Would love to get your comments on my new article on B/OSS World magazine.
http://www.billingworld.com/blogs/insider/2010/08/collaboration-combined-with-automation-the-key-to.aspx
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
A perspective on event management, event correlation, and the service desk.
The answer to most of the pains being experienced by organizations with large historical investments in event management, correlation, and service desk technology is not to 'rip and replace'... it is to focus on upstream AUTOMATION. I have some clients that are considering ripping out their Network Management and Event Management Systems in favor of open source or commodity-play products, or even switching to one of the other large platform players. These considerations are driven by a genuine frustration with difficulty in driving additional efficiency improvements from the systems. Indeed the systems represent a tremendous investments within their environment and with the increased focus on cost savings today, there is an understandable feeling that perhaps the cost of maintaining the platform is prohibitive.
There are several considerations I would counsel a client to make prior to moving in this direction:
1) There is significant innovation occuring above the Event Management layer - Business Process Management, Run Book Automation, etc. Unless the system is broadly adopted, it will likely not be part of the broader ecosystem of innovation. Adopting a new Event Management system may reduce maintenance costs in the short term, but it will impede your ability to drive further efficiencies into the process itself.
2) Small software companies / aggressive development teams can often deliver quick integrations that prove difficult to maintain and constrain interoperability in the future
3) Scalability is an ongoing process. Maintaining pace with growing computing complexities and taking advantage of the latest advances in application architecture require substantial capital investments. A low cost provider will have difficulty investing sufficient capital to keep up the pace of innovation.
4) In a mature technology market (like event management) low cost providers have historically either (1) been gobbled up by a larger player or (2) relegated to a niche customer segment where the particular technology market is only marginally relevant to the business, or (3) gone out of business due to being over extended without an operating model that is sustainable.
There are several considerations I would counsel a client to make prior to moving in this direction:
1) There is significant innovation occuring above the Event Management layer - Business Process Management, Run Book Automation, etc. Unless the system is broadly adopted, it will likely not be part of the broader ecosystem of innovation. Adopting a new Event Management system may reduce maintenance costs in the short term, but it will impede your ability to drive further efficiencies into the process itself.
2) Small software companies / aggressive development teams can often deliver quick integrations that prove difficult to maintain and constrain interoperability in the future
3) Scalability is an ongoing process. Maintaining pace with growing computing complexities and taking advantage of the latest advances in application architecture require substantial capital investments. A low cost provider will have difficulty investing sufficient capital to keep up the pace of innovation.
4) In a mature technology market (like event management) low cost providers have historically either (1) been gobbled up by a larger player or (2) relegated to a niche customer segment where the particular technology market is only marginally relevant to the business, or (3) gone out of business due to being over extended without an operating model that is sustainable.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
OSS, BSS, and Cloud Communications
The problems addressed by operations support systems (OSS) technology and process are not in any way diminished by the incorporation or wholesale adoption of cloud computing and cloud communications. If anything, the rapid adoption of different cloud technology paradigms demands a renewed focus on OPERATIONS. When the smoke settles, and new cloud driven use cases have been explored and addressed by multiple vendors, both traditional communication service providers (CSPs) and those with new business models, switching costs will be minimum, and operating costs and service experience will be paramount to retaining users (customers). Operations process automation will take center stage in OSS strategy and will be the central 'make or break' component of a successful business model.
A recent article in CRN Magazine describing a new alliance focused on the communications side of the cloud underlines the importance of both new entrants and traditional CSPs to place operations automation at the core of their strategy.
http://bit.ly/bvjIXK
The rate of decline of traditional telecommunication services continues to accelerate. CSPs are rapidly converting PSTN subscribers to VoIP, fixed mobile, and in some cases, mobile offerings. Take a look at the latest TM Forum research papers- the #s are staggering (http://www.tmforum.org/). The focus of traditional CSPs is now largely on delivering creative bundled offerings that offer more value at increasingly lower prices. With the onset of cloud based communications platforms hitting the mainstream, cloud communications and cloud computing will intersect and further accelerate adoption of a broadening array of cloud paradigms.
While cost savings and redundancy are key, they are easy to address in the early evolution of cloud computing and cloud communications- but they become more challenging as more services move to the cloud the various platforms are required to inter operate. For example, consider a simple case where back office ERP systems are integrated to salesforce.com through cloud based integration components, and salesforce.com is enabled by a cloud based, integrated converged communications platform. Scale this to millions of "users" across tens of thousands of organizations.
