Are you looking to make efficiencies in your IT business processes but not sure where to start? The enterprise-level IT and technology experts at IntraLAN explain what IT automation is and how it can help take your business to the next level of efficiency and productivity.
What is IT Automation?
Defined as a set of rules that specify the method of undertaking repetitive tasks without requiring manual intervention by IT teams, IT automation can be implemented using a range of technology, including frameworks, technology stacks, applications and artificial intelligence.
The scope of IT automation can be as simple or complex as a business wants or needs. From single processes to eliminate repetitive processes or an entire orchestration of hardware and software to create seamless automated processes that can potentially save your business time and money.
How can using IT Automation benefit your business?
As with all technology, businesses need to weigh the pros and cons before implementing them into their processes. Choosing IT automation can bring incredible efficiency to operations and help reduce human error. It is still essential to ensure the security of your systems and the precision of your processes.
Quick and efficient processes
Efficiency and productivity impact every business’ cost-effectiveness and profitability. Businesses that integrate automation into their IT processes can benefit from increased speed and efficiency without burdening IT teams. IT automation allows IT teams to efficiently deliver on those tasks while focusing their additional time towards other strategic business objectives.
The added proficiency of artificial intelligence, combined with human intelligence and interaction, provides relief from repetitive tasks whilst eliminating the propensity for human error.
Thorough and complete infrastructure security
It’s no secret that organisations worldwide are vulnerable to intrusion and exploitation from cyberattacks. Whether through unsecured ports or malicious commands to control takeovers and ransomware, businesses must implement measures to protect their IT infrastructure, assets and devices (mobile or otherwise).
To achieve the level of security needed to protect your business’s IT infrastructure, security patches are mandatory. Automating these will give your business a proactive approach to ensuring security, allow automated responses to incursions and audit requirements while mitigating any possible cybersecurity risks before they happen.
Effortless compliance
From GDPR to industry and government regulations, ensuring complete compliance is vital to an organisation’s longevity, reputation and ultimately profitability. Keeping up with changing regulations and compliance can be a time-consuming challenge for IT teams. With ongoing audits and documentation, automation can ease some of this burden. By integrating automation algorithms, businesses can monitor frameworks, update internal policies with specific compliance controls and never worry about manual updates.
Increased efficiency in IT support
Manual IT support tickets are time-consuming and limit the capacity of IT support teams. Human intervention into these often results in inefficiency through inaccuracies, incorrectly or incompletely filled tickets and provides a challenge to standardisation.
Implementing automation processes can help alleviate the issues caused by manual IT ticket servicing. By implementing artificial intelligence into your IT help desk, you can:
- Reduce ticket volume
- Provide self-service options for frequently requested issues
- Create efficiency and improve accuracy
- Encourage fast, reliable ticket tracking and processing
- Increase staff engagement and retention
Enhanced service capability
Today’s consumers expect instant communication and resolution to their issues at a time that’s convenient for them. This could mean having IT teams available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This isn’t feasible or cost-efficient for many businesses.
Implementing artificial intelligence and automation in customer-facing applications can ensure IT teams satisfy their service level requirements (SLAs) with a high level of quality and accuracy. Customer-facing automation ensures customers’ needs are met without interruption, building brand recognition and trust.
IT automation is no longer a futuristic approach to business continuity. It’s vital for organisations to recognise that issues within their IT infrastructure can cause disruption and impact the bottom line. From errors within software and applications to security vulnerabilities, unwanted disruptions can add unnecessary costs and stress to your teams.
IntraLAN is dedicated to bringing its customers total peace of mind with its Fully Managed IT Service. Seeking to help improve your team’s efficiency, prevent unnecessary downtime and continually monitor your IT infrastructure with a proactive outlook on cyber security, IntraLAN’s fully managed IT services and single point of contact takes the headache out of IT support, allowing your teams to focus on what they do best.For more information about IntraLAN’s Fully Managed IT services and how IT automation can help you plan for the future, contact our team of enterprise IT and technology experts today.