Benefits of IT Automation
Look at the benefits of automation. Learn how managed service providers can help automate business tasks. Find out how automation improves accuracy and efficiency.
IT or infrastructure automation uses software to replace manual human interactions with tech systems. Right now, over 61% of small Canadian businesses are using automation to run their companies, and this number climbs if you focus on larger enterprises. The embrace of automation varies drastically from industry to industry — for example, while 69% of food and accommodation businesses rely on automation, only 30% of activities in educational services have been automated.
Analysts indicate that about 46% of all business activities in Canada have the potential to be automated — does your business have automatable tasks? Can you benefit from automation? In most cases, the answer is a resounding yes.
Ideal for highly repeatable tasks, automation is critical for optimizing your IT tools, and it offers a host of benefits for your enterprise including the following.
Cost Effectiveness
Automation decreases labour costs, while arguably increasing the accuracy of the work. To give you a basic example, imagine that your employees manually enter transactions from your bank statements into your accounting software. By automating this task, you reduce your labour costs.
When you automate tech tasks, in particular, you stand to reap even more savings as IT administrators are skilled workers who tend to command relatively high wages. In this realm, you can automate data backup functions, software updates, basic security processes, patching, and network management essentials.
Increased Accuracy
Automating workflows increases accuracy. You no longer have to worry about human error or an employee forgetting to complete an essential task. Instead, every task you automate gets executed reliably and on-time.
Scalability
If you’re focused on growth, scalable processes are essential, and automation opens the door to scalability. In contrast, if you rely on manual processes, you can only handle more tasks by increasing human resources. With automation, you can easily accomplish more as needed, and you have the flexibility to grow your IT environment almost effortlessly as your business expands. At the same time, if you ever need to shrink some of your efforts, you can opt to scale down.
Improved Operational Efficiency
When you’re managing a team of people, you need to use their skills appropriately. Assigning people tasks that could be easily automated typically does not make the best use of their skill sets. For instance, if you have a high level network engineer working on repetitive tasks that are below their skill level, you are unnecessarily wasting funds paying for their efforts.
Simultaneously, they are likely to get frustrated with the lack of challenge in their position, increasing the chance that they may leave the company. Low retention rates due to job dissatisfaction cause you to incur extra costs related to recruiting, hiring, and onboarding new employees. When you automate simple tasks, you open the doors for your employees to use their skills more efficiently, and you improve operational efficiency across the board.
Managed Service Providers and Automation
Now that you understand the benefits of automation, you may be wondering how to automate workflows in your business. Managed service providers can provide you with the guidance you need to identify automatable tasks and implement systems to support the shift to automation.
In addition to helping their clients with automation, managed service providers rely heavily on automation in their industries. They often work with tools that allow them to automate processes for numerous clients across multiple platforms. Because they’re so invested in following automation, they can provide you with insights that you may not be able to get anywhere else, and they can help you tap into the best possible tools and solutions in this field.
Regardless of your industry, you can benefit from automation. To learn more, contact us today. At OnServe, we provide a wide range of IT services for companies in Kingston, Brockville, the rest of Ontario, and throughout the country. We can help you improve operational efficiency, save money, and increase accuracy through automation.
