CIO opinion
and-drop functionality and customisation to
fast-track success. And it requires a flexible
approach and focus on UX to empower IT
teams to choose exactly which steps of a
process are automated and which ones
require human oversight.
provisioning and patch management,
continuous delivery and proactive health
checks. NetOps gets to automate network
testing, incident response, provisioning
and configuration and security teams
streamline incident investigation, threat
containment and remediation, configuration
and patching. Service desk requests can be
automated, as can change management
and non-security incident response.
Incidents and issues are solved quicker,
at lower cost, threats are contained
and remediated faster, escalations are
minimised and users are empowered to
self-serve. A recent report from analyst EMA
Research reveals that 66% of automation
projects are ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ successful,
with cost savings (28%), improved
operational efficiencies (25%), enhanced
customer satisfaction (21%) and improved
service quality (18%) topping the long list
of benefits.
Time for buy-in
However, that same report also reveals that,
along with cost issues, resistance to change
and lack of executive support are the biggest
barriers to successful automation. This is a
crucial point. While CIOs reported in a recent
Gartner study that by 2020 they plan to
replace more than 50% of current manual
operational tasks in infrastructure managed
48
INTELLIGENTCIO
services with intelligent automation, it seems
unlikely given current adoption rates that
the majority will achieve this goal without
pushing their agenda.
Automation projects must be sponsored
by senior executives to stand any chance
of success. As CIO, it’s your job to get that
buy-in from the top. If initiatives happen
from the bottom-up then you’re likely to
be stuck in a rut automating at a task level,
without recognising the exponential value
that service-level automation brings across
the organisation. Creating an Automation
Centre of Excellence could be a good idea,
allowing you to centralise automation
initiatives that can cross technical and
departmental barriers, getting the cross-
functional buy-in and positioning you need
for Automation 2.0 to succeed.
It’s also crucial to have the right technology
in place to support you. This means a single
automation and orchestration platform that
works across IT siloes, plugging seamlessly
into your existing IT infrastructure to
tackle everything from the simplest to the
most complex processes. It also means
implementing out-of-the-box integrations
and prebuilt automations supporting
hundreds of products from the most popular
software, hardware, security, networking,
cloud, virtualisation, operating system and
task automation vendors – including drag-
Once you have the tools, vision and executive
buy-in in place, remember to bring in your
user community early on, have sufficient
skills on board and put metrics in place
to show progress and illustrate ROI.
Ongoing communication and continual
improvement are your watchwords here:
be sure the pace at which you’re driving
change stays in line with the cultural
appetite of the organisation. In most,
automation begets more automation as
initial wins spark imagination and creativity
around the possibilities for automating
new processes. Silo-busting strategies and
technologies are the key to unlocking the true
power of automation and success from the
role of the CIO. But like anything, it requires
careful planning and execution to get right. n
“
CIOS REPORTED
IN A RECENT
GARTNER STUDY
THAT BY 2020
THEY PLAN TO
REPLACE MORE
THAN 50%
OF CURRENT
MANUAL
OPERATIONAL
TASKS IN
INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGED
SERVICES WITH
INTELLIGENT
AUTOMATION.
www.intelligentcio.com