Automation is The New 'Normal'. How to thrive using Automation?

Automation has been transforming the IT services and support for a few years now. It is true that COVID-19 crisis has accelerated that process. Properly implemented, automation will streamline the line of events and simpler processes - saving time and cost, and improving the experience of IT support staff. Now, as we all become accustomed to this New Normal there is an opportunity for IT services desks to continue to embrace automation. To help, this blog offers many ways in which your organization can use automation and take some pressure off your IT support team.

1. Improved and Immediate Self-service

If you do not use a self- service portal and automation right now, you are doing more work yourself. This not only helps users to help themselves faster and as a result reduces the number of IT service desk connections. By automatically managing the common causes of application desk communications such as password reset and account closures you can free up your desktop analysts to focus on challenging IT issues.

As well as automating account & management tasks, providing specific services, and specific event decisions can be done using templates and models. This will allow you to complete pre-captcha forms for end-user data and build on the triggers for starting automated workflows within your ITSM tool.

This will allow the tool to perform tasks without the need for personal intervention. For example, checking whether a license is available through a software application or checking the stock rates of small computer hardware parameters.

2. Changing service requests and authorizations

Use automation to deliver, approve, and deliver against service requests. Probably, automatically with pre-approval under a certain financial limit. The product or service required once selected is provided to the employee automatically, appropriately in a way that suits them so that the employee experience is seamless and cohesive.

3. Event management and automated growth

Use automation to inform IT technology teams and business issues by linking services to support teams and setting a limit on when these support teams need to be involved. The limit will allow automation to distinguish between an event that requires human intervention (for example, in the event of a network switch failure) and they are only given information information (for example, the backup has successfully completed).

It may seem like an easy task, but make sure the automatic event management tool has the right contact details for each group so that the right people are notified by text or email in the event of a suitable event.

Another case of automatic use is the increase in incidence depending on the cause. There are two main types of escalation: active (next level of technical support) and sequential (escalator management). In both types of climbing, make sure there is a defined procedure and that people should not be drawn correctly using the ascent matrix.

4. Use default runbooks

Runbooks are a combination of standard procedures for admins and technical teams to manage the systems they face. Runbooks can be used to start, configure, monitor, or configure an IT system.

By creating your own runbooks and linking them to your service catalog, you can customize the program in question to launch a series of conditional steps to maintain or restore service. Another advantage of linking your runbooks to your service catalog is that you start building a reference for all standard processes - which makes it easy to add more automation over time. Practical examples include data enrichment, issuing service notifications, or automated threats automatically as part of the IT security response process.

5. Provide default in business service management situations

An IT organization is not the only part of an organization that is under pressure to work better for remote workers and those returning to office. And now it's time to reach out to other departments within the business to see if they need more support given the various effects of the "new standard."

HR - recruiting new employees, managing vacation applications, and answering questions about wages, benefits, employment policies, and other employee needs.

Accounting and finance - automating workflows to provide annual accounts, submit and approve expenses, and send invoices.

Utilities - performing normal utility functions such as job order, maintenance requests, and furniture replacement

Purchase - processing purchase orders, approving discounts, and handling merchant letters.