Ready to Reduce Workloads and Costs With IT Process Automation?

Do you believe your company’s IT processes are too complicated for automation? You may be surprised to hear that they are, in fact, quite capable of being automated.

IT operations automation offers numerous benefits to businesses in ways your team might not have even considered before. 

While certain complex IT processes cannot be automated, many more can. With the right tools in place, your tech team can completely alter your IT landscape and reap the many benefits of automation for themselves and your company.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at IT process automation and how your business can save time and money by leveraging it.

Why Choose IT Process Automation? 

Automating repetitive, mundane tasks helps IT employees redirect their focus and increase productivity. As a result, there are reduced human errors in areas like cybersecurity, performance management, and more. 

The advantages of effective automation tools include:

• Fewer user errors 
• Greater productivity 
• Reduced staffing costs
• Improved cybersecurity 
• Increased response times 

Now that you understand the many advantages that IT process automation offers, let’s discuss what exactly it is, and how you can make it work for your company.

Simply put, IT process automation (ITPA) tools optimize IT operations – i.e., things your IT team would normally do manually – through the implementation of automated workflows and processes.

ITPA Tool vs. RPA Tool: What’s the Difference?

Although many people use the terms IT process automation and robotic process automation (RPA) interchangeably, they differ in their meanings. 

As the name suggests, RPA relies on software robots, which automate otherwise manual processes across the workforce. Basically, RPA automates the kinds of tasks that humans would typically do. 

On the other hand, automation is possible across virtually all areas and jobs. A study from the McKinsey Global Institute found that 45% of work activities can be automated using already demonstrated technology. 

There are many ways business users can benefit from the workload automation and the automation of repetitive business processes that RPA offers. 

For example, companies might use RPA to automate customer support processes by using chatbots. Those chatbots often rely on machine learning and artificial intelligence to answer customers’ questions and satisfy their needs. 

Additionally, automation makes it possible to:

• Respond to customers’ queries around the clock 
• Support a greater customer query volume

While there are many potential uses of RPA, nothing stands to benefit companies more than the automation of IT operations processes; or the typical manual IT processes that fall under an employee’s responsibilities.

Generally speaking, IT processes are more challenging to automate. As a result, the implementation of advanced technologies may be required.

Because ITPA tools are specific to complex IT processes and the professionals that carry them out, they may be less compatible and have a less intuitive user interface than user-friendly RPA solutions.

Ultimately, automating information technology processes allows IT operations teams to direct their attention away from routine administrative tasks onto projects that support a company’s growth.

How Does IT Process Automation Work?

Essentially, ITPA involves three things:

• The trigger (in other words, the event or action that kicks off automation)
• The automated processes themselves 
• The results (i.e., the completion of the task). 

A trigger might be something like an employee submitting a service request, which could set off the automatic categorization and assignment of that request. 

A solid IT process automation solution can automate numerous processes, just a few of which include:

1. Service Request Management

Naturally, service requests from business users and the work such requests entail take up a significant portion of the work that IT teams devote themselves towards completing. 

IT process automation can cut down on the time IT services staff spend on responding to help desk requests by automatically collecting and assigning requests from various sources and eliminating duplicates.  

In addition to service request organization, your team can also use automation to augment your ticketing system by automatically responding to tickets using select keywords. This automation might include basic troubleshooting, carrying out diagnostics, initiating API calls, etc. 

2. Data Center Management 

IT teams can enhance the efficiency of their data centers by automating their workflows and processes, including patching, monitoring, and reporting, which supports other processes on this list. 

3. Asset Management 

Assigning and managing hardware (like employee laptops) can prove tedious for IT professionals, but automation makes assigning assets and getting them returned as simple as asking new employees to fill out simple digital forms. 

4. Other Onboarding and Offboarding Tasks 

Aside from asset management, other tech onboarding tasks can be automated like: 

• Getting employees to fill out necessary forms and supply information
• Completing information technology and hardware training
• Filling out availability
• Receiving login credentials
• Gaining appropriate system access may
• And more

5. Information Security 

Automating security measures not only saves IT professionals time but also leads to reduced errors. Additionally, according to experts, information security represents the greatest threat to cybersecurity. Where ITPA comes in is how it can take secure and automate system backups and other security processes for organizations. 

6. Regulatory Compliance 

Many industries enforce regulatory standards, which may involve subjecting companies to audits. ITPA enables IT teams to collect and analyze data in order to ensure that companies achieve compliance and also confirm that business users are doing their part by completing auditing checks.

Simplify Your Workloads With IT Process Automation?

Even for the most capable IT professionals, implementing IT process automation software is no small feat. Still, the process is within reach for virtually any IT team, with help from a trusted IT services provider. 

In truth, all that organizations need to begin implementing IT process automation is a trusted industry partner that specializes in IT process automation. 

At Netsurit, we support businesses in painlessly adopting automated processes that can transform how your in-house tech professionals utilize their time. 

With a growing number of ITPA software options available on the market, you’ll want to rely on a trusted IT leader to help you explore your options and ensure that your ITPA solutions have been seamlessly integrated into your existing systems. 

Want to get a head start on the automation of your IT workflows? Contact the team at Netsurit today for a free consultation and learn more about IT process automation and how it can benefit your company.