From Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to DevOps, automation has its own unique advantages. However, in practice, automation problems can become quite thorny if not handled properly.
From a practical perspective, people are not averse to the application of automation. Organizations can automate manually processed processes, improving efficiency, saving time and costs, enhancing quality, and ultimately increasing economic benefits.
However, the application of automation can also present challenges, especially when organizations deploy new technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for their business processes. Other automation efforts are not without their challenges, including those related to DevOps, cloud automation, IT service management (ITSM), and help desk.
Automation can deliver its benefits to a great extent when done well. The key is that people know which IT automation mistakes to avoid. Here are some examples of mistakes that can affect and hinder automation efforts.
(1) Failed to define automation strategy
Businesses need to develop an automation strategy. Since automation itself is good for the business, why not deploy it where it makes sense?
However, as with any other major IT-related initiative, there needs to be an overall plan for using automation, which is a comprehensive and well-defined strategy that can prevent things from getting out of control due to a lack of vision.
“AnantAdya, senior vice president and business leader of cloud infrastructure and security services at IT services and consulting firm Infosys, said, “Implementing automation without a strategy and goals is like driving in an unfamiliar place without a map or GPS; you may not know where you’re going to end up.”
"Instead of tackling large-scale processes and end-to-end lifecycle automation, identify automation opportunities in smaller processes, operational areas, and repeatable activities," Adya said.
(2) Lack of strong business cases
Before investing in automation technology, it is essential to fully understand the total cost of the product and service and its benefits to the business in order to calculate an accurate return on investment (ROI).
Joe Schuler, Vice President of Network Operations at financial services provider Mastercard, said, “Businesses need to understand their long-term interests. Don’t spend too much time in the brown zone of automation; instead, develop strategies and plans for taking the brown zone into account. The automation of legacy technologies can become a black hole for resource consumption. Don’t let it devour all of your efforts.”
Adya said that companies often calculate return on investment before investing in tools and technologies, which can lead to disappointing results.
“Sometimes, the lack of readily available tools and the need for highly customized technologies can reduce the return on investment,” Adya said.
"It's also easy to overbuy technology, especially since there are so many tools on the market, and each tool has a unique selling proposition."
Adya stated that organizations should consider automation tools based on open-source technologies that are easy to implement, configure, and support. "Additionally, enterprises need to ensure that the chosen solutions integrate with on-premises tools," he said.
(3) Automation was implemented too quickly
Many business processes may be automated, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense to deploy multiple automation tools across the enterprise at the same time.
Schuler says the explosive growth approach is not suitable for IT automation. He says, "While I think organizations need to build a key group and achieve some success under their leadership, it's not about fundamentally changing the face of the organization. It's important to have some early adopters demonstrate their success."
MasterCard attempted to implement its database automation platform as a standard and achieved some success in specific use cases. But for other companies, it didn't make sense. Schuler said, "I think the important lesson is to provide these tools and stories that can reduce implementation time from 16 hours to 4 hours and allow teams to see success and adopt new tools in their own way."
(4) Implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
There is currently a lot of hype and promotion surrounding Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and while its benefits are significant for automating many processes, businesses should not rush into deployment without proper preparation.
Bob Moore, executive vice president of technology consulting firm SPR, said: “These tools are so easy to implement that it can cause a lot of problems. Companies must first fully understand the processes that the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software will be performing. Key considerations when designing RPA processes include the need for real-time decision-making and application programming interface (API) integration.”
Moore says that if deployed correctly, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools can be very powerful. However, conversely, when processes are not fully defined, implementation can be very frustrating and costly.
Moore said, “I’ve spoken with clients who are considering using machine learning to make decisions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) process. To do this, organizations really need to understand what data they currently have and how to use that data to make a specific decision. In this case, the first question to ask is whether the organization has the data needed to make that decision.”
(5) Using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the wrong way
With the adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), organizations can easily use the technology in inappropriate areas, such as regulatory compliance work.
Michael Cantor, chief information officer of ParkPlace, a third-party maintenance services and support provider, said, “Organizations should not pursue compliance-related business processes in the first place, as the same need for control remains even when using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools to automate them.”
Cantor suggests that it's best to first work with internal processes to gain some experience before considering how to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA) using the intended controls, and how to align those controls with the auditing firm.
(6) Believing that automation means anyone can do it well
Furthermore, organizations need talent with extensive experience in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools. Cantor says, “Like any other hyped technology, process automation can be implemented by any user. It has a long history of failures, dating back to 4GL tools and rules engines. Implementing RPA requires the same testing and production controls as any other IT automation.”
Because users don't fully document the actions they take, it's possible to understand what the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool modified and what it didn't.
Cantor said it's important to continue building business cases for using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and highlighting its benefits. He stated, "As with any other IT project, it's essential to measure results to justify the expenditure and emphasize the value it drives during implementation."
(7) Implement DevOps
In recent years, progress has been made in adopting DevOps to enhance development environments and accelerate processes. However, organizations should resist the temptation to rush into things.
Moore said, "Organizations need to be prepared that DevOps won't happen overnight. People use the term DevOps to refer to the code and software development processes for infrastructure. This can be a point of confusion because they can't always happen together."
Moore stated that with today's DevOps processes, it is very easy to create new branches in code or environments in the cloud. He said, "Unless there is a specific control or process for creating branches, there will be many different codebases in its repository, and there may be many isolated environments."
Organizations need to choose the right tools before moving into a DevOps environment. Moore said, "In the past, I've seen clients provide different tools for different teams. As you can imagine, this is difficult to control and standardize."
(8) Ignoring the end user
What if the process works perfectly and automation isn't necessary? Organizations that change things just for the sake of automation may backfire.
Before automating anything, consider the impact of such changes on the people most affected: those responsible for implementing the automated processes.
Adya said, "Chief Information Officers often automate a process that shouldn't be prioritized, and they need to communicate with their teams to assess which processes are their main challenges. It's crucial to ensure that automation initiatives have a significant and positive impact on experience, operational efficiency, and costs."
(9) Cannot be expanded
Sometimes, automation works well within a specific process or department. But sometimes organizations neglect to extend their work beyond the starting point because they haven't considered scalability.
"The biggest missed opportunity for automation that I see is a lack of scale; for example, automation is primarily used for IT service management or customer service inquiries," said Bhaskar Ghosh, CEO of Accenture Technology Services Group, a consulting and IT services firm.
Ghosh said that while organizations have been investing in automation for years, most of these implementations have been off-the-shelf rather than enterprise-wide. He stated, “This leads to conflicts between processes, slowing down operations. The key is to adopt automation enterprise-wide. This allows IT workers to leverage technology more, solve complex and creative problems, and achieve greater speed and scale for the business.”
(10) Focusing only on technology
The "people, processes, and technology" principle, frequently cited in business and academic reports, also applies to automation.
Ghosh said, “Automation goes beyond technology; a technology-driven approach will miss the key elements for success. Designing and implementing a comprehensive automation approach also requires consideration of people and processes.”
Ghosh stated that the process includes measuring an organization's maturity in tools, culture, automation, and talent, and establishing benchmarks for the measurement. Collaborating with people within the organization is crucial for building the right automation culture, identifying new automation roles, and providing people with automation-related skills and knowledge.
He said, "Finally, while technology implementation may seem simple, large-scale automation requires a platform that can combine data, technology, and industry assets, and provide a comprehensive view of the status and governance of all automation projects. We have entered the era of intelligent automation, and organizations that do not accelerate the adoption of intelligence and automation will find themselves lagging behind."
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