Automation can create an excellent platform for growth. By automating certain functions, organisations can increase the level of consistency they provide, reducing the chance of human error. But this also provides IT the opportunity to deliver a better service to the business. Engineers can focus on improving the service quality for customers, rather than completing mundane tasks.

Through our service desk and NOC management trend reports we are constantly looking for positive candidates for automation. This is not just based on automation of business processes, but within the remit of the service we deliver, the whole team are targeted on increasing the efficiency of our services and reducing human error.

What is a candidate for automation?

The more repetitive the task, the better it is for automation. Other candidates could be tasks that take a long time, but don’t require a large amount of manual intervention.

Microsoft 365, What do we consider?

• Is it something we do regularly for either end-users or devices?

• Does it take a long time? If it takes very little time, the time spent getting it automated may not provide a good return on investment unless we do lots of them (See Point 1)

• Will it ensure a more consistent approach?

• Is it going to be technically possible to automate? You may not know exactly how but if it’s not possible, it’s not a candidate.

• Can you justify it? We’ll be reviewing the tickets monthly and may ask for further justification.

• It may not be technical. It may be procedural.