Automating technology tasks is very important for companies’ IT departments. Especially for those who do not have excess staff and do have a workload. Yes automate tasks that they have to perform frequently and can be programmed to do themselves they will free up precious time to perform other types of tasks more important. And above all, more attractive.
But automation doesn’t just do that. It can also help reduce the level of error by eliminating human intervention. Or improve your accuracy. For all this, automating tasks is much more important than it seems. Of course, you cannot automate any task or do it in any way. Any automation process must be carefully planned to increase its chances of success. You will achieve this by following the appropriate steps, which we show you below.
1 – Choose the processes that can be automated
One of the main ingredients for the success of automating a process is its appropriate selection. There are workloads that can be automated better than others, so it is important that you focus especially on the former.
The processes that are most suitable for automation are those that are repetitive and have to be done very frequently. Also those that need many employees to take care of them. Or those that follow simple business logic and use structured data. Also not to be forgotten are those that benefit greatly from being able to be up and running 24 hours a day, and those that get better with increased accuracy.
2 – Have a big goal, but start small
It is likely that when you start automating tasks in your company you will be in a hurry to automate a good number of them. But you should not get carried away by it. It is important to start by automating simple and low-risk processes. That is, for those that can be automated quickly and easily.
These first implementations can also be used to show managers and other departments the benefits of automation in the company. They will also allow team members to gain automation experience, which will give them more clues as to what other automations they can tackle next,
3 – Before automating, optimize
Before proceeding to automate a process, it is essential to check if everything is adjusted as much as possible to make it work better. Older processes are likely, especially ones that rely on legacy technology and outdated practices, so check them out to see if you can improve their operation. Before starting automation, analyze them and try to make them easier to do. By doing so, you will not only get them completed faster and easier. In many cases you will make it less expensive to automate them.
4 – Identify what you need for automation, and the problems it will cause
All automations are intended to solve a problem or fill a need. That is why you have to start by identifying the problem or need. They may respond to a request from the user community of a product or service, or may be raised by the IT department, but in any case the goal must always be to be able to perform an IT task reliably and without the need for intervention by a human.
5 – Evaluate the methodology that leads to the best solution
Automation processes can be done in several ways: scheduling tasks, by writing code, API calls, Power Shell scripts, or Cron tasks. Of course, value the chosen one well, taking into account that it should always be as simple and direct as possible.
6 – Check if existing solutions can be used
To automate tasks, recycle as many automation processes as you can. There is a lot of shared knowledge and many resources to dive into that you will find much more comfortable than creating a process from scratch. It will be enough to take the proposed solutions and adapt them for your purposes. It is something very common. If you can’t or can’t find any suitable automation, assign specific staff to develop an automation from scratch.
7 – Make sure your automation passes a security and risk review
It is important that the automation solution you choose does not violate any standards or protocols. You have to avoid, for example, unencrypted traffic, storing passwords or giving inappropriate access and permissions. In many cases, the solution will require passwords, but they must always be protected. In this way you will avoid security breaches that lead to unauthorized access.
8 – Develop a test solution and present it
Create a working model of your automation mechanism and make sure it includes alerting mechanisms. In this way it is recorded if it fails or if it succeeds. Pass it on to managers or other relevant IT employees to confirm it’s up to snuff, and if necessary make any adjustments they suggest.
9 – Implement the solution and monitor the results
When you start automating tasks, be sure to confirm that the processes are working as expected and can run independently without manual intervention. It is advisable to review the processes over several days. Make the necessary adjustments if it doesn’t turn out quite right.
When everything works well, present the results at management or department meetings. Often an automation needs to work as expected before you get the green light to move forward with more automations.
10 – When new technologies appear, look for ways to improve automation
An automation does not have to be static, but must improve as new technologies appear that make it possible. In many cases, the use of low-code platforms allows not only speeding up the implementation of automations, but also speeds them up when new functions appear in it.
Plus, even employees who don’t have a lot of IT experience or skills will be able to perform automations to streamline their work without much effort or regulatory compliance concerns.
11 – Choose the right automation tool
Discrete tasks, such as passing structured data from one system to another, can best be addressed with robotic process automation. If there are many different types of tasks to automate, or the goal of automation is itself a process and not a task, it may make sense to use a process automation tool.
12- Think about increasing the pack of tools you use for automation
As technology tasks become more complicated by addition to others or by customization, they also become more difficult to manage and secure. Consider using an automation tool that integrates with various apps and systems to enhance their functionality and achieve more versatility.
13 – Map the process from start to finish
Having complete visibility into the IT process from start to finish can make the difference between automation that works and one that fails. It identifies what triggers the process, all the tasks and activities in the process flow, and the output that appears when the process is complete. Then review each component of the process for automation potential.
14 – Standardize the process and use rules and conditionals
When both processes and tasks are standardized, they deliver more consistent results, and make it easier to enforce security and compliance. Also, to avoid problems with missing or incomplete information and data, as well as ensure that information and requests follow the correct path, use rules and conditionals. In this way you will be able to facilitate the workflow.
