Businesses can leverage automation technologies for their IT operations, like handling service requests, performance management, and IT security. Like RPA, an ITPA tool also provides clear advantages like cost savings, increased productivity, and reduced errors, allowing smaller teams to manage routine IT operations tasks effectively. As ITPA tools have a wide range of use cases and significant benefits in IT operations, the interest in this technology is expected to increase.
Whether you are considering the incorporation of ITPA in your business framework or simply seeking a more profound understanding of this technology, this article offers the insights to successfully navigate the domain of IT automation.
What is IT Process Automation (ITPA)?
IT Process Automation (ITPA), also known as IT automation, uses software to create repeatable instructions and processes to replace or reduce human interaction with IT systems. Automation software works within the confines of those instructions, tools, and frameworks to carry out the tasks with little to no human intervention. ITPA tools, such as workload automation tools, monitor applications and IT workflows. They provide insights to align IT processes across multiple functions.
While IT process automation is often associated with larger enterprises with complex IT infrastructures, it’s also increasingly relevant for smaller businesses. ITPA is a key component in digital transformation strategies, facilitating improved data accuracy, increased productivity, and cost reduction.
What is an example of process automation?
Examples of ITPA in action include:
- Automated system monitoring and event management: Systems and applications are continually monitored, with any anomalies or errors automatically flagged and, in some cases, resolved without human intervention.
- Automated backups and disaster recovery: Routine data backup processes and disaster recovery actions are automated, ensuring business continuity.
- Patch management: Regular system and application updates are automated, ensuring the business operates on the most current and secure software.
- DevOps automation: This involves automating software development and delivery processes to enhance collaboration between development and operations teams and enable more efficient deployment.
- IT service desk automation: Automated ticket routing, prioritization, and even resolution of standard issues, often improving customer service response times and satisfaction rates.
What are the differences between ITPA and RPA?
The choice between using ITPA systems and RPA often depends on the specific use case. ITPA is more suitable for complex, backend IT processes, while RPA is ideal for simpler, rule-based tasks that involve interacting with software in the same way a human user would. In many organizations, both types of automation are used in tandem to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity.
| Qualities | ITPA | RPA |
|---|---|---|
Scope | ITPA focuses on automating IT tasks and workflows. It’s used primarily in IT for tasks such as automating system alerts, data backups, server maintenance, network monitoring, and more. | RPA is more generalized and is used to automate any repetitive, rule-based tasks that were previously performed by humans, often involving interaction with the user interface of a software application. It’s often used in areas such as customer service, finance, HR, and other business processes. |
Integration | ITPA is usually deeply integrated with the IT infrastructure. It can interact directly with the system and application APIs, database connections, and other backend processes. | RPA interacts with software at the user interface level, mimicking how a human user interacts with an application. It doesn’t require deep system integration, which makes it easier to implement but also somewhat limited in the depth of tasks it can perform. |
Complexity | ITPA can handle complex processes, like disaster recovery, that often involve multiple systems, decision points, and conditional paths. | RPA is generally used for more straightforward, rule-based processes. While it can handle multi-step processes, it’s less suited to tasks with many decision points or complex logic. |
Decision Making | ITPA can include more sophisticated decision-making capabilities, often leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to make predictive decisions based on complex criteria and historical data. | While some RPA tools are starting to incorporate AI and machine learning capabilities, traditionally, RPA has been less capable of sophisticated decision-making compared to ITPA. It typically follows predefined rules and steps. |
How does IT process automation work?
IT Process Automation (ITPA) works by automating routine and repetitive tasks through the use of software scripts or specialized process automation tools. This can reduce the time taken to perform these manual tasks, eliminate the possibility of human error, and free up IT staff for more complex, strategic tasks.
The steps of the business process for implementing and operating ITPA typically involve the following:
- Identifying tasks for automation: The first step is to identify tasks that are routine, repetitive, time-consuming, or prone to human error. These tasks make excellent candidates for automation. They could range from simple tasks like data entry or password resets to more complex tasks like network monitoring or patch management.
- Creating a process map: Once the tasks have been identified, the next step is to map out the process for each task. This involves understanding the sequence of steps that need to be followed, the decisions that must be made, and the potential exceptions that need to be handled.
- Designing the automation workflow: With the process map in hand, the next step is to design the automation workflow using an automation tool or scripting language. This involves translating the steps of the process map into rules and instructions that the automation software can understand and follow.
- Testing the automation: Before the automation is put into production, it must be thoroughly tested to ensure it works as expected. This could involve running the automation on a test system, using test data, and verifying the results.
- Deploying the automation: Once the automation has been tested and validated, it can be deployed into the production environment. This could involve scheduling the automation to run at certain times or configuring it to be triggered by certain events or conditions.
- Monitoring and improving the automation: Even after the automation has been deployed, it’s important to monitor its performance and make improvements as necessary. This could involve adjusting the rules or instructions, expanding the scope of the automation, or troubleshooting any issues that arise.
