A Realistic Approach to Transforming IT Operations: Analytics + Automation + Common Sense

IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
A Realistic Approach to
Transforming IT Operations:
Analytics + Automation +
Common Sense
Dennis Nils Drogseth
Vice President
EMA

Agenda
• A radically changing landscape
• Core roadblocks to going forward
• Issues of communication
– Knowledge capture is key
– Historical insights are key
– Why common sense needs to be applied
• Analytics and automation can help clear the way
– Why analytics and automation go hand in hand
• Proven benefits of going forward with a pragmatic
approach
© 2016, Enterprise Management Associates2

A Radically Changing Landscape

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING© 2016, Enterprise Management Associates
What’s New in the IT Landscape?
• Digital transformation
– IT transformation
• Cloud in all its forms
• Agile/DevOps and the need for speed
– And hopefully the need for wisdom as well
• The growing role of IT analytics
• The rise of mobile computing and the ‘empowered’
user/consumer
4

What Are Digital and IT Transformation?
“Digital transformation”
targets optimizing business
or organizational
effectiveness via digital
investments and IT services.
“IT transformation” is
directed at optimizing IT
performance to more
effectively address business
or organizational needs and
outcomes.

[qual1] Which optimizing approach applies most to you and your transformation initiative?
BASE: (All: N=306)
0%
8%
15%
35%
43%
We are focused on neither one
We use the terms interchangeably
We are primarily focused on digital
transformation
We are focused on both about 50/50
We are primarily focused on operational
transformation
IT Transformation was More Pervasive than Digital,
but 35% were 50/50; 8% Used the Terms Interchangeably

Transformational Trends – Metric Drivers
• Most transformational initiatives (52%) had been
underway for more than a year
• IT operations and the IT executive suite were far and
away the most likely to oversee transformational
initiatives
• Service availability and performance was the #1
operational metric
• Improved end-user efficiencies led for business metrics
7

85% Viewed Cloud as a Part of Their
Transformational Initiative
[Cloud6] How, specifically, has cloud impacted your digital/IT transformation initiatives? 
BASE: (All: N=306)
2%
15%
22%
23%
25%
26%
27%
29%
32%
Other (please specify)
Cloud has been more disruptive than helpful
Cloud has isolated IT further from the business
Cloud has forced us to measure our transformational progress
in a way that the business understands
Cloud has forced us to redefine our transformation priorities
Cloud has challenged us forced us to measure
transformational progress outside of our own data centers…
Cloud has forced us to reorganize the way IT is structured
Cloud has promoted more dialog with the business
Cloud has been a resource for accelerating our transformation
initiative(s)

Core Roadblocks to Going Forward

Top 10 Challenges for Optimizing IT
for Cost and Value Were…
1. Operational inefficiencies
2. Incomplete data
3. Fragmented technologies in general
4. Lack of analytics in optimizing data from IT assets
5. Poor data quality
10

Top 10 Challenges for Optimizing IT
for Cost and Value Were…
1. Operational inefficiencies
2. Incomplete data
3. Fragmented technologies in general
4. Lack of analytics in optimizing data from IT assets
5. Poor data quality
6. Sharing data effectively across IT silos
7. Low or inadequate levels of automation
8. Fragmented technologies due to IT silos
9. Unable to measure op efficiencies
10. Communication/process issues
11

Some Other Roadblocks
• Digital Transformation—3 at the top
– Lack of effectively defined processes
– Poor communication across IT
– Warring or siloed toolsets
• Looking just at discovery and
inventory:
– On average, respondents indicated
using 11 different discovery or
inventory tools
– And on average, respondents
spent 15 hours a week reconciling
different data sets
• Monitoring is often worse
– 1 mid-tier with 300 tools
12

Siloed Data, Free Association, and Lack of Processes
• Large U.S. Manufacturer:
– We had many silos of data and many different repositories. All
over the world everyone was doing their own silo of work in
sometimes redundant or even conflicting ways.
• Mid-tier Healthcare:
– We can get past ‘task by free-association,’ where everyone’s
on a phone call and begins to speculate about where the
problem might lie.
• Mid-Tier Financial Planning:
– Our operations organization was fairly siloed and hadn’t yet
invested in best practices. We often had no clear idea what
would happen if, for instance, we unplugged a server. Most of
our change records there resided inside someone’s head.
13

Voices from the Abyss Documented
via EMA Consulting
• “Our focus is on closing tickets. We do very little root
cause analysis.”
• “If it takes more than 20 minutes to fix a problem, then
we simply re-image the machine. We don’t fix the
components.”
• “Tribal knowledge is used in emergencies to restore
services.”
• “Each silo has its own process. To provision a server,
you fill out a form in Oracle Financials, and then you fill
out a storage form. For other requests, you pick up the
phone. There is no end-to-end process. It’s frustrating.”
14

Issues of Communication

Issues of Communication Are…
• Pervasive
• The second top obstacle for digital
transformation (after lack of effectively
defined processes)
• Impact IT efficiency, morale, and service
delivery
• Require communication across operations
silos, as well as between operations and IT
service mangement teams, application
owners and others
• The solution depends on:
– Knowledge capture
– Sharing historical insights
– Applying common sense to team collaboration
16

Voices Lost in the Cascade from EMA Consulting
17
Communication is done as an informal
exchange and is very ad hoc. Often,
you call those who you know will agree
with you.
“Communication between
silos is good. If there is a
performance issue, we
quickly get a group call
going.”
“Communication
between groups is
brutally bad.” (Same
IT organization)
Information is lost in the cascade.
It is especially lost from the director
level to managers.

