The rise of zero-touch IT

This article was contributed by Thomas Donnelly, CIO at BetterCloud.

For corporate users, it’s very simple: just subscribe to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) app that does whatever you need to do. Easy. No hassle. Except that behind the friendly interface, IT has a growing workload driven by those very apps. IT is typically understaffed and unable to keep up with the flood of SaaS onboarding, security and offboarding tasks. Additionally, IT now supports a remote workforce that works all the time. In other words, IT is overwhelmed. Manual handling of SaaS deployment and day-to-day management forces IT to be highly reactive-and therefore less efficient.

Blame the proliferation of SaaS, not the applications themselves. SaaS has been a very good thing. Ten years ago, typical corporate employees used Microsoft Office, and some also used an ERP, CRM system or SaaS budgeting application. Today both corporations use hundreds of SaaS applications to boost employee productivity. With 20 or more added annually, deployment, maintenance and security challenges emerge.
The stakes are high, with regulatory mandates heavily penalizing data, privacy, and management losses, especially where PII and core company data are exposed. There has also been exponential growth in the amount of data to protect. Taking every step in all SaaS-ops processes that affect employees, customers and job applicants is critical. The cost of privilege and security errors is too great. Consequently, automation is needed of a growing variety of IT operations and workflows.

This automated approach is becoming known as zero-touch IT. The truth is, many IT operations and tasks can be completed without human involvement. Given the growing population of SaaS apps, this is the most practical way.

Why was zero touch made for now, and how will it be done?

First, zero-touch IT is a way to free your people from maintenance tasks, and up-level your ops team to be more strategic. You noticed the Great Resignation – IT talent never grew on trees, and now there is a severe drought. Your team’s time and skills should not be wasted on what can be automated.

Second, IT serves demanding customers. Corporate users have become less tolerant about waiting for IT to ride to their rescue, and they have sharper expectations. After all, if they can find and load a CRM app on their phone in a minute, why can’t your technology experts give them a new CRM company in, say, 10 minutes?
Users board, request privileges and perform operations in different time zones. Automation does not sleep, making it suitable for asynchronous workforces.

Third, zero-touch IT, when implemented properly, reduces errors caused by fatigue and overload. A disruptive IT staffer can easily grant unauthorized data privileges to an outside contractor, with disastrous consequences.
There are options for zero-touch IT; Independently constructed workflows can be automated, but it can produce spaghetti of different methods that behave differently and cause confusion. It is best to approach zero-touch IT through a coherent management platform.

Zero touch is a concept that is fast becoming reality

The automation engine that enables zero-touch IT acts as a centralized command center for working with dozens of SaaS applications in a consistent, similar manner. This will require performing a relatively complex, multi -step workflow that affects many different apps – some businesses actively use and support more than 100 SaaS resources. The setup of workflows should be builder-friendly; it needs to be a low-code solution, run via menus and select-click. IT staff are usually not coders or developers, and everyone in IT should be able to use the platform.

Benefits of zero-touch IT

The zero-touch benefit most often cited for ROI purposes: it frees IT professionals to use their skills to contribute more as technology enablers rather than “fixers , “and help the business move forward in the world. Time is saved when IT teams don’t cross backlogs of tedious and multi-step tasks.

With a zero-touch IT initiative, workflows become smoother-that’s needed to automate them. Workflows can span multiple apps; an application can trigger necessary actions elsewhere, in many cases, without waiting for human intervention.

To extend the value of zero-touch IT, the automation machine must be able to interact with automated ITSMs, key apps like ServiceNow, workflow engines and chatbots.

The wait time factor for users is also dramatically reduced, which can boost not only their productivity, but their satisfaction with IT and the company itself. Onboarding is a good example. New hires average more than 50 tasks to complete during onboarding. Statistics from the recruitment industry show that if a new employee’s onboarding process is positive, their retention rate is higher. That’s a significant issue; a 2021 Gallup poll found that only 12% of employees fully agree that their employer does an amazing job at onboarding.

Offboarding can be even more important, especially for security implications. Our data indicates that IT teams spend an average of 7.12 hours offboarding an employee from the company’s SaaS apps.

Insights and conclusions

As most enterprise computing moved to the cloud, and a thousand special -purpose SaaS apps evolved, the ROI case for easily managed automation of IT operations became even stronger. Moving to zero-touch, IT is quickly leading to clarification processes. Automated workflows cut tedium and time loss by putting people in the loop. Zero touch tends to improve how users view and do IT – and their employers. Interactions are becoming less about many small, often frustrating requests and waits, and more about improving technology to help solve larger business issues.

With a 30% to 50% reduction in requests (because automation handles the rest), IT becomes less reactive and has the capacity to use technology to help others reach their goals. It can play a role in helping departments become more strategic and business -focused.

The alternative to zero-touch IT continues to grow busy as SaaS apps are added at a dizzying pace. IT experts should be force multipliers, not repair technicians. Zero-touch IT is a practical, cost-effective strategy for increasing the use of enterprise resources, and the time to apply it is now.

Thomas Donnelly is the CIO of BetterCloud.

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