What is IT process automation?

IT process automation (ITPA) is the automation of IT services, support, and administration into workflows in order to avoid the time and cost involved in manually managing them. 

There's a lot going on in IT on a daily basis: handling service requests, managing and monitoring hardware and software, implementing new technologies and working out the bugs, monitoring compliance and security, maintenance, and a whole lot more. Just reading that sentence and thinking of everything involved in IT can make you start to feel overwhelmed. But that’s where automation comes to the rescue. 

By automating currently manual workflows and processes, you can free up resources and personnel to move on to more innovative and growth-impacting work—the stuff you can get really excited about. 

IT process automation software can bridge multiple systems, applications, and platforms, unifying the infrastructure and eliminating bottlenecks. 

Once you identify a task to be automated, you can create a workflow for the functions of that task, comprising specified procedures,  to be scheduled in advance or activated automatically when certain conditions or triggers occur. Based on the parameters set, notifications or alerts can be escalated as needed for further action to be taken. 

You can automate your ticketing system so that frequently-asked-questions can be addressed in specific ways automatically, duplicate requests are identified and eliminated, and the remaining requests are routed to the correct people to address the issues. Here are a few other examples of processes that can be automated:

• Onboarding and provisioning of new employees
• Making sure your processes are secure and compliant with current regulations
• Monitoring personnel and performance
• Asset inventory and tracking

​The result is faster, more efficient processes, reduced errors, cost savings, and increased productivity. Plus, the more you automate, the more processes you’ll identify to automate and the faster bugs and other problems will be identified. 

Two other forms of automation that are closely related to IT process automation are robotic process automation (RPA) and business process automation (BPA). 

RPA is the automation, via software,  of specific repetitive tasks formerly done by humans, like copying and pasting information from one field into another. Many RPA software solutions are pre-built and easily-installed, designed to run on top of existing infrastructure, independent of databases or application programming interfaces. 

BPA is so similar to IT process automation, it can be considered a use case of it.  BPA uses software to automate various business transactions and activities that involve multiple steps and systems. Each BPA solution is customized to a specific enterprise or organization, connected to an API or integrated into data systems. A BPA solution can sometimes include RPA software.

The focus of IT has shifted from serving internal needs, like efficiency and cost control, to engaging with external customers and creating new business opportunities. That’s why Red Hat believes the traditional business automation model needs to evolve. Instead of focusing solely on streamlining processes, businesses need to develop new strategies to automate the business itself. 

Red Hat works with the greater open source community on automation technologies. Our engineers help improve features, reliability, and security to make sure your business performs, with IT that remains stable and secure. 

Our solutions, services, and training give you the control you need to automate your business and free up the resources you need to build an innovative future.