Identifying the value of Workload Automation is critical for business managers who want IT services that deliver the outcomes that they need consistently and without interruption. Numerous IT organisations have spent time designing solutions, supported by automated systems, processes and interactions, to try to deliver these business goals.
However, when a business process evolves or changes dramatically, for example, when you replace a core component of the IT estate, too often, what you have set up and automated is forgotten.
Here are 5 simple questions, that when answered, will help uncover those automation tasks that are most at risk of change, including those key business processes which are reliant on a service that is “out of sight” and might be “out of mind”.
5 Key Questions to Help Identify the Value of Your Workload Automation:
1. What do your systems do behind the scenes?
Do you know what Workload Automation solutions you have across your IT eco-system? One, two, or multiple? Which systems are they managing and which business processes are they supporting?
2. When do they do it?
Do you know the frequency and magnitude of the workloads being managed? Are there dependencies on month-end, quarter-end, year-end? Are there dependencies on upstream or downstream activities that are time or activity bound?
3. Can you tell if they go wrong?
With the current solutions you have in place, do you get alerts when workloads go wrong? Do you get proactive notifications prior to a failure? Or when risk of failure is likely to occur?
4. What are the implications if something does go wrong?
Do you have a visualisation of your workload services? Does the visualisation indicate when failures occur? Does your solution show the end-2-end workload eco-system and all of the interdependencies with upstream and downstream systems? From all of this, can you articulate what the implications are for workload failures?
5. Finally, how much does it cost?
This is, on the surface, the simplest question to answer. Or is it? Really knowing and understanding the full end-2-end cost of the workload services you are using is essential: Is the service internally managed and supported, with the associated admin costs? Are you paying for annual support? Do you have to pay for upgrades and enhancements? Do you have to pay when you go over a certain number of workload tasks? Are there penalty payments as well?
Alternatively, is the service partially or wholly outsourced? How do you know your vendor is delivering value for the services you are paying for? Are they representing your current requirements and future needs? Are they managing your services for you and providing proactive advice and support?
What Were Your Answers?
If the answer to any of the above five questions is “I don’t know” Ortom8 can help and can give you answers to all of these questions. We have worked with numerous customers to help discover answers to these questions and provide guidance and advice on the best approach to move forward and gain value.
We have developed a SaaS service based, on the market-leading Workload Automation solution. It is designed to simplify Application Workflow Orchestration and Workload Automation, offering centralised management, advanced security features, improved scalability and advanced predictive tools.
Our difference is we provide Workload Automation services as a fully managed solution that scales to your adapting business needs. This means you take advantage of the leading software solution, wrapped up in a fully managed service to meet your business needs.
To find out how our solution can deliver leading-edge services, as well as offer significant cost savings, get in touch.
Martin Summerhayes
Head of Transformation Services at Ortom8 & MDB Service Consulting Ltd