A renewed focus on operations process automation is required to bring OSS capabilities in line with its importance in the continued evolution of the cloud.
A recent article in CRN Magazine describing a new alliance focused on the communications side of the cloud underlines the importance of both new entrants and traditional CSPs to place operations automation at the core of their strategy.
http://bit.ly/bvjIXK
The rate of decline of traditional telecommunication services continues to accelerate. CSPs are rapidly converting PSTN subscribers to VoIP, fixed mobile, and in some cases, mobile offerings. Take a look at the latest TM Forum research papers- the #s are staggering (http://www.tmforum.org/). The focus of traditional CSPs is now largely on delivering creative bundled offerings that offer more value at increasingly lower prices. With the onset of cloud based communications platforms hitting the mainstream, cloud communications and cloud computing will intersect and further accelerate adoption of a broadening array of cloud paradigms.
While cost savings and redundancy are key, they are easy to address in the early evolution of cloud computing and cloud communications- but they become more challenging as more services move to the cloud the various platforms are required to inter operate. For example, consider a simple case where back office ERP systems are integrated to salesforce.com through cloud based integration components, and salesforce.com is enabled by a cloud based, integrated converged communications platform. Scale this to millions of "users" across tens of thousands of organizations.
A renewed focus on operations process automation is required to bring OSS capabilities in line with its importance in the continued evolution of the cloud.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Resolve (generationE) Gets Nominated for a TM Forum Excellence Award
I am very excited and proud to announce that generationE's Service Management and OSS Automation solution based on Resolve RBA, a breakout product for CSP OSS/BSS automation orchestration, has joined the likes of Alcatel Lucent, IBM, Cisco, Clarity, and other OSS providers in the TM Forum Solution Excellence Award category. Read more about it on the TM Forum website.
http://tmforum.org/ExcellenceAwards2010/Nominees/8416/Home.html
http://tmforum.org/ExcellenceAwards2010/Nominees/8416/Home.html
While Resolve is a fully customizable process automation platform, generationE packages the solution with a library of Runbook Templates that span the eTOM Operations (OPS) process area. Runbook Templates focus on areas within the FAB process grouping that represent opportunity for cross-process or cross-technology automation. For example, there is a Runbook Template for modeling and automating several of the manual, cross application workflows associated with Resource Trouble Management. This Template, once configured, deployed, and integrated with relevant systems (Network Monitoring, Trouble Ticketing, Performance Management, etc.) allows organizations to manage their heterogeneous hardware platforms with a standard, automated series of Runbooks performing many of the otherwise manual activities. These activities include gathering diagnostic information on troubled devices, automatically enacting remediation steps (re-allocating resources, restarting services, etc.), and routing tickets to the responsible party (internal SMEs or external vendors). Similarly, there are service specific Templates that cover the Service Problem Management process area- IPTV and T1 are two of the most broadly deployed.
Resolve leverages eTOM as both the foundational process framework and a reference point as new automation needs arise within our customers. eTOM allows us to quickly characterize, articulate, and prioritize these needs into our ever growing library of Runbooks.
Go Team!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Enterprise Social Media
Over the weekend I read a fantastic article from Mat Fogarty (http://mashable.com/2010/03/05/companies-crowdsourcing/) and it started me thinking on the topic of Enterprise Social Media. In particular I believe that we've only begun to explore the different ways that social media related innovations will change the internal culture and operational dynamics of large corporate organizations.
Mat touches on the potential transformative affect on corporate culture-
"The ability to manage and profit from employee knowledge through social networks, idea funnels, and prediction markets will be the defining competitive advantage for this decade. Employees will have a voice and enterprises will truly leverage their most valuable assets."
Most people today spend more time at work or doing work than they do at home or at leisure. Indeed social media is already making a substantial impact on how we spend our home / leisure time and how we communicate with each other. With numerous, ubiquitous communication tools integrated into our daily lives, social networks are becoming integrated communication hubs where we share content and experiences.
What Mat doesn't explore is the cultural challenges that might be an obstacle to corporate adoption of social media in the workplace. Social Media provides the opportunity for massive improvements in workplace productivity and quality, there is no question. But adoption curves might be hindered by fears of downsizing. Increased collaboration should be a good that is directly measured by and rewarded by management. Is it possible to accelerate adoption and reward resulting workplace efficiency improvements with increased time off, bonuses, promotions etc?
As we continue to drive towards increasing automation within technology organizations through the use of Social Media we'll be exploring how to reward those who help their organizations rise to the top.
