Imagine a world where applications manage themselves, automatically fixing problems and resolving issues without any human intervention. This is the dream of zero-touch operations, and it's becoming increasingly possible thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
Zero-touch operations can help CIOs achieve several benefits, including:
- Reduced costs: By automating tasks that are currently performed manually, zero-touch operations can help to reduce IT support costs.
- Improved user experience: By resolving issues more proactively, quickly and efficiently, zero-touch operations can help to improve the user experience for both IT staff and business users.
- Increased agility: By automating routine tasks, zero-touch operations can free up IT staff bandwidth to focus on more strategic initiatives.
However, there are also some challenges to implementing zero-touch operations, such as:
- Legacy applications: Legacy applications may not be designed for automation, and they may require significant effort to retrofit.
- Monitoring investments: The cost of monitoring tools and infrastructure can be high, especially for large enterprises.
- User adoption: Users may need to be trained on how to use new self-service tools and understand processes.
Despite these challenges, zero-touch operation is a powerful tool that can help CIOs to improve IT efficiency and effectiveness. By carefully considering the benefits and challenges, CIOs can develop a plan to implement zero-touch operations that are right for their organization.
Achieving success in this journey requires a strategic approach that includes the following steps:
1. Identify a leader for the implementation of zero-touch operations across the organization. It is important that this is led centrally and not at the technology or business unit level for standardization and ROI achievement.
2. Evaluate your landscape in terms of parameters such as # of applications, AiOps tools already present, business-critical apps, # of tickets and others which help you to understand the current state, required investment and implementation effort.
3. A good start would be to look at an application portfolio rationalization exercise first and prioritize the apps (for zero-touch) as the ones which are in “Invest” (immediate basis), “Migrate” (post migration) and possibly “Tolerate” (case to case basis) category. The ones under “Eliminate” can be ignored. The categorization is as per the Gartner TIME model for Application Portfolio Management.
4. Plan a budget for a “zero-touch” initiative. It may seem counterintuitive but an exercise like this may need a budget for portfolio rationalization, tools license, implementation and rationalization of tools and on-boarding of use cases. The ROI may come only after a certain time period.
5. In case of budget constraints, a dual monitoring tools strategy may be opted. Tier 1 monitoring tools can be used for critical applications and other non-critical applications can be subject to basic monitoring and automated resolution of alerts.
6. Create a roadmap for achieving zero-touch operations as a progressive journey with a clearly defined %age coverage of apps for each milestone. Assess the benefits post-completion of milestone and feed the inputs to the next phase
7. For any new applications getting onboarded, work out a plan for a smooth transition to zero-touch framework and implementation of application-specific use cases
8. Consider the change management aspect while implementing of zero-touch to address reduced human interface, usage of self-service options, ability to understand self-help articles, and actions to be taken for automated alerts and workflows so that users are well prepared and participative in this journey
9. Remember that zero-touch operations are not only about ROI but also about improving end-user experience by reducing MTTD, MTTR, automated resolution and proactive monitoring. Make sure that your internal messaging within the organization is aligned with the same.
Here are some additional tips for getting started with zero-touch operations:
- Start small: Don't try to automate everything at once. Start with a small pilot project to identify the challenges and opportunities.
- Focus on high-value tasks: Automate the tasks that will have the biggest impact on your business.
- Get buy-in from stakeholders: Make sure that everyone involved understands the benefits of zero-touch operations and is on board with the plan.
- Measure your results: Track the impact of your zero-touch operations initiatives so you can make sure they are delivering the expected benefits.
In summary, zero-touch operations present a valuable opportunity for CIOs to achieve significant benefits, such as cost reduction, enhanced alignment between IT and business objectives, and improved end-user experience. Successfully implementing zero-touch operations requires a focused and comprehensive approach that systematically integrates these capabilities across the organization, while also addressing the critical aspects of internal change management.
By following these tips, you can start to reap the benefits of zero-touch operations and take your IT organization to the next level!
