How MSPs are measuring automation success

Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd at N-able & Callum Baker, Technical Director at Dufeu, dicuss all things automation and why MSPs need to measure their success.
Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd at N-able & Callum Baker, Technical Director at Dufeu, dicuss all things automation and why MSPs need to measure their success.

Automation has often been thought of as a way to replace human labour, and as such, it has often taken human form. Talos was a giant bronze man who defended Crete. The Golem was made of clay but shaped like a human. Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian mythology all contain tales of mechanical or animated people. Frankenstein, arguably the first science fiction novel, was again about creating an automaton—albeit one with more humanity than expected—and you can barely move in future-set fiction for robots, from Metropolis to C3PO.

MSPs may not be creating actual robots, but they should be thinking along these lines when building automation into their business. If they were creating automatons, how many would there be?

Why automate?

It’s fairly self-evident why any business should automate, but it’s worth considering exactly why MSPs should do it. After all, many businesses have, from the luddites onwards, been plagued by fears that this is a way to replace staff. This is not our approach.

MSPs should be using automation to scale their business and dedicate more time to training. Staff with less experience are often those stuck performing rote tasks—by automating those tasks, staff is free to learn new skills and be more useful to the business—rather than hitting the same buttons day in and day out.

The more that staff move away from tasks that are necessary but rote, the more they can become more customer-oriented, increasing one-to-one conversations with clients instead of rushing to close as many tickets as possible. A client being locked out due to a forgotten password is a problem that cannot be ignored; it must be solved—but if it can be automated and that time used to solve more complex issues requiring human input, the result is a better relationship with that customer.

It’s not enough to just automate; however—MSPs need to measure their success. And that’s where thinking about automatons as well as automation comes in.

How to measure automation

At Dufeu, we’re confident in calling our automation programme a success. We’re saving at least 30 minutes per day per staff member. We haven’t aimed to revolutionize how we work, but instead have looked for quick, easy wins to build on.

What does this 30 minutes per staff member mean in practice? It means we’re saving at least 131 hours every year, roughly equivalent to one full-time staff member who doesn’t take holidays or weekends off. Dufeu is not a huge company—we are less than thirty people all told—so this is a huge, measurable benefit to the business.

Let’s face it, as nice as we are, people don’t really care about the human touch when it comes to basic IT tasks. I don’t want to speak to a someone, I just want a password reset. I don’t want someone to talk me through basic first-line IT support—an automated script can walk me through switching things on and off and similar basic fixes. They do, however, care about the human touch when things are seriously wrong—if there’s a major outage or a cyberattack, your customers will want to know you’re on it, and they’ll value being kept abreast of the situation.

Automation for MSPs is about taking care of the simple things so more complex tasks can be addressed. 

Where next for automation?

This is potentially only the start of our journey with automation. As we create more automated workflows, we will look to strike the right balance between where automation will benefit the customer, versus frustrate them. It’s important to remember the other parts of automation in our lives and how we feel about them to give us an idea of what makes for “good” automation. For example, most of us are happy a lot of our bills are automated, saving us time. But ask someone trying to navigate an arcane automated phone banking system if they like automation and they’ll give you a different answer.

READ MORE:

As we automate, there will be choices to make about what to do with the time that’s freed up. Do we do more for our existing customers, look to take on new business, or offer new services? Automation is a no-brainer—the real questions are how far do we go, and what we do with the results?

For more news from Top Business Tech, don’t forget to subscribe to our daily bulletin!

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Amber Donovan-Stevens

Amber is a Content Editor at Top Business Tech

Why microgrids are big news

Craig Tropea • 31st October 2024

As the world continues its march towards a greener future, businesses, communities, and individuals alike are all increasingly turning towards renewable energy sources to power their operations. What is most interesting, though, is how many of them are taking the pro-active position of researching, selecting, and implementing their preferred solutions without the assistance of traditional...

Is automation the silver bullet for customer retention?

Carter Busse • 22nd October 2024

CX innovation has accelerated rapidly since 2020, as business and consumer expectations evolved dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, finding the best way to engage and respond to customers has become a top business priority and a key business challenge. Not only do customers expect the highest standard, but companies are prioritising superb CX to...

Automated Testing Tools and Their Impact on Software Quality

Natalia Yanchii • 09th October 2024

Test automation refers to using specialized software tools and frameworks to automate the execution of test cases, thereby reducing the time and effort required for manual testing. This approach ensures that automation tests run quickly and consistently, allowing development teams to identify and resolve defects more effectively. Test automation provides greater accuracy by eliminating human...

Custom Software Development

Natalia Yanchii • 04th October 2024

There is a wide performance gap between industry-leading companies and other market players. What helps these top businesses outperform their competitors? McKinsey & Company researchers are confident that these are digital technologies and custom software solutions. Nearly 70% of the top performers develop their proprietary products to differentiate themselves from competitors and drive growth. As...

The Impact of Test Automation on Software Quality

Natalia Yanchii • 04th October 2024

Software systems have become highly complex now, with multiple interconnected components, diverse user interfaces, and business logic. To ensure quality, QA engineers thoroughly test these systems through either automated or manual testing. At Testlum, we met many software development teams who were pressured to deliver new features and updates at a faster pace. The manual...

The Impact of Test Automation on Software Quality

Natalia Yanchii • 03rd October 2024

Software systems have become highly complex now, with multiple interconnected components, diverse user interfaces, and business logic. To ensure quality, QA engineers thoroughly test these systems through either automated or manual testing.

Custom Software Development

Natalia Yanchii • 03rd October 2024

There is a wide performance gap between industry-leading companies and other market players. What helps these top businesses outperform their competitors? McKinsey & Company researchers are confident that these are digital technologies and custom software solutions. Nearly 70% of the top performers develop their proprietary products to differentiate themselves from competitors and drive growth. As...