More Quotes from EMA Consulting
• “Communication depends on interpersonal skills…
It is all about the relationships between departments.
Problem resolution is via tribal knowledge.”
• “IT doesn’t communicate well either internally or
externally. We vacillate between too big and nothing.
We over-promise and don’t follow through.”
18

Analytics and Automation
Can Help Clear the Way

Transformational Trends: Technology Is a Key Driver
[Functional2] You indicated that some technologies were in some way associated with your digital/IT transformation initiative.
How were they associated? 
BASE: (All: N=304)
Driver
73%
Supportive
27%

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING© 2015 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.
Top Technology Priorities for Digital Transformation
• Top analytics and automation priorities
– Enhanced workflow automation
– Analytics for incident and problem resolution
– Analytics for IT governance
– Analytics for application/infrastructure optimization
– Configuration automation
• Top functional priorities
– Improved customer/user experience
– Improved applciation performance management
– Enhanced project management
– Enhanced automation for self service
Slid
e 21

Technical Performance Issues for IT Analytics
Investments– Average of 4 per Respondent
50%
50%
44%
44%
43%
36%
35%
31%
27%
23%
16%
8%
Network availability and performance
Systems availability and performance
Storage availability and performance
Data quality management efficiencies
Security-related issues
Cross-domain service performance and availability
Response time for multiple transactions to support a complete business
service
Service transaction response time
Middleware issues
Issues across the Extended Enterprise (partners, suppliers, service
providers) for performance
Issues across the Extended Enterprise (partners, suppliers, service
providers) in managing change
Containerizations/microservices availability and performance
What technical performance issues does your organization plan to target for its advanced
analytics for operations or other IT organizations?
22 © 2016, Enterprise Management Associates

Other Analytics and Automation Perspectives
• Optimizing IT process efficiencies is the number one
priority (and challenge) in optimizing IT for financial
performance.
• The top three strategic priorities for ITSM teams are:
– Improving end user experience
– Superior integrations workflows with operations for incident/
problem/availability management
– Superior integrations workflows with operations for change
and configuration management
• Top ITSM analytics priority: analytics for incident,
problem and availablity management
23

Mean-Time-To Resolve Incidents and Reduced War
Room Time Led in Op Ex Efficiency Priorities
24 © 2016, Enterprise Management Associates
41%
39%
36%
34%
32%
29%
26%
23%
16%
6%
0%
Mean-time-to-Resolve incidents
Mean-time-to-Repair service issues (reduced war room time)
Problem owner efficiencies in addressing unique problems
OpEx efficiencies in managing change/change impact
First call resolution
OpEx efficiencies in managing/delivering SW audits
OpEx efficiencies associated with security/GRC/compliance…
OpEx efficiencies in delivering new application services
OpEx efficiencies in managing vendors and service providers
OpEx efficiencies specifically related to optimizing cloud…
Other
What IT process or OpEx efficiencies are you currently measuring?

Why Analytics and Automation Go Hand-in-Hand
• Analytics enables faster, better, more
collective insight
• Automation helps to accelerate the benefits
from those insights
• Pragmatic knowledge sharing can help to
inform both incrementally
• Changes impact HOW IT works, and this has
to be done gradually
25

Proven Benefits of Going Forward
with a Pragmatic Approach

Core Benefits of a Pragmatic Approach for
Unifying Analytics and Automation
• Reduced MTTR with progressive levels of automation
to improve effectiveness
• Improved IT operational efficiencies with significant
potential for cost savings
• Improved service availability and performance
• Improved customer exeprience
• Step-by-step, gradual evolution of how IT works and
evolves
• Best practice optimization across IT, via
documentation, commentary and automation
• Associated team building
27

Improved IT Productivity and Improved Service Quality Led in
Transformational Benefits Achieved through Best Practices
[Process5] You have stated that you have seen benefits in best-practice adoption.In your opinion, which of the following are two most
reflective of the value that your organization has achieved through best practices?
BASE: (All: N=228)
21%
22%
22%
23%
24%
25%
30%
33%
Better collaboration within IT groups
Improved business outcomes
More effective dialog between IT and its business counterparts
Improved agility and flexibility in provisioning services more
responsively
Improved IT services in terms of business relevance through the
use of proven best-practice processes
Reduced IT costs
Improved IT services in terms of quality through the use of
proven best-practice processes
Improved IT productivity

Comments From IT Initiatives Where Automation
and Analytics are Being Introduced Pragmatically
29
We are definitely reducing mean-time-to-
repair (MTTR) because there’s a context for
where our IT professionals can look to drill
down and solve problems.
Our initiative allows us to
break through our silos
and create a kind of data
democracy so that there’s
a real context for every
relevant stakeholder to
access the data and see it
in the big picture.
Our initiative is helping us to blaze a
trail to deliver trust and confidence
across our teams in managing
complex infrastructures and services
more effectively.

Success – A Large High Tech Manufacturer
We’re seeing IT evolving into new ways
of working, as some groups that weren’t
working together before are starting to
share data and insights.

© 2016 IBM Corporation 31
31Page© 2016 IBM Corporation
IBM Alert Notification & IBM Runbook Automation
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Consistent application of
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shared and maintained easily

IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH, INDUSTRY
ANALYSIS & CONSULTING© 2017 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.
Get Free Research from EMA Analysts
http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/freeResearch
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A Realistic Approach to Transforming IT Operations: Analytics + Automation + Common Sense

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A Realistic Approach to Transforming IT Operations: Analytics + Automation + Common Sense