Therein lies the rub; with limited people and
time, we can’t respond because we’re too
busy keeping the lights on.
It’s time we dramatically shift the 80:20
ratio; until we do so, IT will be seen as just
another cost centre. CIOs need to lead their
IT teams to root out their own manual,
repeatable processes. All the routine, menial
stuff that takes up valuable IT resources
should be automated so that staff can
tackle productive work that requires
creativity and imagination and moves the
business forward.
If a company is just starting to automate
IT processes, it’s typical to start with the
simplest tasks like password resets and
onboarding new hires. This makes sense;
on average 25% of the helpdesk calls are
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CIOS NEED
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TRAIN THEIR
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GET THEM PAST
THE FEAR,
UNCERTAINTY
AND DOUBT
(FUD).
CIO OPINION
password related. Resetting employees’
forgotten passwords is an easy problem for
the helpdesk to fix, but it still takes time.
Automate it.
Automating the simple tasks will deliver
incremental improvements but, for
maximum impact, tackle some of the
messier stuff first. Automating complex,
multi-step, highly manual activities that
touch multiple people can more quickly
deliver the agility needed.
Routine changes, diagnostics, performance
monitoring and incident resolution
are a few places ripe for automation.
Increasingly, machines are aware when
something isn’t right. Automation should
start with the creation of work (incidents in
the first place).
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