Automation and autonomics are here and organizations that don’t take advantage of the new technology will fall behind. The immense benefits to efficiency, labor costs, and customer satisfaction cannot be ignored. WGroup has decades of collective experience in supporting the implementation and optimization of automation and autonomics. Our team can help your company solve the automation puzzle and gain the perspective it needs to effectively deploy new automation systems or increase the effectiveness of existing ones.

1. Drive Your Business
Automation
and Autonomics
Key questions about a
transformative technology

2. 2 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
Automation and autonomics (A/A) are revolutionizing the way people live, work, and do business.
As more routine tasks are taken over by automated processes, human effort can be focused on
higher-order activities, increasing the overall productivity of the workforce. One recent study found
that automation in manufacturing alone accounted for 10% of total GDP growth in the countries
studied between 1993 and 2007.1
As automation becomes more prevalent in areas such as
marketing, IT, customer service, and healthcare, the gains will be even more substantial.
Understanding
Automation
and Autonomics
What are automation and autonomics?
Automation is the use of pre-scripted processes to
perform tasks. Of course, all automation requires
a human being to program the process and to
initiate and maintain the system. However, as
technology has progressed, even automation
itself is being automated. This process is called
autonomics, and it allows automated processes
to self-monitor, self-repair, and evolve. By building
systems that can take over the task of writing
scripts and initiating automation, human resources
can be completely removed from mundane tasks
and be focused on more complex tasks that
require visualization, imagination, and teamwork.
Over 60% of the average enterprise IT budget is allocated for supporting,
maintaining, and enhancing systems that are already built and operational.2
Autonomics gives businesses the tools to drastically reduce that spending and
use human resources in the areas in which they are most needed.

3. 3 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
Business applications
Automation has several key applications in business, including:
Manufacturing
The original role of automation in the
workplace was in manufacturing. Today,
manufacturing automations have become
much more sophisticated with advanced
robotics and computer processes capable
of assembling complicated products
with little to no human interaction.
Customer service
Call centers, online assistants, and
other areas of customer service have all
benefited significantly from automation.
Most questions and needs of customers
are repetitive and can easily be
handled by script-based systems.
Healthcare
As the population ages, the healthcare system
will require more doctors, nurses, and support
staff. One way to take some of the strain off
healthcare professionals and reduce costs
is to automate repetitive and manual tasks.
Marketing
Autonomic computing helps organizations
monitor trends, analyze data, and develop
more effective marketing strategies. With
these tools, marketing professionals
can plan and execute campaigns faster
and with more savvy than ever.
Outsourcing
Robotics, automation, and autonomics
are having a tremendous effect on the
outsourcing industry. New technology
allows robots to learn tasks precisely and
perform them on a 24/7 basis. This has
allowed some outsourcing providers to
reduce their bids by as much as 30%.3

4. 4 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
Autonomics can be used to
improve quality and reliability while
simultaneously reducing costs.
Increased automation is changing the way physical, virtual and cloud environments are
managed. Maintaining IT services can be incredibly costly, and outages caused by human
error can have a significant impact on business. This has led many organizations to automate
as many tasks as possible in order to reduce costs and the effects of human error.
Autonomics is beginning to allow
robots to learn in similar ways to
humans. This gives them the ability
to replace staff in more sophisticated
environments, such as application-monitoring
scans, build-error knowledge bases, and
proactive problem resolution. “Virtual engineers”
work faster, cheaper, and more consistently than human network engineers. IPcenter, an
IT autonomics service, resolves 56% of all incidents with no human intervention.4
Autonomics can be used as a service maturity accelerator, a tool to improve quality and reliability,
while simultaneously reducing costs. However, though it can help organizations improve their
maturity model in many areas, its effects should not be overstated. Effective management, careful
planning, and time are all necessary to reach the highest levels of efficiency and quality of service.
IT applications

5. 5 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
Automation introduces major changes to the workplace. There will be questions about how it
will affect productivity, the workforce, and the way organizations are run. In order to prepare
for the future of automation and autonomics, it is critical that organizations examine how this
rapidly changing technology will affect their business model, profitability, and employees.
Key questions
and concerns
How will A/A affect the workforce?
Perhaps the single greatest concern about automation is its effect on the workforce. This fear
has slowed the adoption of automation, as there is often great pushback from employees.
Historically, automation has actually had little to no correlation with unemployment.
Although German industries installed a far higher proportion of robotic equipment between 1997
and 2007 than industries in America, they actually saw less job loss in the manufacturing sector.
Other data show that there is an essentially flat correlation between the percent change in use of
automated systems and percent change in unemployment across countries all over the world.1

