OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS

Two-Thirds of Companies Plan to Employ IT Process Automation

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 11-03-11 | Comments

With benefits including improved response time and error reduction, IT process automation may be the key to innovation for many companies. But will the technology lead to layoffs? A recent survey details how IT process automation is impacting IT success.

IT process automation brings the promise of efficiency and innovation, which is why many CIOs are seeing the tool as a key goal for the coming years. Following this trend, a recent poll found that 68 percent of CIOs already use or plan to implement process automation tools.

The report, titled �IT Process Automation� encompasses responses from nearly 350 business-technology professionals in a variety of industries. While only 36 percent of those surveyed already use automation tools for IT workflow and process, almost twice that amount plan to use the tools in coming years.

"Some IT teams resist automation because they think success will lead to pink slips," said Lorna Garey, content director of InformationWeek Reports, according to a statement. "But our research shows that's not necessarily so. Just 11% of respondents who have fully deployed IT automation tools say this has led to staff reductions compared with 16% who say it's allowed staff to work in other -- hopefully more interesting -- areas."

31 percent of surveyed IT professionals plan on automating or already automate operational/data center processes, while 24 percent plan on automating or already automate business/customer processes. 42 percent automate a combination of these processes.

Backup, restoration, and disaster recovery were the most critical automation areas cited by professionals, while configuration management of cloud servers and applications was least critical. Of those still evaluating automation tools, surveyed persons were most interested in technologies from IBM, Microsoft, and IBM.

The poll highlights several key benefits of process automation. Top-rated benefits include improved response time for survey requests, error reduction, and freeing of staff time for other projects.

Still, process automation may not be the right choice for all IT departments, especially ones with complex environments and house-designed applications. �The success of any IT process automation project will largely depend on your systems,� writes study author Michael Biddick. �The more standardization, the easier automation will be.