Automation – Invest wisely to avoid disappointment

Often conversations around automation generate contrasting results, it either create apprehension or too much enthusiasm (different segments of the audience including business operations, IT & leadership reacting differently) however both should be dealt with equal caution and resolve.

While the very prospects of reducing cost, rework & improving certainty and business results brings charm & cheer among the leaders however fog of skepticism deteriorates visibility of operations & IT teams.

Enterprises with characteristics of fragmented architecture and data silos should definitely take more measured approach to automation. While sketching Enterprise Architecture Roadmap, Enterprise Architecture ( EA) function should spend enough time on various facets of automation and delineate unambiguous guidelines for the Enterprise or much like every other IT asset, Lines of Business & other stakeholders pressed for time are likely to find their own solutions in form of acquiring & deploying automation solutions not aligned to organization’s strategy , to produce sub-optimal return on investments.

To avoid disappointment, it becomes absolutely critical to define and state the very purpose of automation. Having the luxury of aerial view, EA can contribute significantly to the automation roadmap of the enterprise.

By design, organizations target automation for higher control & improved agility (along with some interim results in between). Being in very competitive market place, every organization seeks maximum bang for their buck and hence would like to invest in activities in proportion to the expected benefit. Taking this idea forward, organizations must identify their systems of differentiation, system of innovation & and systems of records as a prelude to their automation strategy.

Conventionally (while exceptions are always there), by the very definition, most organizations would be extremely careful & protective about their system of records and would like to maintain highest level of control and automation technique such job scheduling would be most appropriate for it. At the same time for category of assets identified as systems of differentiation with workload automation (such as faster sanction screening, quicker underwriting, claims management, quicker payment processing) and IT process automation would be more relevant. Systems of Innovations ( such a new age B2B , B2C mobile applications, & some category of web applications like e-commerce et al ) would be apt for application release automation – automating the entire build, deploy , test & release cycle for higher agility & reduced time to market, allowing business strategies to be formulated, engineered , deployed & tested in quick time (all thanks to automation) & truly enabling philosophy of co-creation with clients through continuous integration of their feedback to the application.

EA function should demonstrate scientific & measurable approach while selecting automation platforms with wider applicability (across the IT portfolio to achieve standardization) , interoperability & open architecture with ability to integrate with most IT assets using non proprietary protocols.

To conclude, much like application & infrastructure, their absolute need to formulate strategic and holistic vision for automation. Benefits and applicability of automation should be understood in context of the entire organization and IT landscape to avoid costly pitfalls.