You need endpoint task automation if your ITSM request queues are growing, client escalations are increasing, and you have frustrated end users as a result. Although you may already have visibility and workflow automation, full service desk automation requires the tasks themselves to be automated to achieve real ITSM staff productivity gains.
“Tasks” are the actions needed to solve problems at the endpoint. You need to automate those tasks because:
- Workflow automation does not automate the task itself
- Technicians are doing the work manually, thus increasing MTTR
- Tasks are too often escalated due to their perceived complexity, leading to increased costs
- Engineers spend a lot of time coordinating with individual users
This all leads to long support queues and poor user experience.
Automate across all support tiers
To solve these problems, you need task automation across all support tiers.
Level 4 – Proactive resolution and baselining
Configuration drift causes performance and security issues. So, when problems get fixed, they should be proactively avoided in the future using mass-heal capability. Create a new baseline to prevent the same problems in the future, monitor baseline usage and deprecate unused rules over time.
Level 3 – Resolve incidents and problems in real-time
You need real-time diagnostics without user engagement and without waiting for a user response. Hunt and fix problems on first attempt across your organization, then enable Level 1 or 2 engineers to safely fix them in the future. Establish a new baseline so problems are automatically prevented and resolved.
Level 1 & 2 – Fix at the endpoint
Diagnose and fix problems remotely and safely (at the endpoint) from a console on first attempt. User engagement is not needed and there’s no need to wait for the user. All remediation steps should be available to remotely rebuild computers, including their apps and data. Issues get resolved directly instead of being escalated.
Level 0 – Self-service automation and remediation
Enable users to self-serve using an automated portal or chatbot to directly fix problems at the endpoint. All tasks must be available to complete at home or in any other location.
How you benefit from automating your service desk
You’ll help solve the challenge of long support queues by:
- Automating across all support levels
- Ensuring proactive resolution through mass-heal capability
- Enabling real-time diagnosis and resolution
- Allowing users to self-serve (chatbot or portal) and resolve at the endpoint
With the right tools, you can investigate and remediate issues, as well as manage operations across all your endpoints in real-time, with features like:
- Graphical displays of response information – for real-time IT and connecting to endpoints
- Impact assessments – ensuring endpoint compliance with enterprise IT policies
- A full response history – to maximize enterprise-wide patch deployment success
Ultimately, automation means an immediate response with no waiting or context switching and no network or client performance impact. Without user interaction or a remote desktop session, you can resolve issues and inform users quickly. Your engineers can resolve incidents wherever users are located and at scale without a need for VPNs or fast links.
You can also benefit from the ability to rebuild, replace and migrate PCs – including OS, applications, data and settings – with everything carried out remotely. With a self-service rebuild, software replacement and upgrades, users can build, replace, fix or rebuild a computer from home or anywhere else. They’ll also get their applications and data back.
In short, the business case for service desk automation is not only faster IT, but a better workplace experience for both end-users and IT staff, and real cost benefits in time and money.