6. 6 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
How will it impact employees?
Although automation may not lead to job loss on
the whole, it can still have a significant effect on
employment and work activity. Its effects can be
thought of as similar to those of outsourcing. In the
short term, it can lead to job losses and shifting
opportunities. Those doing manual or repetitive
tasks are often the first to be impacted; however the
effects of automation can quickly spread to other
areas. This can become especially problematic when
those who are installing or maintaining systems
become affected. Bringing in tools that would
displace systems engineers can be challenging, as they may have a vested interested in seeing
that the implementation is not successful. That’s why it’s critical that organizations understand
how to properly make use of their workforce in a new, highly automated work environment.
Restructuring the workforce
Although automation can bring short-term job loss and dramatic shifts, it can also free resources
to create higher level, more-rewarding jobs in other areas. As software and robotic systems
displace their human counterparts, resources can be shifted to other departments. At the core
of an effective automation implementation is an expert who knows how to minimize problems
and ensure that human and autonomic resources are being used to their fullest extent. A
robust management team also is needed to oversee external and internal services.
It is necessary, at least initially, to have staff who work alongside the automated workforce, stepping
in to occasionally fix errors or address problems that are too complicated for the virtual engineers.
This will, however shift as the system evolves. Autonomics allows the systems to improve their
quality of service over time. Each time the systems deal with simple tasks, they amass more data
in their knowledge repository, which they can later use to handle more complex problems. As
virtual engineers become more sophisticated, the human workforce becomes less necessary.

7. 7 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
How will A/A
affect ITSM?
Automation affects several IT service management (ITSM) processes, the catalog of
services, costs of services, and service levels. Aiming for a high maturity level when
designing services helps ensure higher customer and user satisfaction. A/A allows designers
to pilot new services in the initial learning of events, helping to identify potential problem
areas and allowing for a faster road to maturity. Pilot test results from event automation also
can be used to support the knowledge-
management build and transfer process.
One of the greatest impacts automation
has on ITSM is with service operations.
The simple, often repetitive nature of
these tasks makes them particularly
well-suited to automation. A/A
specifically affects all operational support processes, including monitoring, incident
management, and change management. This can have a significant effect on costs,
as automation can reduce the human workload in these areas by as much as 40%.
A/A affects all operational
support processes, including
monitoring, incident
management, and change
management.

Changes to service request and fulfillment
End users expect to be able to access more and more services without interacting with
human intermediaries. A/A can provide unprecedented levels of self-service by automating
service request and fulfillment. These systems can often be automated from end to end
depending on their complexity and decision logic. Initially, it will likely be simple services
that are automated, but over time, as the technology is fully embraced, more services can
be fulfilled through automation. This can significantly reduce the costs of services, allowing
for a more robust offering that can provide for a wider range of end-user needs.

8. 8 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
What are the
technical implications?
Implementing new automation and autonomics systems can be
challenging. Organizations need to understand the technical requirements
of automation and how it will work with existing infrastructure.
What application and system
overhead will there be?
Automation and autonomics can be resource-
intensive systems and require the necessary
computing power to function effectively. It
is critical that organizations take steps to
ensure they have properly prepared for their
implementation. In some cases, A/A services
are partially or completely cloud-based. This
can significantly simplify the requirements
of the deployment, as organizations can
virtually connect their existing infrastructure
to the off-site automation deployment.
What maintenance and
oversight are required?
Cloud-based implementations may not
require significant maintenance from
end users and will usually be optimized
and kept reliable by the service provider.
Organizations must simply ensure that they
are meeting the terms agreed upon in the
SLA. On-site deployments will require greater
management, as it is necessary to have
the required computational resources on
hand, as well as the technical expertise to
implement and manage the new systems.
What are the effects on
existing systems and tools?
Most organizations are hesitant to implement
new systems as they might displace systems
and tools in which they have already
invested significant resources. The effects
of A/A systems on existing tools can be
extremely varied, and organizations should
determine how to most efficiently integrate
new systems with their existing ones in
order to maximize cost-effectiveness and
efficiency. Many automation tools feature the
ability to integrate with existing productivity,
security, storage, network, and database
technology to provide richer functionality and
increased usefulness. In some cases, A/A
can be used in tandem with, or completely
replace, an existing system, depending
on the organization’s level of commitment
to A/A and unique requirements.

