News from itSMF Fusion

I was only able to attend yesterday but Glen O’Donnell of Forrester gave a great presentation after lunch. He hit several themes that came up in my conversations with other attendees and presenters.

If he said it once he must have said it 5 times “If it is repeatable automate it” and “if it’s not a competitive differentiator, why are you doing it? Outsource it, or better yet automate it”. IT has no automated processes—most shops have only automated tasks.

We all know that >70% of the average IT shop’s effort is simply to keep the lights on. And we know that the business doesn’t value the status quo (unless something’s down). The business values new capabilities that drive revenue or cost control. And yet, IT is mostly stuck in a rut. What to do?

Become a hero.

Not the kind that current incentive structures encourage (I was a bit flattered that he riffed on the firefighters by day; arsonists by night theme I discussed here).
Here’s Glenn’s advice on being a hero:
· Be pragmatic
· Innovate
· Automate the automatable
· Become a metrics junkie (measure what matters to the business, not speeds & feeds)
· Tie incentives to the metrics
· Change; don’t be changed

He emphasized that automating end to end processes enforces ITIL discipline, reduces errors, accelerates process execution, and frees your people to innovate.

Glenn recently did a paper making the case for why NOW is the time to start automating processes. It’s available here.

Signs are out there that the economy has bottomed out. What are you doing to prepare for the next uptick in your business. Automation cuts costs so you can weather weak economic times and allows you to focus on what matters to the business as things improve.