TL/DR: I’ll share my lessons learned in the hopes of moving you more quickly down the path of automating in the Microsoft ecosphere.
Our IT department is too small to do what we really need to and we spend too much time clicking buttons making things happen. I’ve adopted the mantra that if we do something more than three times we should consider automating it. Think about how much time you spend clicking around in various portals configuring this, setting up that, or just grinding through the mundane administrative work that bores you. Consider how much time you spend doing those things over the course of a week…month…year. Then think about how many times you’ve wished there was an option in the portal to be able to do what you really want to do!
Everybody is clamoring for us to do more with less but at a certain point, there can’t be less and we just have to figure out how to do more. If we can get rid of the repetitious parts of what we do, we can recover a not insignificant amount of time. It also makes it easier to standardize processes and reduces the potential for human error.
With a bunch of powerful tools out there and not knowing which to use for what, I tried this. Then I tried that. Then I realized that what I needed for some things was something different. Then I realized that the best option for some things was blending a couple solutions. Then I built stuff here and there. All along I had to figure out how to allow the right people to do what needed to be done. That’s where the real power lies – putting action at the right people’s fingertips. Now we have improved quality of service internally and externally as well.
And let’s not forget generative AI tools. They’ve become my most valuable partners.
My goal is to share what I’ve learned with you so you can return to your schools much more knowledgeable than I was when I started down this path and hopefully your adoption of process automation will involve fewer reinventions than mine.