This data is generated through business operations, and this brings the spotlight on the business processes, which are being performed with the aid of technology and automation. Workflow automation enabled by technology, provides organizations with more control over the processes and data captured. Reliance on data audits and other wasteful ‘Inspect and correct’ work will be reduced with better input validation and policy adherence. Automated processes reduce the error-prone nature of manual efforts and provide accurate source data to drive business decision support.

Automating Processes

For business areas heavily driven by an enterprise administrative system, having a strong partnership with the central IT organization is essential. Beyond traditional application development, our central IT organization has helped us with FTP based file transfer, integration and data sharing between systems, access and security management, real-time data feeds and much more. They created an integration hub where disparate systems could plug in and communicate.

Latest Trends for Organizations to Adapt

It is safe to say that our organization embraces feedback, measurement, and continual improvement. Over the last decade, many improvements have been realized with the use of management best practices such as described in ITIL, ISO, and others. There is a clear benefit to learn from others and leverage tried and true concepts to further the organization. However, navigating the ever changing world of frameworks and practices can be overwhelming.

With the emergence of Lean, Agile, DevOps, and the recent announcement that ITIL would be updated to incorporate those frameworks, it can be challenging to discern what of this guidance is right for the organization. Still newer frameworks like SIAM and VeriSM offer even more ways to think about IT Services and how they are delivered and managed. Sometimes, just finding the time to learn enough about these topics so proper consideration can be given is the largest of all challenges.

Withstanding Security Breaches

It is a common phrase in the industry that if you haven’t had a security incident then you haven’t discovered it yet. Currently, the security landscape is changing drastically and rapidly, therefore it is a requirement to maintain urgency and keep a close eye on security trends. Security and risk assessment is woven in to any new, changing, or renewed solution from enterprise applications to desktop management. The biggest challenge is to ensure balance and perspective. All too often, security takes center stage and unilaterally drives decisions. Information risk is very important and ever changing. Much work goes into remaining diligent and trying to plug any hole before the bad guys take advantage and the organization lands in the news. Still, we must ensure that the same level of attention is placed on business value. Remaining out of the news is not the only thing valuable to the business. In fact, it’s just assumed. From the business perspective, I am more concerned with a valuable, fit for purpose solution that delivers the outcomes needed. Being secure is a given and it doesn’t help drive business forward to have a super secure solution that doesn’t do what the business needs. Finding the right balance between risk mitigation and acceptance is critical and a major area of partnership with business and IT/Risk teams.