Mat touches on the potential transformative affect on corporate culture-
"The ability to manage and profit from employee knowledge through social networks, idea funnels, and prediction markets will be the defining competitive advantage for this decade. Employees will have a voice and enterprises will truly leverage their most valuable assets."
Most people today spend more time at work or doing work than they do at home or at leisure. Indeed social media is already making a substantial impact on how we spend our home / leisure time and how we communicate with each other. With numerous, ubiquitous communication tools integrated into our daily lives, social networks are becoming integrated communication hubs where we share content and experiences.
What Mat doesn't explore is the cultural challenges that might be an obstacle to corporate adoption of social media in the workplace. Social Media provides the opportunity for massive improvements in workplace productivity and quality, there is no question. But adoption curves might be hindered by fears of downsizing. Increased collaboration should be a good that is directly measured by and rewarded by management. Is it possible to accelerate adoption and reward resulting workplace efficiency improvements with increased time off, bonuses, promotions etc?
As we continue to drive towards increasing automation within technology organizations through the use of Social Media we'll be exploring how to reward those who help their organizations rise to the top.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Myth # 3: Debunking the Myths of IT Process Automation
Myth # 3:
Senior Management looks for automation
tools to drive staff reductions
Although the current economic climate leads one to consider the potential for a given project to result in reduced operating costs, taking a step back, the reality is quite the contrary. Indeed, organizations that excel at implementing automation tools and efficiency programs are able to consequently invest more in innovation. These companies will gain market share, leading to more, often higher paying jobs.
The benefits of RBA are that of improving business agility and operating efficiency. It is critical that an automation program centered on RBA should have the benefit objectives clearly articulated, both in order to measure those benefits to obtain continued investment and to ensure organizational buy-in. An inventory of prospective processes should be created and ranked according to their respective costs and benefits. When determining the benefits of a specific automation, the following metrics are a good starting point for measuring outcomes:
- The time it takes to complete the process manually
- The skill level it takes to complete the process manually
- The # of minutes of effort it takes to complete the process manually
Advances in automation technology provide a unique opportunity for IT professionals to keep their jobs from succumbing to the forces of labor arbitrage. Jobs that are higher skilled, and less manual, repeatable, and predictable are less likely to be outsourced to a lower skilled, lower paid labor pool.
Senior Management looks for automation
tools to drive staff reductions
Although the current economic climate leads one to consider the potential for a given project to result in reduced operating costs, taking a step back, the reality is quite the contrary. Indeed, organizations that excel at implementing automation tools and efficiency programs are able to consequently invest more in innovation. These companies will gain market share, leading to more, often higher paying jobs.
The benefits of RBA are that of improving business agility and operating efficiency. It is critical that an automation program centered on RBA should have the benefit objectives clearly articulated, both in order to measure those benefits to obtain continued investment and to ensure organizational buy-in. An inventory of prospective processes should be created and ranked according to their respective costs and benefits. When determining the benefits of a specific automation, the following metrics are a good starting point for measuring outcomes:
- The time it takes to complete the process manually
- The skill level it takes to complete the process manually
- The # of minutes of effort it takes to complete the process manually
Advances in automation technology provide a unique opportunity for IT professionals to keep their jobs from succumbing to the forces of labor arbitrage. Jobs that are higher skilled, and less manual, repeatable, and predictable are less likely to be outsourced to a lower skilled, lower paid labor pool.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Myth # 2: Debunking the Myths of IT Process Automation
Myth # 2:
It’s all about the process, stupid
When organizing and planning to achieve the benefits of Automation, it is often tempting to identify overarching IT processes and focus time, money, and energy on process analysis efforts. Whereas this approach works well when building or customizing an application to model a structured process, it does not work as well with 3rd level automation.
Indeed, we have found that the focus of the effort should be on cataloguing a discreet set of manual tasks. Usually clustered around multiple application workflows and prioritizing tasks that are highly repetitive.
The process analysis work here is very minimal. We focus on highly repetitive, simple tasks.
In one pilot we conducted with Resolve at a large bank, the first Run Book helped create what equated to a savings of 4,000 hours of manual work. [Of course, the pilot turned into a global rollout with 30+ Run Books at the publish date of this paper.]
But, what about more complex tasks?
The answer, as it turns out, is that it’s really all about the people, not the process. Any approach that requires discreet, separate design efforts will ultimately hit an immovable ceiling of diminishing returns and stagnate into yet another application silo that has marginal incremental returns to the business.
