?

Listen to the feedback from your IT team. Do they sound stressed or frustrated by a specific range of tasks they must perform regularly? Could automating those tasks increase the satisfaction of your team, and free them up for more complex projects? IT professionals are the first line of defense within the organization when things break, tickets need to be handled, hardware and software needs to be distributed and managed—automating some of these tasks can improve the team’s retention and satisfaction. A study by Gartner reveals that service desks suffer a 41% attrition rate due to being inundated and simply overwhelmed with several repetitive tasks.

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Examples of IT processes that may be automated

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Based on the questions above, here is a list of processes that are repetitive, predictable, and don’t need to be outsourced. By automating these tasks, you can save money and improve your team’s satisfaction and productivity:

• Access and password requests
• Software provisioning and licensing
• Handling service desk tickets
• Network and systems community health audits
• Equipment and hardware management
• Compliance reviews and safety checks

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Benefits of IT process automation to the organization

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Not only will IT teams appreciate the improved efficiencies of automation, but there are added positive benefits that will ripple throughout your whole organization:

• Faster Ticket Resolution: By automating certain aspects of the service desk, employee issues will be resolved faster, enabling them to return to their critical tasks. 
• 24/7 Support:  Your organization will benefit from round the clock support, as employees in different time zones or working remotely will all have access to high quality IT services. 
• Cost Re-Allocation: When IT costs are reduced thanks to automation, these budgets can be reallocated to other important IT initiatives, such as updating networks, hardware, and software for the organization, or devoting resources to projects like building new systems and apps.
• Enhanced Employee Satisfaction: Employees outside and inside of IT will be able to get back to their critical tasks faster, and that’s a win for the whole organization.

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How are other IT teams approaching automation?

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Because Espressive is a leader in bringing automation to the workplace, we’ve seen some fantastic success stories of IT teams who saw positive results and increased ROI when automating IT processes. Here are just a few of those success stories:

• FinTech company was able to deflect over 3,300 IT tickets per month away from the IT team via Espressive integration in Slack
• Energy company experienced a 75% reduction in costs, moving off an outsourced help desk that operated off of an expensive cost-per-call model, after implementing Espressive for their IT team
• State law enforcement agency achieved an impressive 62% of all IT requests being handled with no human intervention after implementing Espressive’s Barista technology for their team, while eliminating their outsourced help desk 

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Espressive: a leader in IT process automation

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If you need help navigating IT process automation for your organization, set up a call with a member of our team so we can learn how to serve your IT team’s unique needs. Request a demo today—not only will we demonstrate the power of process automation for your team, but we will also tailor our solution to your unique needs. Since IT is the engine of the ship, why not bring your engine in for a tune up? Imagine an automated agent that is trained on your organization’s unique needs, increases your IT team’s productivity and satisfaction, and improves your whole operational efficiency—that’s Espressive!