9. 9 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
What are the financial
impacts of A/A?
What are the initial costs?
The initial costs of an implementation can vary
significantly depending on the type and extent
of the deployment. Initial costs for a standard
deployment using existing computing resources
include the software, configuration, and training
of employees in its use. Automation also
generally requires more structured inputs than
manual systems, and may require significant
design alterations to existing systems. Given
that nearly 19% of automation installations
fail on their initial attempt, these initial fixed
costs can be difficult to predict and often vary
depending on the expertise of those deploying
the implementation. Deployments also generally
have a limited lifetime, so fixed costs are an
important consideration and can factor in
significantly to the cost-benefit analysis.5
Although automation and autonomics can reduce costs and improve efficiency in many ways,
there are inevitable additional costs associated with implementing any new system. One of the
first questions asked about A/A is how these additional costs will compare with the benefits.
On average, the financial benefits of A/A can be quite substantial if properly implemented.

10. 10 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
What are the long-term costs?
Automation and autonomics may reduce work in certain areas, but they also can create
new work in others. Employees must deploy and maintain the automation, both of which
can require significant time. Automation systems may be imperfect, and errors can
contribute to losses and reduced efficiency. These costs can often be reduced over time,
as autonomic systems are better adapted to tasks and require reduced human input.
What are the cost savings?
No one would implement automation unless they often had a net positive financial
impact on the organization. These savings come largely from a reduction in staff hours
necessary to perform certain operations. In some cases, human involvement can be
completely eliminated. Operations constitute up to 80% of an organization’s IT budget,
dwarfing the costs of hardware and software.5
Given that A/A can provide a 30% to
35% reduction in operational support costs, this presents a significant opportunity
for automation to reduce expenses.6
In order to ensure that the automation system
is providing a positive value, organizations should monitor their cost reductions over
an extended period of years and regularly review and revise their implementation.

11. 11 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
What are the opportunities
for providers?
Automation and autonomics don’t just afford opportunities for client organizations; they can
also benefit service providers. Automation systems that are implemented on the provider
end can reduce costs for the client and provider and improve end-user experience.
In one recent case, IT services provider Wipro implemented a robotic process implementation for a
major telecom client looking to significantly increase productivity. The client needed an unobtrusive
solution that would boost productivity by 40-50% in a matter of weeks. Wipro developed a
scripted tool that increased the client’s productivity by 70% and reduced errors by nearly 100%.7
By using new automation technology, they were able to satisfy client needs and reduce costs.

12. 12 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
Learning more
Automation and autonomics are here and organizations that don’t take advantage of
the new technology will fall behind. The immense benefits to efficiency, labor costs, and
customer satisfaction cannot be ignored. But many companies struggle to understand how
automation will affect them and how to best implement new systems. Instead of thinking
of A/A as a core system, a backbone that enables across systems and processes, many
organizations are stuck with several disconnected pieces of the automation puzzle.
WGroup has decades of collective experience in supporting the implementation
and optimization of automation and autonomics. Our team can help your company
solve the automation puzzle and gain the perspective it needs to effectively deploy
new automation systems or increase the effectiveness of existing ones.
For more information on how WGroup can help you better take advantage of the
power of automation and autonomics, visit us online at thinkwgroup.com.

13. 13 ©2015 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
References
[1] https://hbr.org/2015/06/robots-seem-to-be-improving-productivity-not-costing-jobs
[2] http://www.infosysblogs.com/infytalk/2013/04/IPsoft_Infosys_
automation_for_tomorrows_enterprise.html
[3] http://www.alsbridge.com/robots-for-sale/
[4] http://www.ipsoft.com/what-we-do/it-process-automation-with-ipcenter/
[5] https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/hotos05/final_papers_
backup/brown/brown_html/hotos05.html
[6] http://www.slideshare.net/cheahwk/ipsoft-autonomics-it-service-management
[7]https://www.wipro.com/documents/enhancing-productivity-through-autonomics.pdf

14. Drive Your Business
Founded in 1995, WGroup is a boutique management consulting firm that provides Strategy,
Management and Execution Services to optimize business performance, minimize cost and create
value. Our consultants have years of experience both as industry executives and trusted advisors
to help clients think through complicated and pressing challenges to drive their business forward.
Visit us at www.thinkwgroup.com or give us a call at (610) 854-2700 to learn how we can help you.
301 Lindenwood Drive, Suite 301
Malvern, PA 19355
610-854-2700
ThinkWGroup.com