In building a successful RBA program, we must:
(a) Build internal momentum /awareness/funding
(b) Offer a platform that is extendible to a broad set of content automation contributors (SMEs. etc)
(c) Offer a platform that encourages collaboration and re-use across the organization
It’s all about the process, stupid
When organizing and planning to achieve the benefits of Automation, it is often tempting to identify overarching IT processes and focus time, money, and energy on process analysis efforts. Whereas this approach works well when building or customizing an application to model a structured process, it does not work as well with 3rd level automation.
Indeed, we have found that the focus of the effort should be on cataloguing a discreet set of manual tasks. Usually clustered around multiple application workflows and prioritizing tasks that are highly repetitive.
In one pilot we conducted with Resolve at a large bank, the first Run Book helped create what equated to a savings of 4,000 hours of manual work. [Of course, the pilot turned into a global rollout with 30+ Run Books at the publish date of this paper.]
But, what about more complex tasks?
The answer, as it turns out, is that it’s really all about the people, not the process. Any approach that requires discreet, separate design efforts will ultimately hit an immovable ceiling of diminishing returns and stagnate into yet another application silo that has marginal incremental returns to the business.
In building a successful RBA program, we must:
(a) Build internal momentum /awareness/funding
(b) Offer a platform that is extendible to a broad set of content automation contributors (SMEs. etc)
(c) Offer a platform that encourages collaboration and re-use across the organization
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Myth # 1: Debunking the Myths of IT Process Automation
Myth # 1:
If you build it, they will come
If you build it, they will come
Building a sustainable platform that ensures adoption of your process automation goals is not easy. Everyone knows a lot of manual work occurs that essentially should be automated.
But, why isn’t it?
Some challenges include:
-Scripting, or heavy customization of existing applications. This is difficult to accomplish unless the right technology platform is in place.
-Understanding the manual activities required to Automate at a sufficiently granular level, requires both good interviewing and listening skills.
There are 2 fundamental approaches to achieving the benefits possible through Automation 2.0 solutions. The first approach considers treating automation as a new process and functional area, with supporting technology and people. This approach does not take advantage of recent advances in collaboration technologies and the changes in how people interact with technology.
A more strategic approach to achieving the benefits possible through Automation 2.0 is that of integrating Automation tools and techniques into each existing process.
Making the tools ubiquitous drives adoption and places the onus of and the power to automate in the hands of the SME. Take the process of Event and Incident Management. Treating Automation as a discreet project or separate function leads to an almost certain pattern of innovation and then stagnation. The only way to sustain an underlying technology architecture that perpetuates automation is to place the tools and techniques in the hands of the level 2 and level 3 engineers for developing automation content. Additionally, Help Desk and Level 1 operations personnel become more empowered with a richer set of activities they can perform because of the increased depth of operational documentation.
Making the tools ubiquitous drives adoption and places the onus of and the power to automate in the hands of the SME. Take the process of Event and Incident Management. Treating Automation as a discreet project or separate function leads to an almost certain pattern of innovation and then stagnation. The only way to sustain an underlying technology architecture that perpetuates automation is to place the tools and techniques in the hands of the level 2 and level 3 engineers for developing automation content. Additionally, Help Desk and Level 1 operations personnel become more empowered with a richer set of activities they can perform because of the increased depth of operational documentation.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Intro: Debunking the Myths of IT Process Automation
Introduction
“But Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.” –Thoreau
In this paper, I focus on the question of why after much innovation, engineering and hard work, do Enterprises continue to spend more precious resources on operating existing computing infrastructure, rather than investing their resources in the development of new and innovative ways to apply technology towards the advancement of their business and the service of their customers?
The Reign of the Application Engineers
When computer scientists began to develop applications for automating critical business processes, such as tracking inventory and processing customer orders the applications were designed around a simple business model.
As Enterprises continued to grow more complex and business processes became more streamline, so have the applications that endeavor to model and ultimately drive the underlying business processes. Most business applications designed today mimic a structured human workflow and contain a sequence of steps required to accomplish a specific job.
The result is a modern Enterprise, which contains thousands of business applications that enable millions of jobs. These applications serve to automate much of the paper driven flow of information and activities across the core business processes.
