Technology Fundamentals: Starting with a Good Foundation

It seems that every conversation nowadays circles around Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), chatbots – everyone is after the cutting-edge technology and how it will transform their business.? Unfortunately, in the race to adopt the latest technological advancements, many organizations often overlook the technology fundamentals required to support these innovations. While the allure of cutting-edge technology is understandable, without a strong foundational base, these advanced tools can lead to inefficiencies, wasted resources, and unrealized potential.

Investing time and effort in the technology fundamentals will improve every facet of your business – the fundamentals can unlock, enable, and amplify an organization to reach their full potential.

Why Technology Fundamentals Matter

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Efficiency:

Effective IT management practices, such as Knowledge Management, accurate CMDB and enterprise grade ITSM platform, enhance operational efficiency.? In many organizations so much productivity is lost due to a lack of centralized IT Service Management including knowledge, request and change management.

Security:

While funding and focus on security has increased in recent years it is still quite common to see an organization with numerous security tools and solutions in place but with some of the most basic threat vectors still open.?? They may have every security acronym in place – MEDR, SOAR, SOC and SIEM, however their new employee onboarding process still uses Welcome1! as the standard password shared through email. The saying “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” definitely applies to security.? ?

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Scalability:

Focusing on the fundamentals allows organizations to grow and incorporate new technologies effectively and without disruption. ?It enables the more advance technologies to reach their true potential. ?An example of this often occurs when discussing chatbots.?? Organizations want self-service chat bots, however for them to work effectively they require access to Knowledge and accurate CMDB/Asset information. Without this most chatbots only act as glorified task routers.

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What are the Fundamentals?

·???????? Accurate CMDB + Asset Management

·???????? Knowledge Management

·???????? Centralized ITSM Platform ?

·???????? Intune + Autopilot

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1. Accurate CMDB + Asset Management

?? - Establish and maintain an accurate CMDB for tracking hardware and software assets.?

?? - Automate the CMDB updates through integration with Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platforms.? Manual CMDB updates and practices are never accurate and lead to down stream impact as more advance solutions are deployed.

?? - Utilize an Enterprise grade ITSM platform to allow for seamless integration with ITIL best practices (Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Knowledge, etc.)

?? - This is critical for enabling many common use case for deploying RPA, chatbots and other automation.

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2. ?Knowledge Management

?? - Implement a centralized knowledgebase that is accessible to all employees.

?? - Establish both restricted and unrestricted knowledgebase, restricted is used for internal or sensitive content while unrestricted is available to all employees

?? - Allow all employees to contribute to knowledge, routing changes through approval for validation/accuracy

?? - Set knowledge articles to expire and continue to update and maintain content.?

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3. Centralized ITSM Platform ?

?? - ITSM platform will provide framework and structure. This will not only make it easier to achieve fundamentals 1 & 2, but allows for easier adoption of other ITIL best practices.

?? - ?Acts as ?“system of reference” where all key systems can integrate, enabling future? automation and advanced solutions

? ?- Centralized platform helps to prevent customer solutions, shadow IT and tool sprawl.

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?4. Intune + Autopilot

?? - Utilize the capabilities Microsoft includes for Unified Endpoint Management and automated device provisioning.

?? - Read more about the benefits here.

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Conclusion

While focusing on technology fundamentals may not be the most exciting effort, it is a strategic necessity for any organization aiming to thrive in the future. By committing to build a strong foundation of IT fundamentals organizations will enable other innovations to reach their full potential.?