Automation has been a key priority for organisations across all industries for decades, with adoption accelerating in recent years through the development of new technologies, including AI. It makes sense. Software applications and machines can work faster than people. They don’t make mistakes, they don’t need holidays, and they can operate 24/7 if required.
We know the benefits of automation as much as anyone, as Access IT Automation is, as the name suggests, an automation company. Our products facilitate the automation of some of the most time-consuming and resource-intensive processes and workflows undertaken by technical teams in enterprise organisations.
This includes application management where our product, Access Capture, can cut app packaging, testing, and publishing processes from hours to minutes. In the case of large-scale projects involving thousands of applications, the time saving is measured in months. But like all technologies and technology-backed processes, automation doesn’t stand still. It adapts to new innovations, business requirements, and commercial realities.
This brings us to the next evolutionary stage of automation in enterprise environments – self-service automation. In terms of our application management expertise, this means self-service application management automation.
What is Self-Service Automation?
Self-service automation is the practice of using technology to enable users, such as employees, to independently access information, perform tasks, or resolve issues without requiring direct human intervention from IT or support staff.
We can use Access Capture as an example. With Access Capture implemented, an enterprise’s technical team can significantly streamline application discovery, packaging, testing, and publishing processes. The benefits are substantial:
- More efficient app management processes
- Reduced resource requirements
- Fewer errors and mistakes
This then has knock-on business benefits, including improved productivity.
That’s all great, but there are still areas for improvement. Take a product or app owner, for example. Our product/app owner in this example needs to create a new application package ready for publication/deployment, so she raises a change request with the technical team.
Using a manual process, the technical team would have to allocate resources to complete the task, with our product/app owner waiting days (or even longer) for a response.
With Access Capture, the technical team can complete the change request in minutes, but it could take hours for this support ticket to get to the top of the queue. The wait might be shorter, but our product/app owner still has to wait.
With self-service automation, the product/app owner would have direct access to Access Capture’s functionality. Rather than waiting for the technical team to complete the task, she could do it herself immediately. Technical resources can get on with other tasks, and the product/app owner can move forward with her project without delay.
The Human Benefits of Self-Service Automation
It is easy to get caught up in the productivity and efficiency benefits of self-service automation. There are also significant DEX benefits. Take our example above – the product/app owner will have a substantially better experience through self-service automation compared to waiting several hours (or longer) for a response to her change request.
It is also important to highlight the human benefits of self-service automation. Automation solutions, especially those powered by emerging AI technologies, can have a negative impact, where employees are fearful that they are going to be replaced by automation, even when they are not.
Self-service automation takes something that can feel threatening and puts it in the hands of employees. This is empowering, it increases confidence, and it further enhances DEX beyond individual productivity.
Where to Draw the Line?
So, with the productivity, operational, and DEX benefits of self-service automation, do we now move from “automate as much as possible” to “self-service automation everywhere”? We recently ran a poll on LinkedIn that clearly indicates that self-service automation should be strategically implemented where it can be most effective and impactful.
In other words, not all automation technologies need to be transformed to self-service automation, but there are benefits to doing so with some.
In our poll, for example, respondents were in favour of allowing self-service automation for application discovery and packaging, but they were less enthusiastic about self-service automation for application package smoke testing and UAT. This makes complete sense as discovery and packaging automation are productivity and DEX boons for product/app owners, while testing should have more centralised control, especially for high-risk applications.
Conclusion: Self-Service Automation Makes Sense Where It Makes Sense
Where self-service automation involves minimal operational risks alongside productivity and DEX benefits, it makes sense to enable it, empowering employees in the process. In relation to application management automation, Access Capture can be configured to enable self-service automation according to requirements. It’s the next evolutionary stage of app management – self-service application management automation.