One of the challenges of the modern enterprise computing infrastructure is the need to reduce the stranglehold on the bottom line, which this considerable technology footprint has left us with. The sheer size and complexity of the modern enterprise application architecture is daunting. Some of the challenges include:
Leveraging Data Across Multiple Applications
Managing the Impact of Changes
Cost Effective Operational Processes
Furthermore, all Enterprises share a common root in the need to be able to perform work across the silos of structured workflows and enterprise applications.
IT Process Automation is a Third Level Automation Problem
The first level of Process Automation is modeling a task within an application to streamline processing and workflow.
If you are attempting to automate a process across several structured workflows, approaching the task using traditional application development and systems engineering principals will lead to serious challenges.
The EAI paradigm is good for a certain class of integration problems, but is not sufficiently flexible for building viable solutions within the areas of IT process that span highly dynamic infrastructure and operational process.
For example, one Communication Service Provider took a classic EAI approach to developing an OSS platform which covered “rigid” integration points between billing and provisioning. As a result this provider struggled to handle the automation of high volume testing and diagnostic procedures.
The nature of most IT processes is very dynamic in both the workflow rules and the architecture of the underlying components acted upon.
Subject Matter Experts are the Key
The Systems Engineer is in some sense the biggest bottleneck to many automation programs. Provide the Tools for the SME (Subject Matter Expert) to capture the repeatable steps in their work processes and you have reached the holy grail of automation.
The challenge of course is providing a platform that empowers the SME to both document the most mundane of their daily activities and leverage automation tools without requiring a large team of developers to support the effort.
So, early stages of Runbook Automation and IT Process Automation have been focused heavily on the high pain areas of IT Operations. But, the initial platforms used to action this problem and produce automation did not account for the critically important role of the SME in the ongoing advancement of the automation goals. Thus, very little progress has been made with the first entrants into this application space.
“But Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.” –Thoreau
In this paper, I focus on the question of why after much innovation, engineering and hard work, do Enterprises continue to spend more precious resources on operating existing computing infrastructure, rather than investing their resources in the development of new and innovative ways to apply technology towards the advancement of their business and the service of their customers?
The Reign of the Application Engineers
When computer scientists began to develop applications for automating critical business processes, such as tracking inventory and processing customer orders the applications were designed around a simple business model.
As Enterprises continued to grow more complex and business processes became more streamline, so have the applications that endeavor to model and ultimately drive the underlying business processes. Most business applications designed today mimic a structured human workflow and contain a sequence of steps required to accomplish a specific job.
The result is a modern Enterprise, which contains thousands of business applications that enable millions of jobs. These applications serve to automate much of the paper driven flow of information and activities across the core business processes.
One of the challenges of the modern enterprise computing infrastructure is the need to reduce the stranglehold on the bottom line, which this considerable technology footprint has left us with. The sheer size and complexity of the modern enterprise application architecture is daunting. Some of the challenges include:
Leveraging Data Across Multiple Applications
Managing the Impact of Changes
Cost Effective Operational Processes
Furthermore, all Enterprises share a common root in the need to be able to perform work across the silos of structured workflows and enterprise applications.
IT Process Automation is a Third Level Automation Problem
The first level of Process Automation is modeling a task within an application to streamline processing and workflow.
The EAI paradigm is good for a certain class of integration problems, but is not sufficiently flexible for building viable solutions within the areas of IT process that span highly dynamic infrastructure and operational process.
For example, one Communication Service Provider took a classic EAI approach to developing an OSS platform which covered “rigid” integration points between billing and provisioning. As a result this provider struggled to handle the automation of high volume testing and diagnostic procedures.
The nature of most IT processes is very dynamic in both the workflow rules and the architecture of the underlying components acted upon.
Subject Matter Experts are the Key
The Systems Engineer is in some sense the biggest bottleneck to many automation programs. Provide the Tools for the SME (Subject Matter Expert) to capture the repeatable steps in their work processes and you have reached the holy grail of automation.
The challenge of course is providing a platform that empowers the SME to both document the most mundane of their daily activities and leverage automation tools without requiring a large team of developers to support the effort.
So, early stages of Runbook Automation and IT Process Automation have been focused heavily on the high pain areas of IT Operations. But, the initial platforms used to action this problem and produce automation did not account for the critically important role of the SME in the ongoing advancement of the automation goals. Thus, very little progress has been made with the first entrants into this application space.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Blog Introduction and Approach
I will be using this Blog to offer my thoughts and papers surrounding all things Run Book Automation. Additionally, I will endeavor to provide links to resources I've found valuable in my own research as well as my personal editorials of work that I have come across. If you share my passion for this space, please do send me information to share with other readers.
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