It’s Time For An IT Infrastructure Remodel

There’s that moment in every home improvement show where they do the big “after” reveal – the bombastic “WOW” scene where the homeowner is walked through all the improvements in style, color, space, and of course functionality. And they can’t believe it’s the same kitchen, or basement, or… well, you get the deal. At that same moment, you start looking around your own home like, “Hmm, this could use some freshening up.”

But what if we could do that at work? More specifically, what would that look like for your IT infrastructure? 

No, we’re not talking about a fresh coat of paint in the server room (though something lighter might brighten up the space), but a way to tighten things up, from bringing your IT help desk into this decade to finally pulling the trigger on automated user provisioning.

For many companies, IT and finance departments have a mandate to transform growth-oriented SaaS stacks to capital-efficient ones.

What would your ideal IT operations remodel look like?

First off, you should have a plan – a design vision, a blueprint. Figure out what you want to achieve – faster response? Easier on- and off-boarding? Fewer tickets? Less manual IT management? Cost savings? All of the above? And, then you have to think about how this “IT infrastructure 2.0” will support the overall goals of the enterprise. (Because you know you’ll have to convince the c-suite to make the investment). Getting a sense for what you want AND what you need will help you start to clearly define what you should build. This is usually the part of the show where the homeowners and designers talk about open floor plans or wanting more room for entertaining. 

Next, we all know how fast technology moves, so scalability is obviously important across the board – you don’t want to have to “remodel” every time there’s a software or hardware update. So with every change or addition you consider, don’t just think about what you need today, but what you may need a year or two from now. An example: those families who want a play area for the kids right now, but know that it’ll eventually become a home office or guest bedroom. 

Then there’s demolition – the part where they toss out all the old, useless junk to make way for the new-new. In your case that would be all those unused SaaS licenses you’re probably still paying for – and trying to keep track of as employees come and go. It can get to be a mess, but you can’t ignore it forever, especially when it’s eating into your budget.

‍For many companies, IT and finance departments have a mandate to transform growth-oriented SaaS stacks to capital-efficient ones.

At that point, investing in a good SaaS management platform as part of your plan will ensure that you don’t have those problems moving forward, by administering software across your whole company. You’ll be able to:

• Automatically track software spending, license usage, and shadow IT
• Streamline renewals and access grants across all your apps, and 
• Reduce the average technology cost per employee

And, since granular spend reporting can be built in, you’ll easily be able to demonstrate your success to leadership. Improving processes AND saving money? Now that's a SaaS implementation that’ll have the neighbors peeking over the fence to see how you did it. 

Next, there’s no IT discussion these days that doesn’t include machine learning, AI, or IT automation. If you haven’t gone down this road already, it’s time to start walking – or, running if you really need to catch up. You’ve got a smart car, a smart TV, and even smart sprinklers out front. So why not smart IT service management? 

Besides delivering consistency and efficiency, automating routine tasks frees your team to cut through the noise and handle actual IT issues. In practice, today’s IT automation software can take a lot off your team’s plate, like access requests, provisioning users, deflecting tickets from your IT help desk to AI, and entitlement-level configurations – all while protecting access to sensitive data. Automated user provisioning in and of itself can save your team hours every day. It’s like the tankless water heater of your whole system – keeping things comfortable without constantly worrying about leaks.

IT leaders (like you) have the mandate to automate manual work that’s frustrating users and holding back valuable company resources.

Speaking of, let’s put some numbers to it. The average SLA of an IT ticket, handled manually, is 18 hours. Imagine cutting that down to seconds. You’re nodding your head, aren’t you? And besides time, self-service automation and access requests can also cut your support costs in HALF. Yeah. 50%. Automation delivers, and starts paying for itself on DAY ONE. We’ll call this the equivalent of a few of those fancy energy-efficient appliances that are always part of the remodel.

And because you probably don’t want to tear the whole thing down and start from scratch (that’s a different show entirely), leveraging integration with your legacy systems can give you all the efficiency benefits without as steep of a learning curve. Whatever legacy solutions you’re using for IT service management, identity and access management, collaboration, or messaging, API integrations deliver transparency by seamlessly working with your tech stack so that you get a complete picture of users and entitlements. These deep software integrations can also work hand-in-hand with some of your other improvements (like a SaaS management platform) to help you identify costly, unused licenses, and automatically reclaim stale access by setting up advanced workflows through tools like Slack or email. 

The point is, there’s always room for improvement in your IT operations, and getting from a ho-hum “before” to a resource-saving “after” is 100 percent do-able with planning and vision. 

So, from IT service management and API integrations to SaaS implementation and IT automation software, by now your IT infrastructure makeover should really be starting to come together. But to make this IT operations fantasy a reality, you need the right partner in addition to the right solutions for your infrastructure needs. Lumos will help you clear out the old, bring in the new, and plan for the future of your IT infrastructure so you can enjoy your “WOW” moment. All that’s missing now is a camera crew – and that fresh coat of paint in the server room.