We believe automation is important, especially when it comes to IT and the business that depends upon it. This is perhaps not a controversial statement, given that most people associate the word with improvements made possible by modern technology. And indeed, automation as a trend in technology has been underway for a long time – from transportation to manufacturing to communications, many aspects of life have been transformed by machines and their electronic counterparts, computers.

Even so, for many IT professionals, managers, CIOs, and those in countless other roles in businesses and organizations, automation is not necessarily top of mind. The most pressing concern is getting the things done that the organization needs to accomplish day-to-day, using methods and processes essentially unchanged from years gone by. This is done because the existing methods work, insofar as they meet existing expectations.

But when expectations become obsolete, potential value is left on the table.

The reality for most organizations is that they could be significantly more effective, move faster, and produce more value – but they are held back. Potential reasons for this are many, but a predominant factor is inefficiency in IT and other support functions: things take longer to accomplish than they should.

The delay is not due to slow hardware or software. Most organizations have fallen behind advances in new technology and software, lacking time to upgrade to take advantage of new capabilities.  Rather, the bottleneck has shifted from inside the systems to the space between, which is usually filled by people. We often find ourselves waiting not for the completion of tasks by computers, but by coworkers.

We believe automation is fundamental to solving this problem, and therefore fundamental to unlocking an organization’s potential.

As a technique, automation involves designing and implementing systems to function in an integrated way with minimum human intervention. As a strategy, automation requires special attention to architecture and process. Therefore, it goes beyond deploying yet another application, and demands a skillset and mindset that is relatively new in the IT world.

Our goal is to help individuals and organizations achieve more automation in their operations. This includes providing technical resources to leverage in automation projects for IT pros, as well as working with organizations to design and implement a more effective infrastructure.