Resource costs are increasing, complexity is increasing, talent is scarce, governance requirements are on the increase, tools proliferate and are unmanageable, the business demands more with less, service levels are being enforced to a greater degree, and the pressures are unrelenting. Is it possible to meet all these demands that have conflicting needs and implications?
Picture a world where no IT support personnel are required other than break/fix hardware replacement at the remote sites, regardless of the number of these sites. A world where the ability to respond almost immediately to various error conditions and events within the entire infrastructure, and to keep an accurate auditable record of all the activity, is attainable. A world where technology silos are straddles and interoperability is possible.
Is this a pataphysical world that lives in the whims of the lunatic fringe, or can it be reality for the infrastructure that your business relies on? I venture to suggest that this world is possible, as it has been done.
This world has management tools that are continuously monitored and remediation of error conditions initiated as soon as the error condition has been detected. Each event is recorded in an auditable way in the trouble ticketing system and updated as the various steps to remediation are completed and then alerts reset. Event logs on key devices and systems are monitored and dealt with as the events are logged. Any unknown event can be sent through to central support that will identify the remediation required, define it, design it into new policies and distribute it to all remote sites to continue to build the resilient self-supporting infrastructure. Data is made available as and when it is needed in the format that it is required. Hardware and connectivity issues are dealt with centrally.
Realities that currently impact on the ability of companies to deliver higher levels of service to the customer base include:
* Technology exists in silos that exist in isolation and the integration between them is complex and mostly constrained by the ability of some clever scripting, and also the design constraints of some of the integration facilities that are applicable to certain BPM tools.
* People are inaccurate and not always reliable in the work they do - human error accounts for up to 80% of system downtime (according to various research entities).
* Reliance on people for many of the processes is often disappointing since the human latency factor is unpredictable and the delays experienced worsens the situation for customers that are impacted.
Automation to address these matters is the starting point. Where do you start? Two questions are helpful in determining this point:
* Where do we make money?
* Where do we lose money?
The standard answer to these questions is "where we exchange products and services for cash". These are the places that have the greatest impact and minimising anything that could be detrimental to these areas is the ideal starting point.
Let's take a retail environment and elaborate on what can be done:
* Automated collection of EOD files.
* Automated distribution of information from H/O for merchandising, pricing, media, etc.
* Automated provisioning of business data to the various business systems.
* Automated daily notifications to key business personnel of business information (daily turnover per store, etc).
* Automated daily reconciliation of transaction consolidation for banking purposes (credit card, loyalty card, cheques, cash, voucher, etc) and what must be retained as float for next day (minimises opportunity for theft).
* Automated checking of event logs on all store file servers and dealing with errors, warnings and repeated negative information entries.
* Automated checking of event logs on all store POS devices and dealing with errors, warnings and repeated negative information entries.
* Automated checking of event logs on all store PCs and dealing with errors, warnings and repeated negative information entries.
* Automated checking of event logs on all store networking devices (switches, routers) and dealing with errors, warnings and repeated negative information entries.
* Automated reporting on daily status of all devices to prove due diligence.
* Automated actions on agreed threshold breaches (available disc space, etc).
* Automated file transfer and synchronisation.
* Automated backups and backup data integrity validation.
* Automated daily housekeeping.
* Automated monitoring of management tools and responding to alerts.
* Automated configuration changes as authorised.
* Automated logging of all activities in event logs and also in trouble ticketing system.
* Automated distribution of software updates.
The ability to tackle all of these areas (and more) without reliance on people is what is currently achievable with major reduction and predictability in operational costs. This is achievable through the automation provided through Opalis Integration Server from Opalis Software. The imagined is now reality.
Biamic ICT Solutions is the appointed reseller for Opalis Software throughout Africa. Any queries to be made to info@biamic.co.za. We would love to be able to work through some of these aspects with you.
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