A lack of coding knowledge doesn’t have to keep businesses away from IT process automation solutions. With no-code or low-code solutions such as RPA bots and workload automation tools, developers can rapidly create automated workflows and focus on more advanced cases.
Which are the leading IT process automation vendors?
Here are some of the leading vendors that provide ITPA solutions for businesses:
- ActiveBatch
- Redwood RunMyJob
- AutomationEdge
- BMC TrueSight Orchestration
- Microsoft System Center
- Micro Focus Operations Orchestration
- OpCon
- Resolve
- ServiceNow Orchestration
- Vmware
For more: ITPA tools
What are the top benefits of IT process automation?
1-Increased efficiency
Automating routine tasks can dramatically boost the speed at which they’re performed. For instance, a task like resetting passwords, which can take a service desk agent a few minutes to do manually, can be automated in seconds. This increased efficiency can result in significant time savings, especially when scaled across hundreds or thousands of similar incidents.
Automation can do the same amount of work with fewer resources, leading to substantial cost savings. For example, automating network monitoring tasks could negate network engineers’ need for 24/7 shifts, reducing labor costs.
Automating IT tasks can lead to improved response times and service levels. For instance, an automated incident response system could detect an issue (like a server going down), initiate the appropriate remedial actions, and notify the relevant personnel—all within seconds.
By automating routine tasks, IT staff can focus on more strategic, complex tasks that add more value to the organization. For instance, instead of spending time manually provisioning new servers, IT staff could work on optimizing the company’s cloud strategy or improving application performance.
2-Reduced errors
Manual processes, especially repetitive ones, are prone to human errors. Automation reduces this risk by performing tasks exactly as programmed every single time. For example, in a manual system update or asset management process, there’s a risk of missing one or more systems, leading to potential security vulnerabilities. But an automated patch management process would ensure all systems are updated consistently, minimizing the risk of error and exposure.
3-Increased compliance
Automation can enforce adherence to regulations and standards. For instance, automated compliance checks can ensure that all systems adhere to data protection policies and other regulations. A bank, for example, could use automation to ensure they remain in compliance with financial regulations by scheduling regular checks on their IT systems and producing necessary documentation for audits.
4-Scalability
Automation can make it easier to scale IT operations as the organization grows. For example, an e-commerce company experiencing a sudden surge in traffic due to a sale event could use automation to scale up its server capacity dynamically and handle the increased load, ensuring a smooth customer experience.
6-Reduced downtime
Automated systems can operate continuously and perform many tasks more quickly than a human operators, reducing downtime. For example, automated backups and disaster recovery processes can minimize downtime in the event of a system failure.
7-Enhanced security
Automation can improve the organization’s security posture by ensuring timely patching of vulnerabilities, continuous monitoring for security incidents, and rapid response to detected threats. For example, a healthcare organization might use automation to detect and respond to data breaches, reducing the risk of compromised sensitive patient data.
8-Improved decision making
Automation can improve decision-making by providing timely and accurate data. For example, an automated data collection and reporting process from various systems could provide a comprehensive view of the company’s IT infrastructure, helping management make informed decisions about upgrades, resource allocation, and other strategic issues.
What is the interest in IT process automation?
Figure 2: Interest in IT process automation software has steadily been increasing.
Source: Google Trends
After 2015, we observe a slightly increasing interest in IT process automation. Google Trends predicts that interest will increase further in the second half of this year. A reason for the modest interest in the topic is that there are similar terms, such as Business Process Automation (BPA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) that may also be used by IT professionals looking for business process automation solutions.
McKinsey shares that during their work at two financial service companies, they found out that 90% of IT teams focus on low-value tasks like testing, deployment, and maintenance. In contrast, only 10% focuses on business priorities and market-differentiating work.
Considering that around 30% of IT teams consist of developers, IT organizations devote too little of their resources to market-differentiating work by IT (Figure 2).
What are the main IT process automation use cases?
The technology is highly flexible and can be adapted to meet the needs of a wide variety of IT workflows and automate business processes anywhere. As AI and machine learning technologies evolve, IT process automation’s potential will only increase.
Here are some of the IT process automation use cases:
1. Manage service requests automatically
Businesses can start IT process automation with service requests. They can leverage automation to receive and organize service queries from help desks, customer-facing platforms, and emails. While doing that, ITPA tools can filter out duplicate queries, answer frequently asked questions automatically thanks to predefined triggers and input related requests into the same ticketing system.
Alternatively, unified support platforms may also offer similar functionality. However, adopting a new support platform is harder than implementing an ITPA automation.
2. Automate asset management
IT departments can use IT process automation tools to list their software assets, continuously monitor them, and update them when needed. This enables businesses to be aware of all their IT assets’ performance. You can read more about this in our in-depth software asset management (SAM) guide.
3. Automate job scheduling
It is significant to identify which task to perform when in IT operations, like any other process. IT process automation solutions can monitor real-time events and schedule tasks dynamically to achieve a more significant impact. For that, several SLA (Service Level Agreement) measures are predefined. Then, ITPA tools schedule jobs to optimize these measures while monitoring all events in the IT system in real-time and forecasting future events and IT workload.
