The Cost of Fragmented IT Automation

Why most IT automation doesn’t actually reduce work

Many IT teams claim to have automation in place. Yet in day-to-day operations, the volume of manual work rarely declines. Requests continue to flow through tickets, follow-ups happen frequently, and humans remain closely involved in making sure things get done right. 

Automation exists, but the work doesn’t disappear. 

What automation often looks like in practice

For most companies, automation is spread across a collection of tools and entry points.

An automated access request might require navigating to a dedicated access management tool and submitting a request through an app catalog. Hardware requests often live in a separate self-service portal. Password resets can depend on a ticketing system integration that only triggers if the ticket is submitted with the correct form, fields, and syntax.

Each of these workflows technically works. Each solves a specific problem in isolation. But each one assumes the person making the request knows exactly where to go and how to use it correctly.

A constellation of semi-functional automations

Over time, these systems form a disparate collection of one-off automations. A small group of well-versed users may know which tool handles which request and how to trigger the right workflow. Everyone else defaults to filing a ticket in order to avoid the complexity. 

Organizations can point to many automated workflows, yet the majority of work still funnels through humans because the burden of navigation and correctness sits with the user.

What true automation looks like 

There is a meaningful difference between automation that technically exists, and automation that is used to reliably resolve requests.

With most automation, the burden eventually falls on humans to solve the issue. In proper autonomous systems, a user can simply ask for what they need and the system maps that intent to the corresponding action. 

Funneling automation through one unified entry point

When users need to choose the correct tool, portal, or workflow, automation is only effective for those who already understand the system. When requests flow through a single point, complexity is handled by the platform rather than the user. 

This lowers the bar for access and allows automation to serve everyone, not just power users.

 Automation that collapses pathways

Fragmented tools, narrowly-defined workflows, and dependence on humans create systems that appear automated but really are not. Effective automation gives people one place to ask for what they need and ensures those requests map successfully to outcomes. 

By collapsing the pathways, automation stops moving work around and starts making it disappear.