IT team can leverage workload automation tools and job schedulers to automate scheduling, triggering, and executing batch processes.
4. Optimize storage capacity
To maintain optimal storage capacity, IT teams need to monitor their disk space periodically. However, cleaning up disk space can be a repetitive and time-consuming task when performed manually. Another challenge is that it becomes harder to have sufficient disk space every day because of growing log or temporary files in servers. These files are created in events like crashed servers or unscheduled downtime for many applications.
IT process automation tools can perform storage capacity optimization with predefined events. When specific triggers are implemented, ITPA solutions can clean up unnecessary data from disks and optimize IT servers’ capacity. For example, when the disk space reaches a specific capacity, ITPA tools can run controls and remove or archive unnecessary files. This can also help servers to work with improved performance.
5. Automate onboarding process
Technical setup and provisioning for new employees take time and prevent technical personnel from focusing on more advanced tasks. IT process automation tools can take over onboarding processes and automate technical setup for new employees.
Explore employee onboarding automation in more details.
6. Automate offboarding process
As in onboarding, ITPA tools can also handle similar processes for offboarding operations.
Explore employee offboarding automation in more details.
7. Automate application testing
Manual tests are time-consuming and challenging tasks. IT process automation tools can speed up routine testing processes, enabling the team to test scenarios that require more creativity. This enables significant time savings, reduced costs, and a higher chance of detecting any systems errors earlier. This is also beneficial because in general, the earlier bugs are fixed, the less effort is spent fixing them.
Learn more about testing automation.
8. Security and compliance
With IT process automation, businesses can generate automatic compliance controls as part of larger workflows and perform data collection and reporting regularly. IT automation collects and structures data to gain insight and influence over internal processes. Each step of operations can be stored in a database, along with reports, permits, timestamps, and other information for compliance purposes.
Learn more about compliance automation.
9. Achieve digital transformation
Digital transformation is critical to the success of today’s businesses. IT process automation can support companies in this area. ITPA tools can accelerate the introduction of a digital transformation by creating integrated workflows for process management, workflow planning, preparation, and governance.
Explore digital transformation in more details.
10. Automate other routine IT operations tasks
IT process automation tools can automate regular daily server scans and upgrades to maintain infrastructure stability. ITPA tools can also track and operate automated system reports about performance and usage.
If this article interests you, feel free to read our related articles below:
- IT Process Automation (ITPA): What it is & How it works
- Application Performance Management: What it is & How it works
- Synthetic Monitoring: What it is & How it works
- AIOps: Guide to integrating AI into IT Operations
- Software Asset Management: What it is & Top Benefits
Characteristics of top ITPA use cases
ITPA can solve this issue and help IT organizations to spend more time on business priorities by handling low value-adding tasks. Here are some characteristics of IT tasks which are suitable for IT process automation:
- High volume of transactions
- Stable environment
- Limited human intervention
- Easily decomposed into more explicit tasks
- Prone to errors
However, of course, an IT process automation use case doesn’t have to include all these characteristics above. For example, businesses can implement ITPA tools for some IT operations with a relatively low value of transactions, but it is needed because they are performed in very high volumes.
FAQs on automation
What are the 4 types of automation?
The four types of automation include robotic process automation, intelligent automation, business process management, and configuration management.
- Robotic process automation RPA focuses on automating tasks like data entry.
- Intelligent automation enhances automation capabilities by using AI-driven software solutions.
- Business process management helps companies manage automation initiatives by optimizing automation systems.
- Configuration management supports maintaining system integrity and stability while reducing errors in automation tasks, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems.
What is meant by process automation?
Process automation refers to the use of software solutions designed to streamline repeatable processes in an IT environment. It helps business users improve operational efficiency by reducing repetitive manual tasks. Through workflow orchestration, organizations can optimize workflows and enhance service delivery.
Automation capabilities include integrating existing systems, ensuring data security, and supporting automation initiatives. The process automation journey involves leveraging automation systems and tools enable to transform complex business processes into automated processes.
For more on IT automation
If you believe your IT department can benefit from an IT workflow automation tool, scroll down our data-driven list of workload automation tools to get a comprehensive look at the ecosystem and vendors.
If this article interests you, feel free to read our related articles below:
- Top 14 Workload Automation Use Cases in IT, HR, & Accounting
- Application Performance Management: What it is & How it Works
- Synthetic Monitoring: What it is & How it Works
- AIOps: Guide to Integrating AI into IT Operations
- Software Asset Management: What it is & Top Benefits
Here are some RPA-related articles if you want to learn more about automation:
- Our complete guide on RPA
- Benefits you can reap from RPA
- Our guide on RPA innovations that you can work with today, such as no-code RPA
If you have questions about how IT process automation tools (ITPA) can help your business, we can help:
External Links
- 1. Bommadevara, Jansen, Klak, & Subherwal (2019). “Flip the ratio: Taking IT from bottleneck to battle ready .”McKinsey. Retrieved from June 17, 2024.
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